District IV Report - 2004/02
Festival Overview
The Festival of Flight 2003 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is now history — and what an event it was!
The festival lasted 10 days during the latter part of May and included full-scale air shows at Pope Air Force Base, exhibits in several buildings and outside at the coliseum area, and a flight school to introduce newcomers — young and old alike — to Radio Control (RC) modeling.
Flight School
Howard Hooper arranged the flight school with the help of Horizon Hobby, which donated the airplanes, radios, and other flying equipment. Local club members volunteered as instructors, introducing several thousand newcomers to the sport/hobby of RC flying via the buddy-box system.
Participating clubs included:
- Cumberland RC Club
- Piedmont Aeromodelers
- Fayetteville Aero Modeling Society
- Central Carolina RC Modelers
- Raleigh–Durham Radio Control
Although there were several rainstorms, that never dampened the instructors’ spirits. After the event, the equipment was donated to the clubs that participated for their flying instruction programs. Several police officers who provided security even took their turn at flying, and later bought equipment and joined the local clubs.
Exhibits and Attractions
Other exhibits included:
- Military equipment
- Skydiving demonstrations
- Wright brothers displays and replicas
- Space equipment and replicas
A replica of the first Wright Flyer was on display, complete with rail and catapult tower. A replica of the Vin Fiz made a short hop in the parking lot to represent the first cross-country flight. Aviation-wise, nearly anything you could think of was there.
Thanks and Closing
To the best of my knowledge, Festival of Flight 2003 was the largest celebration of flight on the East Coast.
Thanks to Howard Hooper and all of the people who participated in making the whole event a grand success. Special thanks to George Fryer for taking care of things when Howard was away.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
