Lone Tree

In less than two weeks, the Lone Tree Fall Festival will be here, with plenty of fun activities planned throughout the two-day festival.

One of those activities will be hosted by the Lone Tree Flyers.

The group will be flying throughout the day on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Lone Tree Flyers RC Field right behind the cemetery while the festival is going on. They will also have a simulator available for people who are new to RC flying and haven't flown before.

Lone Tree Flyers club meeting

Last week, I had the opportunity to once again attend one of the Lone Tree Flyers' meetings and got the chance to try out their simulator, which is owned by club Vice President Gary Kleinmeyer.

Because it rained on their meeting night, the group ended up heading over to its usual hangout spot, where they had the simulator set up.

When I arrived, several club members were there, including Club President John Biondo, Vice President Gary Kleinmeyer, Roger Weber, Mike Lebsack and Gary Warren.

While I was flying the simulator, Biondo, Lebsack and Warren showed me how it worked and gave me plenty of good pointers. Since I have never flown an RC plane before, they told me that practicing on the simulator is good training before getting out and flying an actual plane.

They explained that before investing in an RC plane and flying one, a simulator is a safe and inexpensive way to train your hands, practice takeoffs and landings, learn different flying patterns and build your orientation and confidence before flying an actual RC plane.

At first, I was a little shaky, but after a while I started to get the hang of it. The simulator was kind of like a typical game console, with a controller and a computer hooked up to a TV screen so you could watch your plane fly.

There were many different planes to choose from, starting with easier planes for beginners and ranging all the way up to more difficult ones.

I learned a lot while using the simulator. At first, I was crashing all the time, but then they showed me that I could select the beginner setting, called Apprentice mode.

Once I started flying in Apprentice mode, it became much easier. I wasn't crashing nearly as much and learned quite a bit, including how to land, perform touch-and-goes, take off, make power-off approaches and much more.

As I started to figure things out, I became a little addicted to the simulator, and before I knew it, a few hours had passed.

Once I was done with the simulator, Warren, Kleinmeyer and Maxted were working on one of the planes as they tried to get its radio set up.

Fun Fly

Back in June, the club hosted its annual Fun Fly, a two-day event that brought people not only from across Iowa, but also from Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois, along with places as far away as Colorado and Florida.

Many will attend both the Fun Fly and the Fall Festival if they can.

AMA

The Lone Tree Flyers are members of the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), operating under charter number 5005. The organization is based in Muncie, Indiana.

While discussing the club and the AMA, members mentioned that in order to join the Lone Tree Flyers or a similar club, you also have to be a member of the AMA because of liability reasons.

Other Fun Flys

Along with hosting their own Fun Fly and taking part in the Fall Festival, the Lone Tree Flyers travel to other events around the state, including ones in Marshalltown, Muscatine and other communities.

The group was getting ready to travel to Marshalltown last Saturday for the Hazel Sig-Hester Memorial Fun Fly.

While discussing the event, members were excited about its connection to a modeling company in Montezuma, Iowa. The event is named in honor of Hazel Sig-Hester, an Iowa pilot who became a pioneer and global icon in the radio-controlled modeling world.

In 1951, she and her husband, Glen "Poncho" Sigafoose, began selling balsa wood in Montezuma. Their business would eventually become one of the most well-known model aircraft kit manufacturing companies in the world.

Fall Festival

If you decide to attend this year's Lone Tree Fall Festival, you can head over to the Flyers' field right behind the American Legion. Before getting the chance to fly, beginners will be able to use the simulator and learn how everything works.

Once you're ready to fly, the club will set up a buddy box trainer. You'll be able to control the plane, while an experienced flyer will also have control and can take over if you get into trouble to help prevent a crash.

During this year's festival, the Lone Tree Flyers plan to be at the field beginning around 9 a.m. and will also take part in the parade at 11 a.m.

Beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, beginners will have the opportunity to learn how to fly. They'll first learn how the planes work, practice on the simulator, fly an RC plane using the buddy box and get a chance to meet the Flyers.

The Lone Tree Fall Festival takes place Friday, Aug. 21, through Saturday, Aug. 22.