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District News - October 2022

The Sacramento Area Modelers (SAM) hosted an open house at the field, inviting the community to come out and learn about RC airplanes and experience flying on a buddy box with expert pilots. All ages were able to experience this great and fun hobby.

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working on a plane

The Sacramento Area Modelers (SAM) hosted an open house at the field, inviting the community to come out and learn about RC airplanes and experience flying on a buddy box with expert pilots. All ages were able to experience this great and fun hobby.

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flying planes

Participants checked in then went through different stations, which included showing them how an airplane is built and how all the control surfaces work, safety practices to learn how to keep themselves and others safe, flight simulators to learn the basics, and finally, flying an RC airplane on a buddy box.

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food

After the airplane was in the air, they were able to learn how to fly a straight line and make turns, and then had a chance to fly some rolls and loops. After they finished flying, they received a certificate of completion and discount coupon for various beginner aircraft from a local hobby shop, RC Country. The best part after all of that was that they were able to keep getting in line to fly the airplanes as much as they wanted!

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winner

The SAM club’s support was impressive, with the opportunity to share our hobby with the community. Many club members volunteered their time and aircraft to give the community experience in the RC airplanes.

During the event, they had a free barbecue for everyone and nobody went home hungry! SAM President Jeff Montrose did an outstanding job of organizing the event with demonstrations and keeping everyone smiling and having fun.

One thing that stuck out was the dropping of ping-pong balls from two E-flite EC1500s. The pilots, Jerry Cunningham (SAM vice president) and club member Kimo Dias, dropped the pingpong balls off of the runway in the grass. After the airplanes landed, Jeff had the kids run out and find the ping-pong balls and bring them back. Some of the balls had numbers on them and the kids with those won nice model airplanes.

All of the kids received wooden gliders that they put together to fly around with each other. It was great to see all of the kids with huge smiles and laughing. Some of the other demonstrations included helicopters, jets, flying wings, and a little open flying to allow new people to see regular sport flying.

Feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, recommendations, or issues. There is much to share across the district. Enjoy everything you build and fly.