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An event such as this
doesn't just happen.
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What
has 17 flight stations, 712 registered pilots, and very hot
weather? If you guessed the IRCHA (International Radio
Controlled Helicopter Association) Jamboree at the AMA
National Flying Site in Muncie, Indiana, you are right.
Before this event the Joe Nall Fly-In this year in
Woodruff, South Carolina, was the largest gathering of
modelers for a single-weekend event. The IRCHA Jamboree
passed that by a significant margin.
What was the secret formula for this success? If I knew
I would patent it and spread it everywhere, but all I can do
is guess why this event has become so popular. It presents a
wide variety of opportunities for people who are interested
in RC helicopters to enjoy themselves.
The Jamboree featured seminars on a wide variety of
subjects of interest to rotor heads, seemingly from dawn to
dusk. There were roughly 40 vendors selling almost anything
one could need to build, or repair, an RC helicopter, and
some people came primarily to shop!
Add to that an area of flight demonstrations conducted
by a large variety of manufacturers and distributors that
was constantly operating, showing off the latest and
greatest. In addition, of course, there was plenty of open
flying. Some of the heroes of the activity, with their
extreme 3-D proficiency, flew alongside newcomers just
learning this craft.
The beauty was that it all flowed seamlessly and
everyone got along well. There were a few competition events
such as T-Rex Pylon and drag racing, but those were
secondary.
Announcers worked the event nearly the entire time and
the sponsors received much promotion and recognition. This
may be partly responsible for the event's success. Many
people are not too thrilled with the commercialization of
aeromodeling, but if we are to grow and enjoy the
recognition events such as this can give us, we must accept
that sponsors are a major key to this aspect of our sport.
An event such as this doesn't just happen. I had the
opportunity to look at the organizational plans and manual
for this event, and believe me IRCHA put a great deal of
planning and effort into it. The manual addressed nearly
every detail and each aspect of the operation was assigned
to someone to handle. Dave Milner, IRCHA president, was the
"orchestra leader" and the band played some mighty sweet
music.
Was everything planned perfectly? Obviously, there were
some glitches, but with all of the normal stuff so well
planned, full attention was brought to those few areas of
difficulty and any problems were hardly noticeable.
This event and similar ones in the future are the
epitome of the dream we had years ago when we first started
thinking about AMA's having a National Flying Site. I would
like to see more such events with broad appeal involving a
wide range of opportunities for AMA members to learn more
and enjoy this wonderful sport. This activity and the people
who enjoy it so much deserve it.
I hope other organizations will look at this model for
success and duplicate it for their aspect of aeromodeling.
Thanks to IRCHA, we have a model for how it can be done.
I even got in some flying, so how about that?
MA
Until next month.
Dave Brown, AMA president
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