Members of the Bay City Flyers and their spectators enjoyed sunny and warm weather during the club’s annual Golden Era fly-in on Sept. 10, at the flying field in Land O’ Lakes.
(Joseph Spena/Photos)
Members of the club took to the sky with their radio control scale models of full-size aircraft that was active from 1919 to 1939.
Club members are obviously passionate about their pastime, based on the meticulous attention to detail they pay to the radio control model airplanes they operate.
Bay City Flyers is a club that is sanctioned by the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
The flying cub operates a flying field it affectionately calls Area 52. The field is about 8 miles north of Land O’ Lakes.
Bay City Flyers is one of the largest radio control flying clubs in Florida. It caters to all types of flying models, including scale and aerobatic airplanes, helicopters and multi-rotor aircraft.
The club does not allow turbine-powered jets, but does permit electric ducted fan jets, according to the club’s website.
The Area 52 field features grass runways, each about 800 feet long and 80 feet wide, running nearly perpendicular to each other in the north-south and east-west directions, respectively, so that cross-winds are rarely a problem for the pilots.
Two 100-foot-long shelters parallel the runways, and protect pilots and equipment from the sun, as well as passing summer rains.
A covered pavilion offers a place for meetings and relaxed lunches, while observing models flying nearby.
The club welcomes people who are interested in model building, flying, related competitions and general advancements of the hobby, the website says.
Its members, ranging from teenagers to over 80-year olds, share a mutual enthusiasm about manmade things that fly.
For additional details about the club, visit BayCityFlyers.org.
Or, call Jim Slaughter at (813) 966-7529, or email him at .
Published September 21, 2016
