Artists of month feature hand-built airplanes

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman! No, it really is a plane.

The Clarke Area Arts Council’s featured artists of the month from now through May are a quintet of men with a hobby that involves building and flying radio-controlled model airplanes. A chartered group just a few weeks shy of 36 years, the Osceola Prop Busters are a club of Clarke Countyians who enjoy the process that comes from building planes to fly.

Chartered in 1989, most of the group have been building and flying planes for decades which they describe as a “great little hobby.” Of the five in the club today, Ray Talbott is the only remaining charter member. The club is chartered through the Academy of Model Aeronautics, a worldwide organization that seeks to promote, develop, educate and advance model aeronautics.

Once a month, the Osceola Prop Busters get together for a club meeting and then fly their planes. Dell Shannon serves as the Osceola Prop Busters’ club president.

Originally, the planes were flown at the old Osceola airport - located north of Osceola off Highway 69 - and then at the current Osceola Municipal Airport. Now, they utilize a 50″x250′-300′ runway in the Eddy Saylor Industrial Business Park, on land owned by the Clarke County Development Corporation.

“We owe the Development Corporation a lot of thanks for allowing us to have this,” Talbott said.

Flight builds

For some, they started in their youth building model planes, while others found the hobby later on.

Dudley Sook first became involved with model airplanes when he lived in Illinois, where he was a member of a similar club.

Talbott started around eight or nine years old, with a plane given to him by a friend made of tissue wrapping paper, sticks, rubber bands and homemade propellers.

Working for a man who had planes, Charlie Fidler said all it took was when his wife bought him his first plane for the hobby to stick.

For others, it’s the enjoyment that comes from being able to build the planes and the fun that comes from flying them, when full-scale planes are not a feasible option.

Nearly all of the planes are built from kits. The group agreed that the cost is like any hobby - it depends on your personal budget and how much they’re willing to invest. From simpler kits that start around $200, they can go all the way up to tens of thousands of dollars. Build times vary depending on one’s schedule and the complexity of the kit, while some come pre-assembled.

“It’s a hobby where it requires a lot of patience to learn,” Sook said.

Some planes, however, have been built from scratch. One such plane on display was designed by Talbott in the mid-80′s, after he read an article about how to treat corrugated cardboard. He drew up the plans for a plane and built it with treated cardboard, foam board and sticks of wood. The result was a light plane that flies on wires in a circle, similar to a kite.

Most of the model planes are designed for calmer weather days, though the bigger ones will fly in windy conditions. There are different sized engines for different plane and older models were converted engines from chainsaws. Now, many engines are built specifically for the plan they’ll go in, and opt for electric power as they are quieter than their alcohol/oil/nitromethane cousins.

The advancement in radios to control planes has also changed from needing one radio per plane to having a single radio that can program several planes into. The radios have the similar controls you would see on a regular airplane - laps, elevator rudder, throttle, retractable landing gear - and are all computerized.

As far as the members favorite planes, the overwhelming answer was “the one that is flying now.”

Crash stories

While the goal is to keep the planes in the air, crashes are at some point inevitable. Choosing to call the crashes “re-kitting,” the group had their share of stories.

“I was flying a twin-engine trainer. [It] flew great, I started showing off - I was flying inverted,” Sook said. “I forgot that when you’re flying inverted, the controls are also opposite. So I gave it up…when you’re upside down, up is down, and I just splattered that airplane all over the [asphalt] landing.”

The plane, the radio inside, both the engines and all of the servos (components that provide control over various functions such as steering, throttle, braking, etc.) did not survive the crash.

Fidler shared a similar story of flying inverted, only his plane landed in a bean field versus pavement, but likewise did not survive.

Sook shared a story of late club member Del Hobbs, who sent his plane in the air and the plane flew away out of radio range. As the planes will keep going until they run out of fuel or battery, the plane was thought lost. A few months later, a farmer in another town found the plane in his field during harvest and was able to return the plane to Hobbs, thanks to the pilot information that is attached to each plane.

A similar story was shared by Talbott about a man in Leon who accidentally shut the transmitter off when the plane launched, and off to the northwest it went, ending up near Afton in a clover field.

Learn more

The Osceola Prop Busters encourage talking to the club if one is interested in flying model airplanes, as the club members are willing to help people who want to learn. With the model airplane hobby being worldwide, many in the Osceola have friends from other countries who they have never met, yet can talk to at length about their shared interests.

Shannon can be reached at 641-4148164 to get more information about the club.

Artist’s reception

A reception is planned for the group from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 26 at Lakeside Hotel Casino, 777 Casino Drive, in the events center lobby. A display of model airplanes built by the group’s members, as well as different sizes and types of engines and flight magazines, are available to be seen now. The reception is free to attend, and will feature treats, meet and greets with the builders/pilots and gliders will be given away.

The display is the first of its kind for the Arts Council. CAAC President Kate Emanuel said that after hearing about all that goes into getting the model planes ready for the air, it is an art in and of itself.

With April and May being more of the club’s pre-flight season, it seemed like the right time to invite them to display their works for others to enjoy.

“They’re really eye-catching. It’s an amazing craft, knowing the motors and so forth…the dedication to put in the time to build them,” Emanuel said.