Pilots gather in the Kootenai for RC flying event
<p>Eureka's Tommy Valcour, right, shows off his 1/5 scale P-47 Thunderbolt as Wayne Page looks on during Fun Fly 2016. (Paul Sievers/The Western News)</p>
<p>A few radio-controlled planes on display during Fun Fly 2016. (Paul Sievers/The Western News)</p>
<p>A view inside the cockpit of of Tommy Valcour's P-47 Thunderbolt. (Paul Sievers/The Western News)</p>
<p>Fun Fly fans during the fourth annual Kootenai RC Flyers Fun Fly Saturday. (Paul Sievers/The Western News)</p>
The skies this weekend were filled with aircraft from different eras, including old war planes as well as the latest in drone technology.
The Kootenai RC Flyers Club on Saturday held their fifth annual fun-fly event at the remote control airway on Champion Haul Road. Saturday’s forecast called for rain, but the weather held off as pilots exhibited their planes, symbolizing years of model construction and modifications, on the ground and in the air.
Event organizer Ron Anderson said the event is designed to show the public what the club does, hopefully getting a few potential members interested in joining, while educating people on new models, old models and how skilled some of these pilots have become.
“It’s just an opportunity for the pilots to get together,” Anderson said. Pilots on Saturday traveled from Eureka and different parts of the Flathead Valley.
For the first time in the event, drone pilots from Bird’s Eye of Big Sky, based near Columbia Falls, were on hand to demonstrate the latest in drone hardware. The presentation included drones with and without cameras, showcasing the speed and technicality available in the recent developments of unmanned aviation.
Anderson said inviting Bird’s Eye of Big Sky was appropriate, given the recent explosion of drones in the commercial and recreational world of remote-control aircraft.
“They’ve got some pretty zippy equipment,” Anderson said.
Anderson himself is a more recent pilot than some that attended Saturday’s event. He’s been piloting remote control planes for about four years and currently owns a mixed fleet of civilian and military planes. He said the constant adaptation of the plane technology has gripped his attention in the hobby.
Anderson said most remote-control clubs have about one fun fly a year. The Kootenai club traveled to the Flathead for the Glacier RC Club’s fun fly earlier this year, so he was happy to see the 12 Glacier pilots on Saturday.
Another pilot, from Eureka, brought a trailer full of planes and set them out on display for the spectators to view.
“There’s just a constant surge of technology all the time,” he said.
Cooking burgers and hot dogs at the event was Lincoln County Road Foreman Marc McCully, who helped build the miniature runway about 15 years ago. The Kootenai RC Club used to fly at J. Neils Park, McCully said, until residents began complaining about the noise. Lincoln County and the Corps of Engineers found the land for a new airway and built it around 2001.
“We’re very lucky to have this,” McCully said.
Five years ago, McCully received a call from one of the pilots who wanted him to come out and try flying. While he was hesitant to try, McCully said the trepidation didn’t last long once the wheels were off the ground.
“I was hooked, fast,” he said.
McCully now owns six of his own remote-control planes.
Throughout the day, spectators asked pilots questions, browsed through the collection of planes and watched as the small-scale aircraft cruised through the skies, which never dropped enough rain to muddy the event.
“It’s fun to watch them in that open sky,” Anderson said.
For more information, visit the Kootenai RC Flyers Facebook page.
Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.