Skymasters
Midwest Regional Float Fly
Float planes, amphibians and flying boats come to southern Michigan for two days of flying off Kent Lake.
By Greg Cardillo PHOTOGRAPHY: GREG CARDILLO T
he Skymasters R/C Club of Michi- gan has hosted the Midwest Re- gional Float Fly for 23 years. The weekend after Labor Day is for fly- ing off the water at beautiful Island Lake Recreation Area in Brighton, Michigan, on the beach of Kent Lake. This event draws pi- lots and spectators from southeast Michigan and neighboring states and provinces to en- joy 1000 feet of sandy beach and a 40-acre lake for takeoffs, landings, and overflight. I had the privilege of being the Contest Direc- tor/Event Director for the 2013 event—and of course photographer for FLYINGMODELS. Flying off water adds a different dimen- sion to flying, from modifying normal land based aircraft with floats, or to actual flying boats. It makes for interesting flying and some good photo opportunities throughout the weekend of the flying… and an occasion- al splash!
The Skymasters club members arrived on
Friday and spent the day setting up the ven- ue, cordoning off the pit area and flight lines, and erecting tents for the almost 80 pi-
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lots and over 100 participating aircraft. The advantage of a two-day event is the ability to accommodate what Mother Nature might send our way—afternoon showers on Satur- day this year—but plenty of flying before the rain arrived, and on Sunday.
This event continues to attract a wide range of aircraft from kits and scratchbuilds to ARFs. There are many planes available today made for floats/water flying, and many more that can be easily adapted to floats.
Of course there was an assortment of “tra- ditional” float planes; Cubs in various sizes are always a popular choice. Several Beavers were present as well. Other sport planes in- cluded Sig Somethin’ Extra, Hangar 9 Ultra Stick, Sig 4-Star, and Hangar 9 Twist. Many of today’s trainers make an excel- lent conversion to floats. This year we saw a collection of Sig Kadet LT40s and Kadet Seniors, Great Planes Easy Sport, and Hob- bico’s Superstar, and even a T-28 Trojan on floats. A vintage Goldberg Falcon 56 was on floats along with the newer Eagle 2 as well
as Hobby Express’s (formerly Hobby Lobby) Telemaster.
The “flying boats” included the Flyzone Tidewater, Icon A5 aircraft, Great Planes’ Seawinds, Ace’s Seamaster in multiple sizes, Balsa USA’s Laker, Hangar Design’s Sea Cruiser, Model Aero’s Aqua Cat and Aqua Jet, a couple of scratchbuilt Sea Dancers, and one twin SeaDucer. The water and wind handling of the flying boat config- uration make them a very good choice for flying off water.
The delta wing models included multiple Balsa USA’s Northstar. Laddie Mikulasko’s design of the Arrow also had several pres- ent. Model Aero’s Polaris, a smaller electric plane based on the Northstar design was again well represented along with Model Aero’s newer Polaris XL and Polaris Ultra. Some of the more unique scale planes in- cluded a Proctor Antic from Bill Brown (Northville, MI), a Dornier SuperWal by Laddie Mikulasko (Dundas, ON), a Super Decathalon by Bob Donohue (Oxford, MI), and a Turbo Otter by Carl Small (Winona,
MARCH 2014
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