Crownsville resident Steve Barnett humorously recalls how his many years of flying RC (radio controlled) scale model planes got off to a very rocky start.
Back in 1974, when he was a Signal Corps lieutenant stationed in Virginia and on his way to a new posting in Germany, Barnett meticulously assembled a new RC (remote controlled) Top Flight Headmaster trainer plane, carefully packed it up, and carried it on the plane with him to Germany.
Barnett, 71, a Crownsville resident, concedes that at that point his enthusiasm for flying the miniature glow fuel- (methanol alcohol) and electrically-powered planes far outstripped his experience. He’d only test-flown his new plane a time or two before heading overseas.
He recalls with a chuckle what happened when he got to Germany and took his model out for a test run. What ensued was the result of a condition that Barnett and his fellow members of the 70-plus -year old, Crownsville-based Chesapeake Bay Radio Control Club (CBRC) describe as “dumb thumb.”
“I made the most common mistake that inexperienced pilots make,” Barnett explains. “I figured I knew enough to do this by myself. And my airplane flew away, never to be seen again.”
Obviously, that false start didn’t permanently sidetrack Barnett. All these years later, one of the most satisfying aspects of his 30 years as a CBRC member is training and mentoring “newbies” in the hobby that he loves so much: building and flying model planes.
“It’s just so great to pass along all the enjoyment I’ve had from of this hobby to somebody new,” explains Barnett, a board member and instructor for the club. “One thing I often emphasize to young people is that there are so many things you can learn from these planes: physics, aerodynamics, electricity, metallurgy, and even little things like how you can orient the grain of wood (on the wings and fuselage) for maximum strength. I’ve been doing this for 30-plus years and I’m still always learning something new.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic unfolded, you could see CBRC members putting their planes through the paces at their Federal Aviation Agency-designated flying field at the Severn Run National Environmental Area, in Severn, where spectators are always welcome. In due time, the field is expected to re-open.
There is something thrilling, almost poetic, about the seemingly effortless way an experienced pilot can take-off, bank, glide, and deftly maneuver a model plane across the sky to the edges of his or her line of sight while soaring as high as 400 feet.
“Just being able to understand the parts that go into a plane and the physics behind it as you build one is fascinating, says Jim Kyroglou, a 55-year-old architect and construction project site manager who lives in Gambrills and started flying only a year or so ago. “Then taking it out to the field and putting it to the test is thrilling. It’s just the best feeling.”
In the course of his career, Kyroglou has designed airports and says he’s “always loved airports and airplanes.” More recently, he started using drones to monitor the progress and generate photos, video, and 3-D images of the large construction sites he oversees. “A lot of times I can give a client a head set and they can view the project from 400 feet in the air and from all kinds of different angles,” he explains.
It was his fascination with the drones that spurred him to learn about RC planes.
“I crashed a few, and after that I decided to get a simulator,” Kyroglou says, referring to computer-based simulators designed specifically for learning how to fly model planes.
Later, Kyroglou found CBRC’s website and decided to drive by their flying field. “I saw the sign for the club, which said they welcomed visitors,” he recalls. “So, I went out there one day when they were flying and met Steve (Barnett). He was very nice and welcoming. I also met another long-time member who had 80 different planes, an incredible array of shapes and sizes.”
Before long, Kyroglou was flying every week, and he someday hopes to construct “the kind of masterpieces that some of these guys have built.”
The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) is a Muncie, Indiana-based nonprofit that promotes model aviation. It serves as a liaison between the FAA and other governing agencies and the approximately 2,500 flying clubs the academy charters across the nation. The sheer size of the Academy’s membership—more than 200,000—puts proof to the fact that a whole lot of people share that same exhilaration that Jim Kyroglou describes.
Two among this multitude are father and son Mike, 46, and Alex Merryman, 14, of Severna Park, both CBRC members.
Mike recalls how he came into the hobby totally backwards. “It’s kind of funny,” he recalls. “About 10 years ago, my father wanted to learn how to fly, so he bought me a plane in hopes that I would teach him. I flew it a few times, though I couldn’t keep it in the air more than five minutes. I tried to teach him, but there’s quite a learning curve, since you’re flying in three dimensions, and he just couldn’t get it.”
Mike’s son Alex picks up the story from there. “My dad got into flying about 10 years ago after he got that plane from my grandfather,” Alex recalls. “Then about three years ago I started using a flight simulator on my computer to learn now to fly.
“Then my dad and I used a ‘buddy box’ system to link our transmitters (controllers) together. Dad could do the difficult parts, like taking off and landing. Then he’d let me fly until I made a mistake and he would take over again.”
Mike considers model flying to be the perfect hobby to share with his son. “It’s not only fun, it’s educational,” he points out.
“And the people in the club are absolutely a really nice bunch of people,” Mike adds. “There are some people who don’t fly, but just come to watch and enjoy the social aspect of it. Everybody is really helpful.”
Ray Stinchcomb, 72, of Pasadena has been a CBRC member since 1991 and is currently the club’s safety officer. He echoes Mike Merryman’s sentiments about the social aspect of their shared pursuit.
“We have a picnic pavilion at our field, and for most of us it’s very much a social occasion,” says Stinchcomb, who spent quite a few years flying full-sized planes and also worked for 24 years as an FAA safety inspector. One of Stinchcomb’s most cherished possessions is a photo of himself at age 1 flanked by a chocolate Easter bunny on one side and one of his father’s model planes on the other.
“On a nice Sunday,” Stinchcomb adds, “we come out to the field and take turns flying our planes while the rest of us watch. Then we sit down and have lunch and talk about flying, or whatever suits our fancy.”
Stinchcomb, who comes from a family of full-sized airplane pilots (both parents flew), marvels at how dramatically the technology of the models has evolved over the 60 or so years since his dad first taught him to fly.
“In the fifties, when I was very young, my father had a radio-controlled model,” he explains. “Back then, they were very hard to control and not very reliable. It’s since gone from that to the latest models, including some that have far more capabilities than a full-sized aircraft has.”
Of course, these technological strides have also opened up new possibilities for user error—i.e. “dumb thumb.” “I know people who have become so frustrated when they crash their plane that they just walked away from the hobby,” Stinchcomb explains. “But the bottom line is that it’s most likely going to happen to you sooner or later. If you don’t want to ever crash, then you don’t want to take up the hobby.”
Which takes us back to Steve Barnett and his plane that mysteriously vanished in the skies over Germany, back when he was stationed there with the U.S. Army 3rd Armored Division. After that mishap, he dabbled on and off with flying for the better part of a decade. But he didn’t really get serious about it until around 1980, when he ended up at Fort Still, in Oklahoma, where there was an active model flying club.
“That’s when I was finally successful at both building and flying, and from that point, I have not left the community of active flyers” recalls Barnett, who has since built and flown about 30 models. As a member of the AMA’s All Season Flyer Program, he has, at least until the present crisis, flown at least once a month during every month of every year for the last 13 years.
Stinchcomb, Barnett, and their flying field compatriots also point out that the incredible agility/maneuverability of these planes is merely one of many factors that make the hobby so compelling.
The incredible range of shapes, sizes, designs, and price tags of these magnificent flying machines is also breathtaking. They can range in wingspan from less than a foot all the way up to 19 feet. Price-wise, they run the gamut from $150 or less for a basic trainer-type plane all the way up to something like a model C-17 with twin jet engines that can easily top $10,000.
Most flyers prefer planes that are either fuel- or electrically- propelled and constructed of balsa wood, plywood, plastic, or some combination thereof. Yet, if you go to enough fields and national competitions, you’ll also see miniature blimps, helicopters, gyro-copters, drones, gliders, scale replicas of legendary World War One and Two aircraft and commercial jet liners, along with planes adapted to take off and land on water. There is a website for model makers (www.outerzone.co.uk) that has plans for 4,000 different types of planes that can be downloaded free of charge.
As an interesting sidelight, in the early days of special effects, radio-controlled models were used to replicate real aircraft in aerial combat scenes in feature films such as “Empire of the Sun” and “Memphis Belle.” There are videos depicting this on YouTube.
As Steve Barnett explains, wryly summing up the pastime that means so much to him: “There are only three things that limit the enjoyment of this hobby. The first is the depth of someone’s imagination, the second is the depth of their pocket book, and the third is the willingness of their spouse to go along with numbers one and two."
“Two of the three are mandatory,” he quips. “But I’ll leave that choice up to the individual.”
