Norridge resident Charles Bauer has been flying model aircraft since 1938. He was 8.
He began by making rubber-band powered planes in his bedroom. He interrupted his hobby only when he went to California to teach math to soldiers during the Korean War. When he returned, he came back full force to his favorite pastime.
Bauer is one of the old-school radio-controlled aircraft hobbyists, the ones who started their craft in the basement, spending hundreds of hours creating their plane before they launched it into the sky with the aid of a radio transmitter in the ’50s and ’60s.
Bauer now creates his model planes in the garage. He has so many projects in progress, his wife hasn’t been able to park the car in the garage for a year. “I love designing,” he says. “It’s lot of fun to see someone flying one of my planes.”Now model-aircraft buffs have Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) planes that take about 10 hours to build. This and other advances have put the number of model aircraft enthusiasts at its highest level, according to Dave Brown, president of the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
The Muncie, Ind., organization, formed in 1936, has more than 170,000 members nationwide, with 20 chapters in the Chicago area. Those members include pilots of radio-controlled airplanes and all other flying model planes.
A radio-controlled plane can cost as little as $40 for a toy plastic model to $500 to $600 for a sophisticated, assembled wood model with a plastic cover. Most hobbyists tyically spend $300-$400. That includes the plane and radio transmitter–but notbatteries, fuel pumps and other support equipment. Radio-controlled planes are powered by nitro engines, complete with carburetor, or electric motors.
Besides the ARF models, Brown attributes the growth in the hobby to computer programs that help the novice aviator get started.
In one day, you can build the model and, after a couple of weeks behind a computer flight simulator, be out flying your plane with the help of an instructor designated by a local Academy of Model Aeronautics club. (A pilot does not a license or certified to fly a radion-controlled plane.)
Dallas resident Debra Cleghorn could be considered part of the new generation.
“I don’t want to fool around with a carburetor, so electric planes are appealing,” says Cleghorn, executive editor of Backyard Flyer, a publication that targets people who want to fly model planes in their yards. “They’re clean, and there’s no messy engine.”
The average age of the academy’s Model Airplane Magazine reader remains 57 1/2, said editor Bob Hunt.
Those readers include radio-controlled aircraft fans who made models as youngsters, fought in World War II or Korea and returned to the hobby as fathers and continue to fly as grandfathers, according to Hunt.
“It’s more of a male-dominated hobby,” said Cleghorn.
“Most women who are involved do it because their sons or husbands are into it.” Nearly all AMA members are male, according to spokesman Rob Kurek.
Hunt wants to attract younger men and women to the hobby. While some young children participate, they’re not the norm.
“It seems like kids have so much to do these days,” Hunt said. In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for 8- to 10-year-olds to learn how to build and fly their models with their dads. Now, they are playing video games, skateboarding and listening to music.
But, for those who do enter the hobby, there are opportunities.
Because of safety concerns, enthusiasts are encouraged to fly their model aircraft at a field designated for the hobby. One place to fly is Merrill Meadow Field in Palos Hills (La Grange Road near 107th Street). There are also fields in Naperville, Joliet, Lansing, St. Charles and Maywood.
“It’s a lot of fun,” says Charles Junkrowski, who flies his model World War II P-47 Thunderbolt at Merrill Meadow Field. “I’ve always liked airplanes.”
He built his Thunderbolt from scratch. “I just get a thrill seeing that it actually works,” says Junkrowski.
“And then doing it all over again a few days later.”
Henry Young, president of the Palos RC Flying Club, got hooked after he received a radio-controlled aircraft for Christmas seven years ago.
“I just get satisfaction building it from scratch, watching it fly and land,” he says. He’s had his share of mishaps, but he says just about any plane can be rebuilt. He once reconstructed an aircraft that had only its tail left.
Other than flying only during the day, there are no weather constraints. “Young prefers a sunny day in the mid-80s. “It’s not too hot, not too cool, a light breeze at best,” he says. “That’s my ideal day.”
Not all radio-controlled aircraft are flown just for fun. Some enthusiasts like to compete. There’s the Superman contest for radio-controlled jet aircraft in Metropolis, Ill., and the Don Lowe Scale Aerobatics Masters tournament in Greenville, S.C.
Jason Shulman of Chandler, Ariz., teaches others how to fly radio-controlled airplanes. He also competes internationally and nationally. He is a three-time Don Lowe Masters Champion and he placed third in an international competition held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2001.
“I’ve been flying since I was 3 years old,” says Shulman, a third-generation radio-controlled aircraft aficionado.
“After doing it so long, it’s part of my life,” he says. “I’m still competing, trying to be the best. Hopefully, I’ll teach my kids when that time comes.”
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Models have practical uses, too
Radio-controlled model aircraft aren’t all fun and games. There are also practical applications.
They’ve been used to string power lines in the Alps in Europe; radio-controlled helicopters have been tested in Tokyo to rescue people stranded in high-rises by a fire or earthquake and to take air samples in high altitudes.
That’s only a fraction of what model aircraft are capable of doing, says Dave Brown, president of the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
What’s more, he foresees even more aircraft model lovers in the future. “The heyday is yet to come,” says Brown. “And the practical applications are yet to be seen.
— Mary Beth Klatt
