WattsOVER
Owatonna
Pilots from all over the midwest traveled to southern Minnesota for three days of non-stop electric flying!
By Jim Wiggin PHOTOGRAPHY: JIM WIGGIN
round five years ago, Steve Mills and fellow club members of the Southern Minnesota Model Air- craft Club had an idea to bring in electric modelers from all over the midwest. Makes sense, the south has SEFF and the northeast has NEAT, so the upper midwest should have an all-electric meet. The club members rallied around Steve and put forth a great weekend of flying that first year. This impressed one modeler in partic- ular, Jim Sandquist.
A
If you are a scale modeler, you should re- member that name. Jim, a former Top Gun competitor, is known for flying his Red Baron Stearman for many years. Jim works as an R&D designer at Hobbico, working on models for Great Planes, Top Flite, Electri-
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fly and Flyzone. That first year at Watts Over Owatonna impressed Jim so much, that he approached the marketing team at Hobbico.
The following year Hobbico became the primary sponsor for the Watts Over Owa- tonna event and really spent a lot of time helping Steve and his fellow club members make a good event into a great one. Soon thereafter, another big name in the model airplane world joined the party. Sig Manufacturing, which has its headquarters down the road in Montezuma, Iowa, became a sponsor as well. Soon Steve and the SMAC members had vendors from all over the mid- west set up on the flight line along with many modelers from Iowa, South Dakota, Wiscon- sin, Illinois and, of course, Minnesota.
For 2013, FLYING MODELS magazine agreed to become a sponsor as well and, since I was six hours from the event, it only seemed logical to cover the event. As good as my faithful Jeep is, Jessica, the Wrangler, unfortunately was not designed to carry model airplanes. Without a vehicle to haul some of the larger models I was lucky enough to have marketing guru, Chris Sydor, find room in his truck and trailer to haul some of my larger models as well as the FMtent, prizes and other material. Jess left me with enough room to bring a few of the smaller models that I have built as well as my luggage and camera. With magazine commitments out of the way, I went to bed early Thursday evening and left my small town in Illinois Friday morning at 3:00 a.m.
OCTOBER 2013
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