KRC 1998

KRC is the biggest electric fly-in in the US and therefore probably in the entire world. It is run at Queens Airport, Allentown, Pennsylvania, a working General Aviation airport. The volunteers from the Keystone Radio Control Club, very few of whom are electric fliers, do a great job putting together this event. The basic layout has an asphalt runway with the "pits" area on the grass immediately behind the runway. One problem of this layout is that any planes without undercarriages must land in the (very rough) grass on the far side of the runway which is also where any bungees were set up for some of the EDFs present. It would be nice to improve on this layout but it's not easy to see how given the constraints of a working airport.

Although the place is partly set up for spectators and the considerable number of vendors who turn up, KRC is largely a fly-in. Electric fliers turn up from all over America to show off their latest models, see what's going on and chat with people they think of as friends although they may only see them once a year. There are a few, relatively low-key and largely statically judged competitions such as Smallest and Largest Model, Best Sport Scale, Best Technical Effort etc. but these are not the main point of the weekend. Flying all types of electric models is the main point.

The weather was great both days. By 9am Saturday the flightline and pits were already starting to get crowded and flying was well under way. One thing that strikes you immediately is the atmosphere which is a lot like the couple of BEFA events I've been to. Everyone is friendly and willing, even keen, to talk about their models and how everything works. One suggestion I heard is that Electric flight, although much developed from a few years ago, is still at the stage where advances are coming thick and fast and most participants are happy to see anyone making improvements in any area.

SPORTS MODELS (ancient and modern)

There were plenty of sports models present, many of them easily giving the lie to the old belief that electrics are slow and boring. I don't think anyone would be bored with the performance of Robert Pike's Cloud Dancer (with an Astro 25G and 16 cells) or Dereck (Weekend Pilot/Over Here) Woodward's Sig 4*40 on a MaxCim Brushless.

Robert Pike's Cloud Dancer on Astro 25 and 16 cells

Dereck Woodward, but with his own-design scale Longster Wimpy

There were several other examples of both of these kits, which make excellent conversions, and there were also plenty of own designs. A number of people seem also to have spotted that multi-engine planes are easy with electrics and extended this idea from scale models into sports models. One way of getting more power without spending a relative fortune on brushless motors.

Twin pusher sports model with 2 x Speed 700s (I think)

There were also a large number of old-timers of various sorts. I'm talking models here not people though... Of course Jerry Smartt's Miss Philly was there and won "The Largest Model" contest, but it didn't fly.

Miss Philly

Among the other interesting examples was Art Thoms' Custom Privateer (only 114 inch span !) which certainly did fly several times and looks great in the air. There also were many Playboys and other models of similar vintage.

SCALE

I'm told that it is a KRC tradition that Keith Shaw and Dave Grife give a lunchtime demonstration on Saturday. If you don't know of these 2 gentlemen then you must have been asleep for the last few years. Between them they have some of the most delightful scale models I have seen in my life. Keith's latest is the Fokker DVIII monoplane powered by the odd-looking MaxCim "Hockey Puck" motor (I didn't dare to ask what these cost). Keith also brought along the famous Bear Cat and Bear Kitty and many others including a very nice Spitfire which he says was the first serious electric scale model anywhere and which is now 16 years old !

Dave Grife hasn't been building for quite as long as Keith so he hasn't quite as many models but the standard is pretty similar. Dave's Elextra (fairly scale Extra 300) looks good and flies very realistically indeed, and as I'm sure you know, the original is a competition aerobatic plane so realistic scale flight is pretty dashed impressive. Dave's Fokker DVII won the Best Scale contest and flies like a dream. Indeed it was interesting to see that both Keith and Dave flew some first class aerobatics with all of their models and for very reasonable flight times too. I took rather a lot of pictures so I've put them on a separate lunchtime flying page to keep the load time down for this page.

As well as the Shaw and Grife stables there were many more scale models present, some of them of fascinating and unconventional planes. There was an amazing Chance Vought CV173 "Flying Pancake" built by Bill Wargo on 2 Astro 25G's I believe. Although this won the "Best Multi-motor" in fact it just sat around looking interesting. It never attempted flight.

Chance-Vought CV173

Martin Irvine had his new Hawker Fury

Dave Barron had a gigantic B17 that looked brilliantly realistic in flight

B17 again seen here with Keith Shaw's Spitfire

Stand-off scale Vari-eze is an ARF from Czechoslovakia. Flies well on a Strontium 150 and 8 cells.

Rounding up

There were plenty of models in all sorts of other disciplines too many of which I failed to get decent pictures of. Sailplanes, Ducted Fan jets (not so many of these as I expected, certainly not as many as you see at most UK or European meetings), Slow or Park Fliers (one of the growth areas).

Even a few real slow fliers ventured out early morning and late evening when the wind dropped.