History of the Lexington Model Airplane Club
1950's Club History
Model Airplane History in Lexington
By Ed C. White, April 24, 2012
In the late 40’s and early 50’s, the Hobby House was located on Limestone just south of Main street. Around 1952 or 53 they moved to West Main near Broadway. This is the location that most folks remember. Buddy Johnson and I would go there after school. Tom Riley worked there and through him we discovered powered flight. Later I also worked there. For a short time there was also a model shop on East Main near Midland but they were more into model trains, instead of airplanes, and we didn’t go there often.
Around 1956 or 1957 Tom opened his own shop, in the basement of his home on Meadow Lane, he sold airplane kits, engines and accessories. One day Tom told me about a new Japanese engine called OS Max. He sold me the first one (a OS Max .35, I still have it).
Also around this time Harold LeMay at Joyner’s Bicycle Shop on North Limestone began selling model kits, engines and supplies. The popularity of the Hobby House faded as Lexington grew away from downtown business.
By the mid 50's, the Lexington modelers were good enough to beat the Louisville club in "C" class combat at the Kentucky State Fair. I believe we took all the combat classes that day, but I’m certain of the “C” class. I also think that Tom won the stunt class. Some the names from back then are: George Bain, Buddy Johnson, Joe Garrett, David White, Larry Kelly, Ed White, Dick Garnett, Ralph Wenzel, Stephen Shook, John Wilson and of course Tom Riley. I'm sure there are others that I have forgotten. At that time Lew McFarland was in the Air Force (1954 -1959) and was not directly involved with the Lexington group. However, everyone knew about Lew through Tom.
Photo of George Bain (circa 1958) with a .15 size Ruffy powered by a OS Max .15. I believe it was taken at a motel where John Steenburgh was staying just before he left Lexington. We went flying that day. Having a place to fly was always a problem. Somehow, we got permission to use the parking lots at Bryan Station High School, University High School and a school on Clays Mill (where Jesse Clark is today). These sites were used for U-Control only. A field on North Broadway (present day location of the Legends baseball stadium), Alexander drive (before it was paved) and a field on Loudon Ave (where Contract Street is today), were used for free flight and sometimes RC. The first RC flight I ever saw was at the Loudon Ave field. These locations were used frequently with sometimes 10 to 15 different guys taking turns flying. For a time we actually flew at Bluegrass field (U-Control only). These were the years 1955 through 1960 before the IBM people arrived in Lexington.
In the late 1950's, there was an influx of IBM people and several meetings were held with the purpose to form a legitimate club and find a permanent location to fly. The Lexington Valkyries was formed with IBMer, John Steenburgh as the president. This was the beginning of what later morphed into the Lexington Model Airplane club.
At the beginning of the 1960's, the original core group of modelers changed dramatically as Lew returned from the Air Force in 1959 and started X-Cell Models at the corner of Winchester Rd and Liberty Rd. George Bain joined the Navy, Buddy Johnson moved to Alabama, Joe Garrett got married, Larry Kelly moved out of state, Tom Riley graduated UK and went to work in (I think) Ohio. John Steenburgh returned to NY. I got married and started a family. I think Ralph may have still been involved and I lost track of Dick Garnett and the others.
I believe the first Mid-America event was in 1959, it took place in what is now Gardenside near the intersection of Alexander and Cross Keys. Buddy Johnson and I were two of the stunt judges, George Bain was one of the pull test inspectors. It was a huge event with modelers attending from all over eastern US.
This is a photo of Buddy Johnson with C/L Scale Cessna 172. The photo was taken at his home in Lexington in I believe late 1956. Buddy flew C/L combat and scale. Even at that young age (he's 15 or 16 in the photo) he was very good at building flying scale models.
David White, my brother remembered a whole segment about Buddy Johnson’s C/L Scale Cessna 172, I had completely forgotten. First, the Mid-America event was either Labor Day weekend 1958 or Memorial Day weekend 1959. He remembers we went to the event in Dad's old 1947 Chevy (Putt-Putt), I had not bought the 57 Chevy convertible, and I wasn't married yet. Buddy and I were stunt judges and David was helping with pull tests. David was also helping somewhere else. There must have been an agreement that the host club members didn't enter the events. Otherwise, I would have been entered in combat.
Back to the C/L Cessna, David said there weren't enough entry's in the scale class, so Buddy left the event, went home and got the Cessna, brought it back, entered it and won the trophy in scale. David remembers watching Buddy and the Cessna flying when the engine quit, as Buddy made his landing approach, the engine restarted (as if Buddy controlled it) and the plane made this smooth power-on landing. The judges were impressed and Buddy won first place.
Sadly, I believe only five of the original founders are still with us as of April 2012. John Steenburgh is in Colorado. George Bain lives in upstate New York, Steve Shook is still with us, not sure about John Wilson, my brother David White lives in Lexington and I live in Nicholasville.
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A Personal Journey with Model Airplanes
By Ed C. White, May 3, 2012
My personal journey with model airplanes started in 1949 when I was in Cub Scouts. Before that I had played with toy airplanes as all kids did. The Cub Scouts held a contest where you brought something you had made or built. Most of the kids had home-made cars but a few brought airplanes. My entry was a solid pine (non-flying) Piper Cub, carved out of blocks, from a very basic kit. One kid brought a rubber powered, stick and tissue airplane, that actually flew. I was hooked.
My first flying models were rubber powered or gliders. The three of us, my brother David, Buddy Johnson and myself struggled to not only learn how to build and fly models, but also to buy the materials to build with. (A side note if I may, 1950 was only 11 years after the end of the great depression, as bad as the economy is now, it's still better than back then. As Buddy often said later, we were all poor only we didn't know it. In both our families any money spent on a model airplane was considered wasted and thrown away.)
We would walk to the Hobby House after school just to be near real model airplanes. The Hobby House was owned by two guys Jack and Ted, neither built or flew models. But Tom Riley worked there and through Tom we really learned about modeling and flying.
Tom Riley is the single most important person in Lexington's modeling history. The first club (the Valkyries) would never have existed without Tom. Most, if not all, of the original guys got into flying because of Tom and his enthusiasm. I know Lew and his track record, but Tom was there throughout the 1950's and that makes him first.
We went to several contests, the one that stands out to me is the event at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville. Tom Riley won the stunt event and Buddy Johnson, George Bain, Joe Garrett, Larry Kelly and myself dominated the combat classes. We were good fliers, but we had something the Louisville club didn't have. We had nylon props and OS Max engines. We had gotten the props only a few weeks before the event, they didn't break and combined with the Max engine we flew circles around those guys. (They had Fox engines with wood props, wood props break and you have to change broken props).
I continued building and flying until 1961. I really couldn't spend money on model airplanes with a new baby in the house. And by then, most of the guys were going in different directions. My first marriage broke up in the late 60's and for a time I reconnected with the Lexington modeling community.
Lew McFarland’s store was located on Euclid Ave and Ralph Wenzel was working there. I knew Ralph years before when he was a kid and hung around Tom's shop. I believe Lew was selling shares in X-CELL Models and Ralph had purchased some. We became friends and after I remarried, Ralph and his significant other would occasionally come over for pizza. Later, he told me that they were splitting up and he was taking a job out west. I completely lost track of him and did not know he had died until George Bain mentioned it the other day.
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1960's Club History
The document below, "Model Aviation in the Bluegrass", was obtained from LewMcFarland as a barely readable copy of the "Proposal for the Model Airport for Lexington and Fayette County". I transcribed this document in March 2011, just as written. The author was likely Lew McFarland, who prepared it about April 1969 for submittal to the Fayette County Recreation and Park Board, 333 Larch Lane, Lexington, KY. The objective of the proposal was to obtain the use of Kearney Park (now Kearney Golf Course) as a model aviation flying field in North Lexington.
Model Aviation in the Bluegrass
By Lew McFarland, ( circa April 1969 ),
"Proposal for the Model Airport for Lexington and Fayette County“
The Hobby and Sport of Model Aviation has a following in the Blue Grass area that is just as enthusiastic as that of the Thoroughbred and Basketball.
Model airplane flying is divided into three categories which will be briefly described below:
1. Control line models - Models are flown by means of a small engines and controlled thin wires from the pilot to the airplane. The pilot stands in the middle of a circle and controls the airplane by the wires at a distance of from 30 to 70 feet radius.
2. Radio-Control models - models are controlled in the air by means of radio transmitters held by the pilots. Planes may fly within an area of roughly one mile radius.
3. Free Flight models - models using either engine power, rubber band power or gliders are launched without any control by the pilot. This type of flying has a limited number of adherents in Fayette County.
History
Model airplanes have been flown in the Blue Grass since the birth of aviation. The first were gliders, and those powered by rubber bands. Soon after the development of the model airplane engine the first gas powered ones were flown in the mid 1930's.
By the late 1930's, Lexington had it's own model airplane club, The Lexington Thermaliers. Free flight planes were the only type flown. The length of engine run could be controlled by a timing device. Some of the early members of this club were Bert Cheek, Bert Rowland, Freeman, Howard Mayhew, Paul Mayhew, Owen Lewis, Howard Cosby, Aldwin Perry, Claude Warneke, John Wyatt, David Nohney and Gene Witherspoon. Early flying was done on the University of Kentucky Experimental Station and on the Mason Headley Road which is now subdivided.
The earliest Radio Controlled Model Plane is this area is attributed to Art Morgan in early 1941. At that time, there was probably no more than ten other Radio Controlled planes in the United States, the earliest being 1939 by Dr. Walt Good who wrote an article in a national magazine stimulating Art Morgan to accomplish the same feat. Art is presently President of the Central Ky. Radio Control Club and Principal of the new Central Ky. Area Vocational School on the Leestown Road. It is interesting to compare his 1941 boxy slow flying "Hope it will come Back" to his modern sleek 70 mph highly reliable acrobatic plane.
Competition
This is not only a hobby but a sport which has competition ranging from local to world wide competition. Participation in the competition has not been uncommon for Blue Grass model builders.
Bert Cheek claims a first here in taking 1st awards in an endurance contest (Ky. 1st contest ) at Louisville, Ky in 1939. Bert's flights averaged almost 3 minutes each.
Lew McFarland has specialized in precision acrobatic in the control line category. Winning National championships in 1961 and 1962, and placing in the top five in five other national championships are credited to Lew. Lew served on the United States World Championship Team in both 1964 and 1966 with his highest individual place being 3rd in world competition.
Dickie Bishop of Paris, Ky was able to win 2nd place in 1964 and 1965 National Championship Precision acrobatics.
Bill Barr has won regional and National recognition in the Free Flight category.
The Mid-America Championships were held in Lexington in 1960 and 1961, and in Paris, Ky in 1966 and 1967. Several members of the local club plan to compete in the contest this year. There are hopes for another Mid-America Championship in the future.
Two Clubs
Presently there are two active clubs in the Lexington area. The Lexington Model Airplane Club and the Central Ky Radio Control Club.
The Lexington Model Airplane Club (LMAC) has some 20 members and hopes to grow to 50 by the end of the year. The club was organized in 1959 and fly's largely the control line type of models on an area leased from Blue Grass Field. Some of the members also fly Radio Control planes, and the free flight type and desperately need a place away from the airport to fly this type. The Club meets on the 4th Friday of each month at the Naval Reserve Center behind Lafayette High School. The 1969 president of the club is Jim Hipl.
The LMAC has put on demonstrations at the 4th of July fireworks display at Stoll Field, the Veterans Hospital, Shriners Crippled Children's Hospital plus demonstrations and free lessons at Turfland Mall. The Club has a newsletter edited by Ralph Wenzel, Jr.
The Central Kentucky Radio Control Club ( CKRC) also has some 20 members and expects to have 30 members by the end of 1969. The club was organized in 1963 and fly's only Radio Controlled planes. The group has a field leased from Mr. Dudley Kelly on James Lane just over the county line in Jessamine county. The group meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at Central Ky Area Vocational School, Vo-Tech Rd. just off Leestown Road. Art Morgan is the 1969 president.
The equipment and planes used and flown by this group have become quite advanced and reliable. They are able to do all types of acrobatics, shoot landings, fly formation, etc. The equipment prices have not increased as fast as the cost of living thus many more can partake in this desirable hobby.
Kelly field is in danger of having the new Kentucky Utilities power lines go through the middle of it, thus the group may be without a place to fly.
Both Clubs have joined forces to present a Open House at the Turfland Mall Auditorium Friday evening April 18 & 19th. This will be a static display of the variety of types of models sold and new equipment and engines old and new and a movie of the 1968 Nationals. If weather permits there will be flying in the Mall parking lot.
The two clubs are also seeking to develop a model airport where all types of models can be flown in one given area. This can only be accomplished with the support of the Recreation and Parks Dept.
Partial list of Blue Grass Modelers who have had something to contribute to the community and their country.
Dr. Bill Barr - University of Kentucky
Dr. Gene Bradley - U.K. Electrical Engineering
Dr. Wayne Collier - Lexington Dentist
Harold Downing - First Security National Bank
John King - of NASA and Douglas Aircraft Company
Dr. Kent Mosely - Lexington Dentist
Owen Lewis - Kentucky Utilities
Art Morgan - Principal of Vocational School
Lew McFarland - Registered Pharmacist
Wynn Paul - GLAS Aquatic Club developer
Tom Riley - Metallurgist NASA
Bert Rowland - Government Parachute inspector
Dave Trapp - Developer and Businessman
Bill White - Lt. Col. U.S. Army
John Wyatt - Herald Leader Photographer
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Model Airplane History in Lexington
By Ed C. White, April 24, 2012
In the late 40’s and early 50’s, the Hobby House was located on Limestone just south of Main street. Around 1952 or 53 they moved to West Main near Broadway. This is the location that most folks remember. Buddy Johnson and I would go there after school. Tom Riley worked there and through him we discovered powered flight. Later I also worked there. For a short time there was also a model shop on East Main near Midland but they were more into model trains, instead of airplanes, and we didn’t go there often.
Around 1956 or 1957 Tom opened his own shop, in the basement of his home on Meadow Lane, he sold airplane kits, engines and accessories. One day Tom told me about a new Japanese engine called OS Max. He sold me the first one (a OS Max .35, I still have it).
Also around this time Harold LeMay at Joyner’s Bicycle Shop on North Limestone began selling model kits, engines and supplies. The popularity of the Hobby House faded as Lexington grew away from downtown business.
By the mid 50's, the Lexington modelers were good enough to beat the Louisville club in "C" class combat at the Kentucky State Fair. I believe we took all the combat classes that day, but I’m certain of the “C” class. I also think that Tom won the stunt class. Some the names from back then are: George Bain, Buddy Johnson, Joe Garrett, David White, Larry Kelly, Ed White, Dick Garnett, Ralph Wenzel, Stephen Shook, John Wilson and of course Tom Riley. I'm sure there are others that I have forgotten. At that time Lew McFarland was in the Air Force (1954 -1959) and was not directly involved with the Lexington group. However, everyone knew about Lew through Tom.
Photo of George Bain (circa 1958) with a .15 size Ruffy powered by a OS Max .15. I believe it was taken at a motel where John Steenburgh was staying just before he left Lexington. We went flying that day. Having a place to fly was always a problem. Somehow, we got permission to use the parking lots at Bryan Station High School, University High School and a school on Clays Mill (where Jesse Clark is today). These sites were used for U-Control only. A field on North Broadway (present day location of the Legends baseball stadium), Alexander drive (before it was paved) and a field on Loudon Ave (where Contract Street is today), were used for free flight and sometimes RC. The first RC flight I ever saw was at the Loudon Ave field. These locations were used frequently with sometimes 10 to 15 different guys taking turns flying. For a time we actually flew at Bluegrass field (U-Control only). These were the years 1955 through 1960 before the IBM people arrived in Lexington.
In the late 1950's, there was an influx of IBM people and several meetings were held with the purpose to form a legitimate club and find a permanent location to fly. The Lexington Valkyries was formed with IBMer, John Steenburgh as the president. This was the beginning of what later morphed into the Lexington Model Airplane club.
At the beginning of the 1960's, the original core group of modelers changed dramatically as Lew returned from the Air Force in 1959 and started X-Cell Models at the corner of Winchester Rd and Liberty Rd. George Bain joined the Navy, Buddy Johnson moved to Alabama, Joe Garrett got married, Larry Kelly moved out of state, Tom Riley graduated UK and went to work in (I think) Ohio. John Steenburgh returned to NY. I got married and started a family. I think Ralph may have still been involved and I lost track of Dick Garnett and the others.
I believe the first Mid-America event was in 1959, it took place in what is now Gardenside near the intersection of Alexander and Cross Keys. Buddy Johnson and I were two of the stunt judges, George Bain was one of the pull test inspectors. It was a huge event with modelers attending from all over eastern US.
This is a photo of Buddy Johnson with C/L Scale Cessna 172. The photo was taken at his home in Lexington in I believe late 1956. Buddy flew C/L combat and scale. Even at that young age (he's 15 or 16 in the photo) he was very good at building flying scale models.
David White, my brother remembered a whole segment about Buddy Johnson’s C/L Scale Cessna 172, I had completely forgotten. First, the Mid-America event was either Labor Day weekend 1958 or Memorial Day weekend 1959. He remembers we went to the event in Dad's old 1947 Chevy (Putt-Putt), I had not bought the 57 Chevy convertible, and I wasn't married yet. Buddy and I were stunt judges and David was helping with pull tests. David was also helping somewhere else. There must have been an agreement that the host club members didn't enter the events. Otherwise, I would have been entered in combat.
Back to the C/L Cessna, David said there weren't enough entry's in the scale class, so Buddy left the event, went home and got the Cessna, brought it back, entered it and won the trophy in scale. David remembers watching Buddy and the Cessna flying when the engine quit, as Buddy made his landing approach, the engine restarted (as if Buddy controlled it) and the plane made this smooth power-on landing. The judges were impressed and Buddy won first place.
Sadly, I believe only five of the original founders are still with us as of April 2012. John Steenburgh is in Colorado. George Bain lives in upstate New York, Steve Shook is still with us, not sure about John Wilson, my brother David White lives in Lexington and I live in Nicholasville.
-----------------------
A Personal Journey with Model Airplanes
By Ed C. White, May 3, 2012
My personal journey with model airplanes started in 1949 when I was in Cub Scouts. Before that I had played with toy airplanes as all kids did. The Cub Scouts held a contest where you brought something you had made or built. Most of the kids had home-made cars but a few brought airplanes. My entry was a solid pine (non-flying) Piper Cub, carved out of blocks, from a very basic kit. One kid brought a rubber powered, stick and tissue airplane, that actually flew. I was hooked.
My first flying models were rubber powered or gliders. The three of us, my brother David, Buddy Johnson and myself struggled to not only learn how to build and fly models, but also to buy the materials to build with. (A side note if I may, 1950 was only 11 years after the end of the great depression, as bad as the economy is now, it's still better than back then. As Buddy often said later, we were all poor only we didn't know it. In both our families any money spent on a model airplane was considered wasted and thrown away.)
We would walk to the Hobby House after school just to be near real model airplanes. The Hobby House was owned by two guys Jack and Ted, neither built or flew models. But Tom Riley worked there and through Tom we really learned about modeling and flying.
Tom Riley is the single most important person in Lexington's modeling history. The first club (the Valkyries) would never have existed without Tom. Most, if not all, of the original guys got into flying because of Tom and his enthusiasm. I know Lew and his track record, but Tom was there throughout the 1950's and that makes him first.
We went to several contests, the one that stands out to me is the event at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville. Tom Riley won the stunt event and Buddy Johnson, George Bain, Joe Garrett, Larry Kelly and myself dominated the combat classes. We were good fliers, but we had something the Louisville club didn't have. We had nylon props and OS Max engines. We had gotten the props only a few weeks before the event, they didn't break and combined with the Max engine we flew circles around those guys. (They had Fox engines with wood props, wood props break and you have to change broken props).
I continued building and flying until 1961. I really couldn't spend money on model airplanes with a new baby in the house. And by then, most of the guys were going in different directions. My first marriage broke up in the late 60's and for a time I reconnected with the Lexington modeling community.
Lew McFarland’s store was located on Euclid Ave and Ralph Wenzel was working there. I knew Ralph years before when he was a kid and hung around Tom's shop. I believe Lew was selling shares in X-CELL Models and Ralph had purchased some. We became friends and after I remarried, Ralph and his significant other would occasionally come over for pizza. Later, he told me that they were splitting up and he was taking a job out west. I completely lost track of him and did not know he had died until George Bain mentioned it the other day.
-------------
1960's Club History
The document below, "Model Aviation in the Bluegrass", was obtained from LewMcFarland as a barely readable copy of the "Proposal for the Model Airport for Lexington and Fayette County". I transcribed this document in March 2011, just as written. The author was likely Lew McFarland, who prepared it about April 1969 for submittal to the Fayette County Recreation and Park Board, 333 Larch Lane, Lexington, KY. The objective of the proposal was to obtain the use of Kearney Park (now Kearney Golf Course) as a model aviation flying field in North Lexington.
Model Aviation in the Bluegrass
By Lew McFarland, ( circa April 1969 ),
"Proposal for the Model Airport for Lexington and Fayette County“
The Hobby and Sport of Model Aviation has a following in the Blue Grass area that is just as enthusiastic as that of the Thoroughbred and Basketball.
Model airplane flying is divided into three categories which will be briefly described below:
1. Control line models - Models are flown by means of a small engines and controlled thin wires from the pilot to the airplane. The pilot stands in the middle of a circle and controls the airplane by the wires at a distance of from 30 to 70 feet radius.
2. Radio-Control models - models are controlled in the air by means of radio transmitters held by the pilots. Planes may fly within an area of roughly one mile radius.
3. Free Flight models - models using either engine power, rubber band power or gliders are launched without any control by the pilot. This type of flying has a limited number of adherents in Fayette County.
History
Model airplanes have been flown in the Blue Grass since the birth of aviation. The first were gliders, and those powered by rubber bands. Soon after the development of the model airplane engine the first gas powered ones were flown in the mid 1930's.
By the late 1930's, Lexington had it's own model airplane club, The Lexington Thermaliers. Free flight planes were the only type flown. The length of engine run could be controlled by a timing device. Some of the early members of this club were Bert Cheek, Bert Rowland, Freeman, Howard Mayhew, Paul Mayhew, Owen Lewis, Howard Cosby, Aldwin Perry, Claude Warneke, John Wyatt, David Nohney and Gene Witherspoon. Early flying was done on the University of Kentucky Experimental Station and on the Mason Headley Road which is now subdivided.
The earliest Radio Controlled Model Plane is this area is attributed to Art Morgan in early 1941. At that time, there was probably no more than ten other Radio Controlled planes in the United States, the earliest being 1939 by Dr. Walt Good who wrote an article in a national magazine stimulating Art Morgan to accomplish the same feat. Art is presently President of the Central Ky. Radio Control Club and Principal of the new Central Ky. Area Vocational School on the Leestown Road. It is interesting to compare his 1941 boxy slow flying "Hope it will come Back" to his modern sleek 70 mph highly reliable acrobatic plane.
Competition
This is not only a hobby but a sport which has competition ranging from local to world wide competition. Participation in the competition has not been uncommon for Blue Grass model builders.
Bert Cheek claims a first here in taking 1st awards in an endurance contest (Ky. 1st contest ) at Louisville, Ky in 1939. Bert's flights averaged almost 3 minutes each.
Lew McFarland has specialized in precision acrobatic in the control line category. Winning National championships in 1961 and 1962, and placing in the top five in five other national championships are credited to Lew. Lew served on the United States World Championship Team in both 1964 and 1966 with his highest individual place being 3rd in world competition.
Dickie Bishop of Paris, Ky was able to win 2nd place in 1964 and 1965 National Championship Precision acrobatics.
Bill Barr has won regional and National recognition in the Free Flight category.
The Mid-America Championships were held in Lexington in 1960 and 1961, and in Paris, Ky in 1966 and 1967. Several members of the local club plan to compete in the contest this year. There are hopes for another Mid-America Championship in the future.
Two Clubs
Presently there are two active clubs in the Lexington area. The Lexington Model Airplane Club and the Central Ky Radio Control Club.
The Lexington Model Airplane Club (LMAC) has some 20 members and hopes to grow to 50 by the end of the year. The club was organized in 1959 and fly's largely the control line type of models on an area leased from Blue Grass Field. Some of the members also fly Radio Control planes, and the free flight type and desperately need a place away from the airport to fly this type. The Club meets on the 4th Friday of each month at the Naval Reserve Center behind Lafayette High School. The 1969 president of the club is Jim Hipl.
The LMAC has put on demonstrations at the 4th of July fireworks display at Stoll Field, the Veterans Hospital, Shriners Crippled Children's Hospital plus demonstrations and free lessons at Turfland Mall. The Club has a newsletter edited by Ralph Wenzel, Jr.
The Central Kentucky Radio Control Club ( CKRC) also has some 20 members and expects to have 30 members by the end of 1969. The club was organized in 1963 and fly's only Radio Controlled planes. The group has a field leased from Mr. Dudley Kelly on James Lane just over the county line in Jessamine county. The group meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at Central Ky Area Vocational School, Vo-Tech Rd. just off Leestown Road. Art Morgan is the 1969 president.
The equipment and planes used and flown by this group have become quite advanced and reliable. They are able to do all types of acrobatics, shoot landings, fly formation, etc. The equipment prices have not increased as fast as the cost of living thus many more can partake in this desirable hobby.
Kelly field is in danger of having the new Kentucky Utilities power lines go through the middle of it, thus the group may be without a place to fly.
Both Clubs have joined forces to present a Open House at the Turfland Mall Auditorium Friday evening April 18 & 19th. This will be a static display of the variety of types of models sold and new equipment and engines old and new and a movie of the 1968 Nationals. If weather permits there will be flying in the Mall parking lot.
The two clubs are also seeking to develop a model airport where all types of models can be flown in one given area. This can only be accomplished with the support of the Recreation and Parks Dept.
Partial list of Blue Grass Modelers who have had something to contribute to the community and their country.
Dr. Bill Barr - University of Kentucky
Dr. Gene Bradley - U.K. Electrical Engineering
Dr. Wayne Collier - Lexington Dentist
Harold Downing - First Security National Bank
John King - of NASA and Douglas Aircraft Company
Dr. Kent Mosely - Lexington Dentist
Owen Lewis - Kentucky Utilities
Art Morgan - Principal of Vocational School
Lew McFarland - Registered Pharmacist
Wynn Paul - GLAS Aquatic Club developer
Tom Riley - Metallurgist NASA
Bert Rowland - Government Parachute inspector
Dave Trapp - Developer and Businessman
Bill White - Lt. Col. U.S. Army
John Wyatt - Herald Leader Photographer
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