'Warbirds' event is plane club's fundraiser; flying is its passion

Gary Crawford of Paragould fuels up a radio-controlled Red Baron model airplane during the Warbirds Over Arkansas event Saturday in North Little Rock.
Gary Crawford of Paragould fuels up a radio-controlled Red Baron model airplane during the Warbirds Over Arkansas event Saturday in North Little Rock.

Members of the Mid Arkansas Radio Control Society sat chatting with one another Saturday as they watched miniature versions of airplanes from World War I and World War II buzzing through the clear blue sky.

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Tim Hawkins of Benton (left) looks on as Steven Howanietz of Jacksonville checks his F-86 Sabre model aircraft for damage after it landed in high grass during its maiden flight at the Warbirds Over Arkansas event Saturday.

These "warbirds" are radio-controlled model airplanes averaging about 20 pounds and 4 feet in length. Some members of the group that gathered Saturday fly them every day.

The club is the oldest of its kind in Arkansas and one of the largest. Members have access to Bishop Field, the site of the old North Little Rock Airport and of Saturday's flights, for flying their model airplanes and helicopters any day of the week, Secretary-Treasurer Bob Betzold said.

Members organized Saturday's Warbirds Over Arkansas event to raise money for the Jacksonville Museum of Military History, event organizer Stoney Koon said.

The entry fee for pilots was $15, which included lunch. Koon said he anticipated raising between $750 and $1,000 for the museum.

Last year was the first year the flying club had the event, and the $750 it raised went to the Wounded Warrior Project, a program that helps injured soldiers who are returning home from conflicts, Betzold said.

Betzold said he goes out to fly his plane Friday through Monday, and the club goes to Lake Willastein every Wednesday to fly.

Koon said he plans on making sure Warbirds Over Arkansas happens every year. Koon's company, A-1 Roofing, sponsors the event.

Frank Osborne, the club's oldest member at 91, said he won his first model airplane contest in 1936, when he was 11 years old.

"I've been at it for a while," he said.

Osborne said he has 15 or 20 planes. He was one of the founding members of the society, which started in 1964.

He spent 22 years on life-sized planes in the Air Force and has gone as far as Massachusetts and Las Vegas for radio-controlled airplane flying competitions, he said.

"I have a psychological need to fly, and this answers that," Osborne said.

When he was younger, he built his own planes, he said.

Member Ron Stanfied, like Osborne, began building model planes when he was young. He has built 265 airplanes over the past 46 years.

Part of the reason he likes being in the club is the sense of camaraderie between participants.

"It's a social event, it's a sport, it's a hobby," he said.

Since he stopped working, flying and building radio-controlled planes is a good way to stay busy, Stanfied said.

"I have my workbench at home where I can build airplanes, and it gives me an alternative to sitting in front of the TV," he said.

Olen Rutherford, a regional associate vice president for the Academy of Model Aeronautics, the larger organization that Mid Arkansas Radio Control Society is a part of, said he started building model planes in elementary school.

He said he likes building planes, although if he is pressed for time before a competition he will buy one that is almost ready to fly.

"Either I'm building or I'm flying," he said, as planes droned overhead. "It never stops."

Although he did not build his Warbirds Over Arkansas entrants from scratch, Rutherford said he did all the detail work, such as painting and adding the guns.

Rutherford finished tightening screws on the plane Saturday, set his tiny yellow-handled screwdriver down and moved the plane to the grass, preparing it for takeoff.

"One down, one to go," he said before walking to his car to get another plane.

Metro on 05/22/2016

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