After Jim Butler retired from the St. Albans Police Department 10 years ago, his wife gifted him with a radio-controlled airplane. He’d always been a bit of an aviation buff, and she figured retirement would allow him time to pursue a hobby.
She was right. Skip ahead to today, and Butler’s basement is full of RC model aircraft that he has collected over the years.
“Now she comes down to the basement, looks at all the planes, and just rolls her eyes,” Butler said.
But the hobby isn’t confined to his basement. Butler is president of the Mountaineer RC Flying Club, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
As part of that celebration, the club hosted an open house at its flying field at Tornado Sept. 12. The field is located close to Meadowood Park on Smith Creek Road.
Butler was pleased with the turnout. “We even picked up two new members,” he said.
The club has a roster of more than 20 active flyers. “We have all ages. Our youngest flying member is 11, and we go from there to flyers like me, in their 60s,” Butler said.
The club is hoping to recruit younger members. “We’d like to get some new people in the club. It’s fun to watch them learn to fly. The kids who’ve grown up with video games find that radio-control flying involves the same eye/hand coordination. You move the stick and get to see the instant result by watching the plane. The younger people enjoy that. It’s like a 3D video game, only outdoors,” Butler said.
“The down side is that if you mess up and crash, you don’t have a reset button.”
Flight training
While crashing a plane is always a possibility, David Gaines of St. Albans, a club instructor who’s been flying RC planes for 25 years, says new technology makes it easier for beginners to keep their models in the air.
“With the new planes out there, they have some stability systems built into them. Basically, it keeps you from doing things completely stupid, like rolling them over. We’ve had pilots come out here in a weekend and learn to take off and land by themselves,” Gaines said.
“You can also buy software simulator programs to learn on,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of kids come out here that had been learning on those programs. We put them on a real plane and boom — they were flying.”
Another means of reducing crashes is a method Gaines described as “buddy boxing,” where two radios are plugged together. “If a pilot gets in trouble, I can let go of a switch and take control of the plane, save it, then give control back to the pilot,” he said. “It’s like a driver’s ed. car.”
Gaines does not recommend buying cheap RC plane kits from big box stores. He said trying to fly those can be a frustrating experience for beginners. “They are the absolute worst planes in the world,” he said.
He said a person starting out should expect to spend about $250 for a plane, battery and radio controller. He recommends visiting West Virginia Hobbies and Crafts in Teays Valley. “They usually have a couple of trainers in stock,” Gaines said.
Warbirds and more
The open house at the club’s flying field featured an assortment of colorful model planes — both on the ground and in the air.
When not watching planes zip through the sky a few yards away, visitors could admire the realism and craftsmanship of the models on display.
Dean Ross of Tornado brought several of his planes to the event. He’s new to the hobby, having just started building planes in April. His favorite is a HAVOC Xe sport jet, a fast model with good aerodynamics.
“It’s challenging and fun,” Ross said. “I tried it once before, but didn’t have a good place to fly. Here, we have a good time just hanging out, flyin’ our planes.”
Gaines is a fan of twin-engine aircraft and brought his model of an OV-10 Bronco. The real Bronco was used for ground attack and forward observation in Vietnam.
The largest model at the open house was a Boeing C-40 Clipper made by Butler. A real C-40 is one of the planes used as Air Force One to transport the president.
Butler traces his love of the hobby back to an enduring fascination with aviation.
“I’ve always enjoyed going to air shows,” Butler said. “I lean toward military aircraft, the World War II warbirds like the Mustang and Thunderbolt. But I like some of the modern planes, too. I even have a model of a Russian MIG fighter jet that I fly.”
Building vs. flying
The RC hobby’s popularity can be split into two main activities: building the models and flying them.
“I’m more of a flyer. I’ll buy a kit — what we call an ARF, ‘Almost Ready to Fly,’ and I’ll custom paint it to represent a plane that interests me. I’ve done several of the West Virginia Air Guard aircraft, and I’ve done some WWII aircraft flown by West Virginians. I like doing the research and learning about the aircraft and the people who flew them,” Butler said.
Some modelers still build from scratch, using the traditional balsa wood.
“In the old days, people would build a model from balsa wood and painstakingly cover it. It could take weeks or months to build a single plane. Most young people today don’t want to invest in that level of craftsmanship.”
One of the more modern materials to work with is a type of foam. EPO foam is lightweight and durable with a glossy, aerodynamic surface.
“Several of my planes are made out of foam. One of the advantages is that it’s easier to repair. If you break a wing, you can just glue it back together instead of building a whole new wing,” he said.
Butler also dabbles in model railroading. He thinks the hobbies are similar.
“Modeling is all about planes, trains and automobiles,” he said. “I also like trains, and I know a guy who builds outstanding plastic model cars. If you enjoy modeling, you have respect for all three.”
The drone dilemma
That triad of “planes, trains and automobiles” doesn’t include drones. In fact, the rise of drones has caused headaches for RC enthusiasts.
It wasn’t that long ago that most recreational drones were DIY aircraft made by hobbyists soldering wires to circuit boards. But when inexpensive drones mounted with cameras hit the mass market, the Federal Aviation Administration quickly stepped in to regulate them over concerns they could pose a danger to manned aircraft. RC planes often got lumped into the mix.
Mark Radcliff, District III Vice President of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, who attended the open house, said his organization has been working with the FAA.
“Drones have caused some issues. A lot of people will purchase drones who have no understanding of the rules of the air space. Unfortunately, the FAA likes to put everything in one big basket, so now they are interfering in the flying that we’ve been doing safely for 80 years,” Radcliff said.
Although the FAA might consider RC planes to be drones for regulatory purposes, Radcliff contends they are very different.
“Typically, the definition of a drone was an aircraft that could take off, fly around for miles and land without a pilot,” Radcliff said. “RC planes aren’t like that. We require a line of sight to fly. RC planes don’t have GPS systems.”
He points out that the Mountaineer RC Flying Club is chartered by the AMA and follows its safety guidelines. “Everybody here is a member of AMA. We have rules we go by. We don’t fly over 400 feet. We stay on our own flying fields.”
A national hobby
The AMA bills itself as the “world’s largest aviation club.” It represents 180,000 modelers all across the United States, Radcliff said.
Annual fees for being a member run about $75, which includes a subscription to the monthly magazine, “Model Aviation.” Membership gives flyers access to thousands of chartered club fields and a chance to participate in AMA competitions.
The AMA also provides liability insurance for charter clubs. Kanawha County Parks and Recreation, for example, requires insurance for the leasing of the Mountaineer club’s flying field.
The Mountaineer RC Flying Club was formed in 1970. The club’s first flying field was at Quincy. That field had to be given up for the construction of Riverside High School.
In 1990, the club relocated to its current location in Tornado, a field that is part of Kanawha County Parks’ Pettigrew Farm property. The field includes a 350-foot-by-30-foot, grass runway; shelter and battery-charging station.
The club flies most Saturdays and Sundays around noon, weather permitting (the gate will be open). Visitors and AMA flyers are welcome.
For more information, go to the club’s Facebook page (type “Mountaineer Radio Control Flying Club” in the search bar). The club also maintains a website at www.mountaineer-rc-club.com. Jim Butler’s email is butler_james@msn.com. More contact information is available on the club’s website and Facebook page. The home page for the Academy of Model Aeronautics is www.modelaircraft.org.
