- April 19, 2024
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The remote-control airplane club hosted its semi-annual picnic, Saturday, May 14, to celebrate a passion for flight.
Bob Thierwechter, president of the Flagler County Radio Aero Modelers, points across 85 acres, toward the tree line to the edge of the old landfill on Old Kings Road. This is where he and 109 others come to fly, taking their custom RC planes off the ground to see how high the sky can go.
During the year, members fly planes and present their passion with Cub Scouts and school groups — but today is special. One of the group’s semi-annual barbecue picnics, the event usually draws about 100 guests, including residents, county commissioners and mayors.
“That thing’s a hummer,” Thierwechter says, watching a glossy blue-and-red glider come down hard, pull up over a black cloth runway stretched out over the grassland and then speed by in a high-pitched buzz. He says some of the members’ planes can go as fast as 200 mph. Some cost as much as $3,000.
“This is a full-time hobby,” says Connie Johnson, a retired full-scale pilot who boasts the picnic’s largest flier.
It’s a yellow Steerman PT-17, a one-third scale replica of the World War I trainer. Two wings, twin-cylinder and with a mini pilot propped inside the cockpit — decked out in brown leather skull cap, goggles and a blue scarf — Johnson’s plane has about a 10-foot wingspan. It has wooden bones and Solartex fabric skin,and weighs in at 50 pounds — as heavy as any models come.
Johnson custom-builds most of his planes, but, as he did with the Steerman, sometimes he buys ready-made and then brings it to life with alterations.
“I’d spend every day in my garage if I could,” he says. “If you can’t afford a real plane, this is the next best thing.”
After flying RC minis for 15 years, Johnson doesn’t miss piloting real planes as much as he thought he would. Thierwechter, who owns more than 10 models, has been a controller pilot for as long as he can remember, moving from U-Control line-operated toys when he was a kid to radio-controlled when he got older.
RAMS members come from all backgrounds — some are Canadian, others are British, some are doctors, other are plumbers. Some didn’t pick up their first flight remote until they were 80 years old.
“I think it’s Flagler’s best kept secret,” said Gail Computaro, RAMS public relations manager. With some of the bigger models, she points out, you can hardly tell once they’re in the air which planes are real and which are pretend. And that’s part of the fun.
Chartered in 1985 with five members, RAMS moved into the old Flagler landfill at no charge in 1995, under a stipulation that the club maintain its grounds. Since then, the club has erected a pavilion, shed and runway.
Looking up, watching a warbird climb higher and higher, Thierwechter says RAMS members can fly their planes into the clouds. Another plane hovers in mid-air. A third is putting on an aerobatics show, flipping and tumbling in the wind.
“I just love them all,” he says, staring off into the sky. He connects a starter to a model engine and spins the front propeller until it roars and exhales, the faint scent of gasoline pumping through its metal teeth.
“Learning to land,” he continues, guiding his aircraft off the earth with a quarter-inch turn of his thumbs — “that’s the hardest part.”
For more, visit www.flaglerrams.com.
