TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — With Dan's Discoveries segments, I visit a lot of shops and restaurants. I get to meet a lot of small business owners.
In this edition, I got the chance to hang out with a local club whose members showed me what it really means to fly high.
"Make sure a little pre-flight check," Chester Kackman shows me as he gets his small plane ready for take off.
"Ok, I'm gonna taxi it out... Taking off!" he shouts.
Chester is just one of the regulars who knows what anyone who spends more than two minutes at the Tucson Radio Control Club RC Flying Field will tell you...
"It's all about the thrill of flying," he said.
What is it that mesmerizes those looking on with their feet planted firmly on the ground as these scale model planes and jets fly high into the skies?
"I think that's the attraction of the RC hobby. It's the freedom of breaking the earthly bonds of gravity," club president Craig Schumacher told me.
The bonds of brotherhood on the other hand...
"It's more than just a hobby. There's a lot of fellowship and friendship out here," according to club member Tanner Curtis
Craig told me the members of this club, affiliated with the American Academy of Model Aeronautics, is made up of all walks of life and all ages from 5 to more than 95.
And they all share these blue sky possibilities.
"It will just sit there and glide into the wind it's so light," Chester said.
Pushing the limits of what's practical with the larger counterparts.
"It'll do pretty much anything you ask it to do."
Generally the g-forces and cockpit concerns of an airborne pilot don't exist here.
"This plane has a lot of little 'go' in it for such a small plane," Chester said.
But as these operators look up and out to the future, they have to honor the past.
"[The TRCC is made up of] vets, former airline pilots, military pilots, UAV pilots as well as I think a lot of us aging boomers," Craig said.
Others honor their family like Bobby Handley.
"My grandpa was a WWII B-17 pilot. He told me stories. My uncle was a pilot and took me up in his plane."
"My dad was a Navy pilot," Chester told me.
"I think once you get hooked into some aspect of remote controlled vehicles of any kind of sticks with you," Craig said.
"It actually becomes real flying. You go from 'oh it's a piece of foam that flies' to like... I have to be worried about my plane being set up right like a real pilot," Craig said.
Tanner Curtis is pretty impressive with his massive EXTRA 330 SX that's a little more than a third of the size of the real thing.
"It flies very light. It's very responsive," he said.
He's been flying RC planes for more than a quarter century. He's even sponsored by AJ Aircraft but he wants the newbies to be inspired, not intimidated by this level of success.
"Anybody that comes here to the club that wants to get into flying, we'll actually just put 'em up on an airplane totally free and we'll give you a free instruction just to see if you like it or not.
You could say Billy Plunkett is a pilot's pilot. He's been taking off and landing a little more than 80 years since he was a teenager who joined the service at the end of World War II.
"It's a good training program for young people," Billy told me.
You don't have to know anything about aviation but it helps if you want to talk shop.
"The four strokes are so much more fuel efficient than the two strokes," Chester noted, looking over the planes on the ground.
And be prepared to become addicted to planes. Although a few hundred dollars could get you off the ground.
"You don't want to crash so you have to practice," Chester said.
And practice they do, every weekend, looking to make a perfect landing just to send it up and do it all over again.
The 62nd Winter Scale Classic takes to the skies at the TRCC Flying Field on Valencia Road across from Mica Mountain High School on Friday and Saturday, December 5th and 6th.
It's free to the public and free parking.
More info at TRCC's website
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Dan Spindle co-anchors Good Morning Tucson on KGUN 9 and is an award-winning storyteller whose work has earned him honors from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, the Associated Press and the Utah Society of Professional Journalists for both anchoring and reporting. Dan is passionate about history and loves to explore the Grand Canyon State. Share your story ideas with Dan by emailing dan.spindle@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or X.
