Flying with feet on the ground

Radio-controlled aircraft flown in the Assunpink most weekends

BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer

Bombs dropped in the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area over the weekend. The Mercer County Radio Control Society, a chartered club of the Academy of Model Aeronautics with approximately 150 members from across central New Jersey and part of Pennsylvania, held its third annual Bomb and Parachute Drop and Cub Day event Oct. 5 at Warren Kruse Field.

PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN With the help of Jim VanBuren, pilot Gary Sciaratta, of Jamesburg, checks his controls before liftoff during the Mercer County Radio Control Society's 2008 Bomb and Parachute Drop and Cub Day event in the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Upper Freehold Oct. 5. PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN With the help of Jim VanBuren, pilot Gary Sciaratta, of Jamesburg, checks his controls before liftoff during the Mercer County Radio Control Society’s 2008 Bomb and Parachute Drop and Cub Day event in the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Upper Freehold Oct. 5. Excitement and radio-controlled airplanes filled the air as pilots tested their skills at making low passes over a target painted in the center of the field and dropping bombs and parachutes. Last year’s contest winner, Rich Lee, of Clarksburg, set the bar high early on in this year’s event when he planted a bomb in the center circle, earning five points.

That bar proved untouchable and almost sent contestants like David Vale, of Princeton, home before finishing all five attempts. However, Vale eventually managed to break the outer barrier of the circle to score three points, which was one of only two other attempts to successfully hit the target all day. Even Lee couldn’t plant another bomb in the circle, but took first place in the contest due to his initial drop.

The club also celebrated Cub Day, which is the one day of the year when all members bring a Piper Cub to the field. The cubs, most of them yellow, flew and landed, with some performing ground loops, sideways flying and dead stick landings. The Lazy Bee crashed and lost its wings, but otherwise pilots experienced a great day for flying.

Many of the senior pilots have been flying model aircraft since childhood. The club’s focus is radio-controlled flying models, but the range of models is quite broad, including small, electric, plastic foam models and giant-scale wooden models with wingspans as great as 16 feet. There are aerobats, warbirds and trainers, and all can have different power sources, including electric engines and glow engines.

SCOTT FRIEDMAN Richie Lee, of Clarksburg, and Carl Gubkin, of Monroe, retrieve a bomb from the target during the Mercer County Radio Control Society's 2008 Bomb and Parachute Drop and Cub Day event Oct. 5 in the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Upper Freehold. SCOTT FRIEDMAN Richie Lee, of Clarksburg, and Carl Gubkin, of Monroe, retrieve a bomb from the target during the Mercer County Radio Control Society’s 2008 Bomb and Parachute Drop and Cub Day event Oct. 5 in the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Upper Freehold. While some pilots have prebuilt planes and some build their own from kits, others like Armand Graziani, of the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick, who has been flying for 25 years, and Sal Lucania, of Hamilton Township, who has been flying since the age of 12, build their planes from scratch.

The World War I Warbirds part of the club started when President Keith Zimmerli started building them. Zimmerli built a Curtis JN-4 Jenny with a 16-foot wingspan, which is now in the Air Victory Museum in south Jersey. He’s currently working on an aircraft with a 19.5-foot wingspan, which would be the club’s largest.

Both building and flying model aircraft is technologically challenging, with pilots needing to know about aerodynamics, wing location, airfoil, dihedral, and engine and radio systems. Flying at Kruse Field also requires Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) membership, which ensures pilots know safety regulations and have insurance in the event of a crash. AMA membership costs $50 per year for adults and $1 per year for those under the age of 18.

Getting into the model aircraft hobby these days actually costs less than it used to. When Vale started flying at the age of 15, pilots spent $300-$500 to fly their first radio-controlled airplane.

“Now you can seriously get in for $200 to $300,” Vale said, adding that new and more re- liable technology, like computerized radios, also makes flying easier than it used to be.

With prebuilt airplanes, people can get planes into the air a lot sooner than they once could, according to Vale. Longtime pilots also noted that pilots of today tend to learn faster because they have less emotional attachment to prebuilt planes and aren’t afraid to try new and daring maneuvers with them.

All pilots dislike when a plane crashes, since a damaged plane can take a lot of time and money to repair. Despite their fears of crashing, pilots of model airplanes take more risks than pilots of full-scale airplanes. Aerobatics like loops, rolls, esses and low passes are commonplace. The radio controls also give pilots the ability to attempt maneuvers that full-scale pilots would never attempt, such as flying just above the ground with the plane upside down.

“When you get into serious aerobatic flight, it feels like you are in the airplane even though your feet are on the ground,” Vale said.

One of the latest thrills at the airfield is 3D aerobatics. With his Yak-55, a lightweight aircraft with strong assembly and a powerful engine, Lee demonstrated these types of maneuvers, which include hovering and flips.

Even though radio control aircraft fliers are more daring in the sky, their No. 1 issue on the ground is safety. They have to know the rules and wear frequency pins to avoid having two planes on the same frequency.

Being cut by a propeller or getting hit by an airplane are the two main hazards pilots face on the field.

“Getting hit by a plane feels like getting hit by 16 Little League baseball pitches at once,” Vale said.

Most trainer aircraft weigh 5 pounds, but the AMA weight limit is 55 pounds. The AMA speed limit is 200 mph. However, no one at Kruse Field flies that fast, with most pilots averaging between 45 and 50 mph.

The Mercer County Radio Control Society began in 1961 with 13 members, three of whom remain active in the club today. Members first flew at the Pennington/ Lawrenceville Airport in Hopewell Township, where Charles Lindbergh piloted flights in the 1920s and ’30s. When the club lost that field, members flew at various farm fields for five years before moving to Meadow Road in West Windsor Township in 1966. Member Warren Kruse later contacted the state about the Green Acres program, which resulted in the club being able to lease the field in the Assunpink since 1969.

The club meets twice a month on Wednesday evenings at 8 p.m., most often at the West Windsor Branch of the Mercer County Library in Princeton Junction. Membership is open to anyone who would like to fly radio-controlled airplanes.

Carl Gubkin, of Monroe, who has been in the club for nine years and created the Bomb and Parachute Drop, spoke about the benefits of becoming a member.

“It’s good to get out here with nature and stretch the eyes,” he said. “It’s exciting to see your creation fly and meet with other people. It’s a social club, too.”

Anyone interested in the sport can visit Kruse Field any Saturday or Sunday. Flying takes place year-round, weather permitting. The club offers a “Fly One for Free” and training programs, as well as special events.

Next spring the Mercer County Radio Control Society will host a flying contest for planes built over the winter. On Memorial Day, a Jumbo Jamboree, during which pilots fly their quarter-scale planes, will take place at the field.

For more information about the Mercer County Radio Control Society or to schedule a free flight, visit www.mcrcs.com or call 609-430-9635.

To see a video of the Bomb and Parachute Drop, visit www.gmnews.com.

Contact Jennifer Kohlhepp at [email protected].