Enjoying near perfect weather with virtually no wind, 107 registered pilots enjoyed one of the best flying weekends of the summer at the Kingston RC Club field in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The event was on August 22-23 2015 and campers started arriving on Wednesday with the parking lot absolutely full by our Saturday official start date. By looking at the pit area, you would think you were at a fair ground with all the people and tents setup. The flying started shortly after our pilots meeting and anthems were sung. Of the well over 200 planes you would have to say that it was a good mix of all types on the ground and in the air. The same went for the pilots. It was good to see that those new to an event like this were encouraged in the air alongside the veterans.
As we have done in the past, we shut down the regular flying at 12 noon for a group photo and then this year we let the warbirds entertain us with a mass fly accompanied by the music from the Battle of Britain. It was so well received that requests came in to do it again later Saturday afternoon.
The rest of the day was steadily filled with flying from all skills of pilots and once again no midair mishaps. The flight line traffic bosses made of volunteer pilots did an outstanding job of keeping the flight line organized watching that pilots followed the proper traffic pattern.
At 4:30 we did the closing ceremonies for the day and commenced with the pilot draws for prizes. The flight line banner displayed all the sponsors and this year was especially well supported. As was mentioned at the opening pilots meeting, we did so again at the closing that every sponsor on the board represents their advertising dollars at work and they deserve our support when it comes to making purchases.
For the last few years, we offered an incentive to early register, and this year’s prize was a DLE 30 engine of which we had 69 pilots who took advantage of this free offer. It helps us pre-process your registration and lets you just pick up your package on arrival and you’re ready to fly.
The prize draws were awesome and all you had to do was look at the sponsor banner at the flight line and you will see who to thank for this. I’m sure that more will be taking advantage of this next year.
Our Saturday evening dinner was once again catered by the Kingston RC Modelers and they are getting really good at it. At the hands of a professional chef to elevate standards, you know that it is always going to be great as this year was. BBQ chicken, rack of ribs, corn on the cob, baked potato, plus salads and desert had the making of a feast to remember.
This year was especially noteworthy with the host field of the Kingston RC Modelers celebrating their 50th anniversary. This is quite an accomplishment and they really outdid themselves with a live band and not to mention the perfect weather to go along with it. The music was well received and had several people singing and even some dancing. The whole evening was a great treat as it was, but being able to celebrate one of their founders and absolute pillars of the club with a 75th birthday tribute was over the top and brought emotional tears to many. A large cast KRCM emblem was given to Rolly Siemonsen of which I am sure he will cherish for a long time.
I want to thank all the pilots for attending and making this the premier event that it has become. I also want to thank all the volunteer’s that helped out to bring this event together.
Photos by Mr. Goose, Ken Park and Larry Ingram.
Please mark your calendars for next year as it will be August 20 – 21 2016 for more information contact Dave Penchuk at: dave.penchuk@sympatico.ca
Yup, I’d have to rate this years event a 10 out of 10!