TAC FLY-IN & PICNIC
By Kenneth D. Wilson
The Tri-County Aero (TAC) Model Airplane Club of Vincennes, Indiana, works to get young people interested in model airplanes. At the TAC's Annual Fly-In and Picnic on October 24, 1998, a new and very successful—yet very simple—idea was employed.
In the June 1997 issue, Model Aviation published a construction article on how to build simple hand-launched gliders from foam egg cartons, which abound in many homes.
It takes about three minutes, a sharp X-Acto knife, and a penny in the nose for counterbalance to produce an instant flying machine!
The TAC club rounded up empty foam egg cartons, precut the gliders, and had them ready to fly at the Annual Fly-In and Picnic.
On the morning of the Fly-In, TAC club members arrived early and test-flew every glider. The aircraft are so simple that the test-flying turned into a TAC member egg-carton glider contest.
As TAC members and other modeling guests began to arrive, the gliders were passed out to the kids in attendance for pre-contest gliding and to allow the youthful entrants to get the feel of a flying egg carton.
While radio-control airplanes were being flown in one section of the TAC flying field at O'Neal Airport, the kids had a section to themselves. Their egg-carton glider meet was held as any standard AMA Hand-Launched Glider contest would be: each competitor got six timed flights; the best three timed flights were totaled, and first through fifth places were awarded trophies and ribbons.
Winners:
- 1st: Nat Greene
- 2nd: Lucas Greene
- 3rd: Amanda Banks
- 4th: Travis Banks
- 5th: Heather Green
As the Fly-In progressed, many onlookers were more interested in the foam gliders than in the radio-control airplanes. Many O'Neal Field visitors asked TAC members where they could obtain the pattern. Elementary school, Bible school, and Sunday school teachers wanted to hold a similar modeling activity for the youth of their organizations.
Fortunately, the TAC club had anticipated such interest and had glider patterns to pass out.
At the end of the TAC's Fly-In and Picnic day, it was hard to tell who had the most fun with the egg-carton foam gliders—the kids or the TAC members. All in all, it was a toss-up—an egg-carton foam glider toss-up, anyway!
Author Contact
- Kenneth D. Wilson
- 2324 E. Florida St.
- Evansville, IN 47711-4812
- E-mail: kdwavhistorian@juno.com
Following is a reprint of instructions for the model used in this story.
Reprinted Instructions
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
