By
Taryn Plumb |
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
OCTOBER
02, 2014
The
three jets line up side by side on the runway, then take to the air
with a collective, thunderous roar.
Commanding
the sky, mocking gravity, they spiral, dip, and weave in every
direction. Soar straight up until appearing as mere blips in the
clouds before rocketing back down. Fly parallel to the ground at full
speed, trailed by the piercing whoosh of their engines.
Necks
are craned and eyes shielded from the sun to watch the spectacle,
and, when several minutes later they come in for a landing, they are
met with applause and acclamation.
But
this isn’t your typical air show — and you’ll not recall Tom
Cruise piloting these high-powered machines in “Top
Gun.”
They’re
radio-controlled model planes, but generations evolved from the kind
you might remember tooling around with — and crashing — as a kid.
“It’s
expensive to fly a full-sized aircraft,” said Bob Gettler,
president of 107th
Radio Controlled Flyers,
one of several local model clubs. With model planes, you don’t
spend nearly as much money and yet, as he put it, “You get the
thrill of flight.”
While
they might be small and portable, toys these are not. Enthusiasts
spend anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars to equip,
repair, boost, and accessorize their models, whether Cessnas,
biplanes, warbirds, helicopters, or even jets. With wingspans ranging
from several inches to several feet, some planes run on a special
blend or kerosene for fuel, while significant developments in battery
technology have enabled others to become increasingly like their
full-size counterparts.
“A
lot of aerospace technology has made it into models,” Gettler said
as he stood by the edge of his club’s runway at Rumney Marsh
Reservation in Saugus, a windy, wide-open location just a blip in the
guardrail along Route 107.
Nearby,
model planes of various sizes took off, landed, and coursed through
the air. “The hobby’s definitely grown a lot in the last 10
years,” Gettler said.
In
addition to the 107th RC Flyers, formed 30 years ago and now with
about 100 members, other local groups chartered by the national
Academy
of Model Aeronautics include
the Cape
Ann RC Model Club,
which flies at a field in Amesbury; the 495th
RC Squadron,
which holds events in Tewksbury, Billerica, and on Plum Island; and
the Middlesex
County RC Flyers,
which also uses a field in Billerica. Hobbyists meet and trade tips
at local, regional, national, and international rallies held
throughout the year.
Peabody
resident John Almeida regularly loads his Boomerang jet into an RV
for vacations planned around various shows.
“It’s
a big-boy sandbox,” said Almeida, 49, crouched by his jet as it
cooled down after several minutes of air time at 107th RC Flyers
field.
Modelers
love to build, maintain, and tinker, he said. “It puts a smile on a
grown man’s face.”
Measuring
roughly 8 feet long and 8 feet wide at the wings, weighing nearly 40
pounds and painted a patriotic red, white, and blue, his jet is
powered by a turbine that requires a kerosene start and has two
on-board systems for safety. Considered the elite fliers of the radio
control world, model jet pilots must prove their proficiency to the
Academy of Model Aeronautics to legally fly.
Almeida
has always been into modeling, he said. As a kid he liked boats, then
moved on to propeller planes, and now the jet, which can scream
through the sky at up to 160 miles an hour.
“Mentally,
you’re exhausted after one minute of high-speed flying,” he said.
“The challenge never stops. The maneuvers can get smoother, better,
tighter.”
Nearby,
Gettler was preparing his red and yellow Trex model helicopter for
liftoff. Holding a remote with a digital readout, he ticked through
the controls of the battery-powered aircraft.
He
explained that all models get a preflight check, just like the big
ones.
“Everything’s
good to go; all controls are working correctly,” he announced, and
the helicopter’s carbon-fiber propellers whirred to life.
With
just slight directions on the controls, the miniature chopper zipped
through the air, flew upside down and backward, flipped, rolled,
looped, pirouetted, and hovered.
A
program manager for General Electric, Gettler, 32, who lives in
Salem, has been flying models since college and now has three
helicopters, a jet, and an aerobatic plane. He also has his pilot’s
license, as well as “some time” in a full-sized helicopter, he
said. He volunteers teaching an aerodynamics course at Kipp
Academy in
Lynn.
“I
just have a love of aviation,” he said, calling remote-control
flying therapeutic and “like meditation.”
All
around him, various models were set up on platforms, while others
were being tinkered with, or lining up on the carpet runway, engines
buzzing. Onlookers sat beneath tents, and the occasional flock of
swallows or a roving turkey vulture careened out of the path of the
swooping and diving planes. Gettler said the rules limit the height
for flying to 400 feet, and only four aircraft can be up in the air
at once.
On
the sidelines with their remotes, pilots yelled out status reports.
“Landing!”
“Taking
off!”
“I
got no power — I’m dead!”
Earlier,
Geoff Caldarone suffered what he called a “class A mishap,” when
one of his planes crashed and a wing fell off.
“Crashing
is part of the hobby,” the 51-year-old engineer from Danvers said
with a shrug.
Sitting
on a pedestal next to him was a 2-pound foam warbird with a 44-inch
wingspan, “Dallas Darling” painted on one side. Warbirds are his
personal favorite, Caldarone said; he can perform rolls, loops, and
Immelmann turns, “flying evasive maneuvers to get behind an enemy
to shoot it down,” he said.
“It’s
a great hobby. I’m in it deep now.”
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