Elmira Aerotow '97

Model Airplane News, Nov 1997 by Sanders, David M

Harris Hill: for soaring enthusiasts throughout the world, its very name evokes images of famous planes, great pilots, engineering pioneers and records set. What better location to host a scale R/C soaring event!

The Harris Hill glider port just outside the town of Elmira, NY, is the original home of the famous Schweizer Aircraft sailplane company and is now the location of the National Soaring Museum. The field is still used as a full-scale glider port and is managed by the Harris Hill Soaring Corp., which graciously granted permission for the R/C event to be held again this year along with help from the local R/C soaring organization, the Harris Hill L/D Club. This year's event was very capably CD'd by John Der-stine and Ernie Heyworth. Tim Farr and Roy Card provided safety inspections for all the aircraft; Jeff Koski helped to keep the flight line moving smoothly; and Ed Lokken and his staff maintained the transmitter impound. Also present as tow coordinators were Robin Lehman and Jim Blum, two of the U.S.'s premier authorities on aerotowing operations and techniques as applied to models, with help from Wayne and Dee Parrish and John Derstine. Everyone did a great job and made a Herculean effort that resulted in a very smooth-running event.

With its third consecutive year under its belt, Elmira Aerotow has become a magnet for scale sailplane modelers the world over to share in their special facet of R/C modeling and has become a great place to see the best and brightest in the scale soaring community show their craftsmanship and flying skill. Fifty-seven registered pilots from as far off as Germany and Canada as well as across the U.S. converged to spend three beautiful days doing what they do best: flying more than 100 fantastic, scale, R/C sailplanes.

True to the event's name, all the aircraft are launched by aerotowing, meaning they are pulled into the air behind powered RIC aircraft, many of which are also impressive scale models. The illusion of scale flight is nearly perfect, and if you remove the fullscale humans from the picture, it's difficult indeed to tell whether models or life-size sailplanes are taking to the cumulussprinkled skies.

Weather for the event couldn't have been better; rain did threaten on Friday, but it cleared for a great afternoon of flying. Both Saturday and Sunday were partly cloudy with generous thermal lift popping from all corners of the field. Winds remained light for the entire weekend.

As well as the flying, there was the joy of camaraderie with fellow scale enthusiasts. This was brought to a real crescendo during Saturday night's banquet, which featured guest speakers Paul Schweitzer, founder of Schweitzer Aircraft; Maynard Hill, RIC soaring pioneer and AMA Hall of Famer; Larry Fogel, scale soaring enthusiast; and Michael Schellberg from the German contingent relating European happenings in scale modeling. I found Mr. Hill's presentation in particular to be fascinating, enlightening and moving; I truly admire his grit, curiosity and total ingenuity.

Flight demonstrations were performed by Exclusiv Modellbau Scheifele (EMS) of Germany with their highly aerobatic Duo Discus piloted by Theo Arnold, and electric aerotowing was demonstrated by Etienne Dorig and Alex Wenzel of ICARE Sailplanes of Quebec. Along with these demonstrations, full-scale sailplane operations continued throughout the weekend to create an interesting mix of model and full-scale flying. Exceptionally good planning and communications between the modelers and full-scale pilots ensured the safety of both groups, and many of the modelers took rides in fullscale sailplanes.

What can I say? This was a fantastic, fun, friendly event. I'll definitely do it again. Want a tip for a good time? Well, have a plane that's large enough to be easily aerotowed off a grass strip. Robin Lehman recommends that your model have a span of at least 3 meters (about 120 inches). After my personal experience, I'd say that's probably wise. I wasn't comfortable with trying my 2.3-meter plane on aerotow off the grass, so next time, I'll definitely take a larger ship. I. sure did like Doug Barry's ASK18, which he scratch-built from Cliff Charlesworth plans. I could build one for comparatively little money and end up with a great looking and flying sailplane that's ideal for aerotowing. On the other hand, if you've got the money, flying skill and inclination, you can get a superbly crafted modern plane that's almost "plug and play" and will put you in the big leagues right away. Most of the mid- to high-level thermal duration/competition flyers I talked with told me they felt comfortable with the sleek, modern ships right away. There are so many shades of gray between these two ends of the spectrum that there's no reason scale soaring shouldn't attract an even wider following. I'm hooked.

To find out more about next year's schedule of events, contact John Derstine at (717) 596-2392 or by email at johnders@postoffice.ptd.net. You can also see John's website at www.geocities. com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/5739 to take a look at some of the neat stuff he has collected from around the world.