Annual RC show set for Aug. 17
Members of the Hot Springs Radio Control Flying Club will celebrate National Model Aviation Day on Aug. 17 by showing off their skills to the public at a special show at Cedar Glades Park, with money raised going to benefit Jackson House.
This will be the fifth time the club has commemorated the day with a public demonstration. The 44 members of the club will be displaying and operating their RC planes, helicopters and drones.
The club started in 1981, and since 1993, they have flown at the RC field at Cedar Glades Park, which is “a great place to fly,” said Mark Smith, former national president of
the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
“I traveled all over the country (as AMA president) and this flying field here in Hot Springs is one of the top 10 in the nation and without a doubt the best in Arkansas,” he said.
“All of us, ever since (we were) kids, are interested in flight,” said club President David Epperhart.
Fellow member Jack Hord described it as, “Aviation I can afford.”
Members said technology has made the hobby more accessible than ever before.
Epperhart said when he first got into the hobby in 1998, very few people used electric RCs. Now, the cheaper and smaller electric models have taken over the hobby, allowing more people to get involved, and they are actually easier to fly, he said.
When he first started learning, Epperhart said it took him three months before he was able to fly a RC plane by himself. Smith, who started flying around 50 years ago, said it took him a year to really learn how to do it. Today, Epperhart said he can teach someone new to the hobby to fly by themselves in about a week.
Also making the hobby more appealing is that the members have embraced drones and even added an area at Cedar Glades specifically for drones, Epperhart said. “Probably half the people here own drones,” he said, and around six of the members also fly racing drones.
Epperhart said a lot of younger people interested in the club are drone flyers. He said the racing drones are first-person view drones that younger people like because they are similar to video games.
The club meets at the park in the morning on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The Aug. 17 event will start at 9 a.m., and will continue until 2 p.m. It is free to attend, but costs $20 to participate. Those wanting to participate must be members of AMA. They will be cooking hamburgers and hot dogs, which will cost $5. The $20 entry fee to participate covers the meal.
Money raised from the event will be donated to the Eleanor Klugh Jackson House for Crisis Intervention Services Inc.