The sky is the limit for model plane club

By MATT BIXENSTINE
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
TS PROPELLER TWIRLS AND engine hums as the Stunter 131 glides through the hazy July sky. The aircraft performs maneuvers that appear to defy gravity, yet its pilot remains grounded.
Pat Rowan, vice president of the Skylarks of Sharon, guides one of his 75 model airplanes above a field using a control line.
"It teaches you how to use your hands and mind," he said. "It gets you outside away from the TV for a while."
The Skylarks, a model airplane club, have been building and flying their models since the early 1960s. They are preparing to sponsor the first Western Pennsylvania Stunt Championships starting at 10 a.m. July 20 at the club's flying field in Transfer, Pa.
The Skylarks' inaugural event seems fitting in the year marking the centennial of aviation's invention, but the appropriateness of its inception comes only as a coincidence, club president Phil Spillman said.
"It's kind of neat that coincides," he said. "But really we thought of it [the stunt championships] before we realized it was the Wright brothers' anniversary."
The event will encompass about 30 participants and 50 airplanes, Spillman said. It will consist of both old-time stunt flying, characterized by plane designs and flight patterns prior to 1953, and profile stunt flying, based on more modern designs and patterns. Prizes will be awarded through third place in all classes of beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert competitions.
Kids at heart
Spillman, 65, began building and flying model airplanes in 1947 at age 9 when some neighbors, one of whom was an engineer, introduced him to the sport.
"They sort of took me under their wing, no pun intended," he said.
Spillman has been involved with the Skylarks since he moved back to the Shenango Valley from Vermont in 1991. Today, the club fluctuates near its capacity membership of 25 fliers. The group flies its models regularly on its rented three-acre field but has never sponsored an event of the championships' magnitude.
"We've had events before, but this certainly sounds like the biggest," said club secretary Ralph Geese, a Skylark since 1972.
Popularity of the sport continues to soar today, Rowan said. The Academy of Model Aeronautics, the governing body of model aviation in the United States, charters the Skylarks. The AMA oversees regional clubs consisting of 2,500 members from 35 countries.
Club member Sumner Forrest became interested in model airplanes while serving in the Air Force in the Philippines in the late 1960s. Rather than compete, he participates in the sport today as a hobbyist.
"When we're out there, you feel like a kid again," said, Forrest, 68. "A lot of the men did this as youngsters. Now they're retired and getting back into it again."
mbixenstine@vindy.com