Well, I flew my 300 to 400 kids this year! In the early days, the control line circles WAS KidVenture, and the venue was sort of built around that. The EAA wasn't interested in having any AMA involvement at that time. The AMA has always had an information booth in the vendors buildings, but the only time anyone came around KidVenture was when cameras were involved and the AMA probably had to pay for the space in the hot vendors buildings. There never was much love between the two organizations and that went back a long way, from what I gathered at the time. Sean Elliott, who was a former NATS Junior Stunt Champion and was head of flight operations for Pioneer Airport at the time, put in a bid for the 2004 C/L World Championships and the proposal was mysteriously lost! Some where along the line in the last couple of years, thinks kind of thawed a bit. One organization or the other was interested in the other's ability in attracting more young people, I have heard stories of it going both ways. Anyhow, the AMA was suddenly promoted to the lounge/landing area near the stairs in the nice/cool EAA Museum! This year, there was the demos at the flight line of a dual R/C giant scale aerobatic model flying a tandem routine with Matt Chapman, and some R/C Scale demonstrations through the day. We were never asked about putting on a C/L demonstration. All through my 15 years of volunteering at the KidVenture C/L circles, there has NEVER been one mention of any kind of help or support from the AMA. One year they had some sort of representative hang out at our tent, but he was more of a pain in the butt than anything else. SIG Manufacturing was an early on supporter and major sponsor and has provided MUCH over the years. It wouldn't be expecting too much of the AMA to maybe lean on some in the hobby industry to donate some supplies or materials to help us along, or even some merchandise to raffle off and give away to the volunteers in order to attract MORE volunteers. We couldn't even get a rise out of them to see if they could get us some new batteries for our starters. Art Johnson has been scrounging and proving A LOT in the way of hardware and technical support to keep airplanes in the air. In 2010. We in the St. Louis group, mainly Bob Arata, came up with the design for the Tuff Baby model and provided the first five airplanes, which were STILL in use this year! The AMA came out and took some video of us at the time but I don't know if you can go anywhere on the AMA website and view it. When Rod Hightower took over as President of the EAA two years ago, I thoght we had a real good friend in high places. At the Volunteer picnic, he got up to give a speech and started off with "Hey, how bout a big hand for those control line guys huh? Out there in the hot sun all day, I don't know how they do it!" Unfortunately, Rod didn't last very long in the position and I heard it was because he didn't want to move his family to Wisconsin. There was a bit of friction this year between the C/L area and the R/C guys primarily over them over flying the circles, and there were model landing in the circles while flights were in progress several times during the week.We complained, but all that resulted in was them demanding that we shut down our operation while they flew their afternoon demonstration, which is basically them just horsing around and showing off. They only fly electric models, and I'm still surprised that one of the trainers hasn't gotten away from them and flown free flight towards the flight line. But what keeps them coming back is that they largely provide all their own equipment and the EAAt has to put up a tent for them. But then again, we do the same! It's been a lot of work through the years, and there has been some expense in the way of car breakdowns and such, but to me the return in the way the kids react is all entirely worth it. We get asked how many do we think we reach, and I answer, we may never know because the seed we plant might not sprout for several years. We consistently fly MANY more kids than the R/C guys and I really think the kids have a much better experience. Some kids really get it it. They can hold something, feel the line tension and engine vibration, and the airplane is right there in plain sight for the whole flight. The R/C site struggles to get a few kids per hour and that is only if they get "certified" by flying one of the simulators in the hangers. I've watched them quite a bit, and most kids just can't get anything in the way of successful stick time if there is any wind at all. The model gets blown down wind, then the instructor spends a lot of time bringing the model back. Lots of waited time. But we all still manage to have a lot of fun, especially when we go back to the circles after the afternoon air show to fly our models. We attract a lot of spectators walking back to their cars, and have been told many times that what we were flying was as good or better than the airshow! I made my deposit for the dorm room for next year, and if other things don't get in the way, I'll go back for more!
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: Kid Venture CL (Read 1301 times)