1998 Kingston Ontario Electric Fun-Fly

July 1, 1998

On June 27 and 28, Martin Irvine and the Kingston Radio-Control club hosted their annual electric fun-fly. This was my first year attending this event. My wife Lori came along too, since we were on our way to the Ottawa area on some horse-related business. Lori took some excellent pictures of the fun-fly, which I’ve reproduced below (warning, these pictures all involve me and/or my planes to some extent). Click on a picture if you want to see it larger.

That's me, about to launch my Sydney's Special. In the foreground are Rob Pike's Liberty Sport and Canadair CL-215 water bomber.

That’s me, about to launch my Sydney’s Special. In the foreground are Rob Pike’s Liberty Sport and Canadair CL-215 water bomber.
The Sydney's Special is off, about to go for a successful first flight of the day.

The Sydney’s Special is off, about to go for a successful first flight of the day.
That's the Sydney's Special way up in the sky. You can't really see much of the plane, but the sky sure looks nice!

That’s the Sydney’s Special way up in the sky. You can’t really see much of the plane, but the sky sure looks nice!
These are the entrants in the Speed 400 "Piker" class pylon racing. From left to right: Andre W., Glen Nikolaiko, Martin Irvine, John Werner, Rob Pike, ???, me, and Jean-Claude ???.

These are the entrants in the Speed 400 "Piker" class pylon racing. From left to right: Andre W., Glen Nikolaiko, Martin Irvine, John Werner, Rob Pike, ???, me, and Jean-Claude ???.
And they're off! There's me again, calling for Rob Pike.

And they’re off! There’s me again, calling for Rob Pike.
Rob Pike's Shorty quick'n'dirty "Piker" class pylon racer.

Rob Pike’s Shorty quick’n’dirty "Piker" class pylon racer.
The second heat ready to launch. Me and the Sydney are on the right. Notice the well groomed flying area. The trees are further away than they look.

The second heat ready to launch. Me and the Sydney are on the right. Notice the well groomed flying area. The trees are further away than they look.
The Sydney's Special in the race. Unfortunately, I didn't finish the race, and cartwheeled on landing, but the plane was repaired and flying again within half an hour.

The Sydney’s Special in the race. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish the race, and cartwheeled on landing, but the plane was repaired and flying again within half an hour.

A big thank you to Martin Irvine and the Kingston Radio Control Modellers for putting on a fine fun-fly. They have a great site, with a well groomed grass field in a very secluded area, a nice club-house, and a large shady veranda. I’m hoping I’ll be able to go again next year.

A note on the quality of the photos: These were taken in 1998 with a very early non-digital electronic camera that stored images on a 2-inch floppy disk in NTSC video format. Transferring the pictures to the computer involved the use of a video capture card, so these pictures don’t look any better than frames captured from an analog camcorder.

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