Many types of modeling enjoyment available at second annual Bay Area gathering
Rich Hanson & Jim Haught
Overview
Expo '98 was held August 22–30, 1998, at various sites throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The event was the second of its kind and featured a wide variety of modeling activities—a little something for everyone. The majority of events took place on the weekends of August 22–23 and August 29–30, although there were a sprinkling of midweek events for those who wished to have the fullest Expo experience possible.
Events
- Warbird races
- Soaring
- Pattern
- Old-timer
- Jet
- Scale
- Stunt
- Helicopter
- Electric
- Indoor
- Pylon
Participating clubs
The proliferation of clubs in the Bay Area made such a variety of events possible. Among the groups involved were:
- Tomcats
- Santa Clara County
- Sacramento Area Modelers
- Oakland Cloud Dusters
- South Bay Soaring Society
- Woodland-Davis Aeromodelers
- Pioneer RC
- Bayside RC
- South Alameda County RC
- Several others
Cancellations and venue changes
Placing Moffett Federal Airfield on alert status forced cancellation of the Aeromodeling Exposition Trade Show — a major loss to the Expo since it involved activities such as a swap meet, airshow, vendor exhibits, and other planned events.
Pylon racing required a change of venue. In 1997, environmental concerns forced a shift from NAS Alameda to the East Bay Radio Control field in Livermore.
Looking ahead
With such a large geographic area covered by the Expo, along with light attendance at midweek events, consideration has been given to changing the format for 1999. Some have suggested a format that would combine public appeal and convenient access for participants — staging events as a continuous string, perhaps overlapping, on a single weekend.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
