On Saturday October 1, 2022 I had the pleasure of being invited to the 50th anniversary of the Checkerboard RC club at the Miller Meadow model airplane flying field in Maywood, IL.  The field is part of the Cook County Forest Preserve and is located just across 1st Ave from Loyola University Medical Center.  This club membership has included, amongst others, the late Charlie Bauer and the late Hal Parenti and his son Gary.  I had a chance to speak with Gary about his father and their times with this club.  He has many fond memories flying with his dad and the hobby in general and how it has impacted his life.  Gary brought one of his father’s planes that he had built, a beautiful Panther jet.  Picture included.  Also, word is that Paul Harvey, radio announcer, was one of the founding members and trained by Hal Parenti.

The celebration was well attended.  They had flight demonstrations from all aspects of the hobby, drone racing to plane and helicopter 3D flying.  They even had a wind tunnel VP Paul Park specifically built so one could see the laminar flow effects of smoke over some small airplane and car models, very cool.  Attendees could also practice flying on r/c flight simulators as well as buddy boxes for r/c and drones.  The club capped this all off with a nice lunch and raffle.

I also had a chance to speak with club President Brent Litzer, Vice President Paul Park and club secretary Becky Olmsted amongst many of their other members.  Brent shared with me that Checkerboard’s membership has increased over the past year by a whopping 30%!  They believe the reason for this rapid expansion appears to be the addition of a drone race course laid out at the side of the flying field. (Please see photo attached). This course does not impact the r/c flying field operations.  The drone racing crowd tends to be a younger group as opposed to older modelers of which I am familiar.  As we all know the AMA tent is a large one that includes many aspects of the hobby from giant scale and jets to free flight, control line as well as drones and drone racing.  I had the opportunity to experience what its like to ride in the “cockpit” of one of these drones through FPV technology.  Wow, what an experience!  I’m sure glad I was sitting down as it was a dizzying experience.  In the right hands these small drones can approach 80 mph zipping through the race course.  They have also erected safety nets for the drones that contributes to safety and the general acceptance of drones by the plane fliers.  There appears to be cross pollination of the two disciplines as Brent explained to me drone members are picking up r/c planes for the first time and plane members buying their own drones and trying out the race course.  Maybe the Checkerboard club is onto something here?  

If your club’s membership is dwindling, consider this innovative thought, reach out to a drone club in your area and see if there could be some cross collaboration that could take place.  You just might experience what this club has experienced, an increase in a younger group of r/c enthusiasts. After 50 years of r/c they were able to change their way of thinking and embrace a new and younger group of modelers.

by John Fischer:  AMA District VI Associate Vice President