AMA News - District IX Report
News from Kansas
Lawrence Fetter, secretary/treasurer of the Hutch Bunch RC Club in Hutchinson, KS, wrote about a club activity last May. The club makes a presentation at the annual Celebrate History event sponsored by the Reno County Museum. The club has participated in the event for six of the last seven years. The museum staff tells the club that their presentation is one of the first to fill the schedule and that each year there are groups that don't get to attend.
"The Reno County Museum sponsors Celebrate History each year. This year was number seven and the Hutch Bunch RC Club was again asked to have a part. An article in the local newspaper stated that 1,240 elementary students and 350 adults from Reno County schools took part.
"Every year the event has grown and it seems that there are more adults along with the young people. This was the sixth year that the Hutch Bunch RC Club has been asked to take part. Each group spends half of the day at the event and is able to visit seven of the events. Each half-day is divided into seven 19-minute segments with three minutes to move from one event to the next.
"The Hutch Bunch RC Club had a full schedule of 14 groups each day. The museum people tell us that we are one of the more popular presentations and each year at least one group, as they are walking past our area to their buses, remarks, 'Hey, we didn't get to see that group' and the teacher will reply, 'They were all booked up.'
"During the 19 minutes we have with each group we explain about radio-control flying, starting with a trainer-type aircraft and then a more advanced type. Usually we show a sailplane and spend a few minutes with that. This year we had an electric airplane to show and one with retractable landing gear that really caught their eyes.
"This year we had five members who each had about three minutes to show some phase of model flying. We also gathered some past issues of model magazines and gave each group some magazines along with our club flyer showing where our flying fields are and when we might be flying.
"Our area and proximity to other groups prevented us from flying or starting an engine; however, we were able to run the electric engine equipped with a folding prop, which was explained and really caught the attention of the groups.
"After everything was over, the museum people came by and thanked us for our help and said, 'Well, I guess we will see you again next year.' We replied that we would be glad to take part again."
Presentation highlights
- Trainer-type aircraft demonstration
- More advanced fixed-wing aircraft
- Sailplane demonstration
- Electric airplane with folding prop
- Airplane with retractable landing gear
- Past issues of model magazines distributed to groups
- Club flyer with flying field locations and schedule
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
