Flying high

North Kildonan

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/09/2023 (772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On any given Saturday during the warmer months, a small group of dedicated hobbyists can be found on the southern edge of Kilcona Park, practising their hobby.

While the Perfect Circle Flying Club may be flying under most people’s radar, the group, which build and fly control line model airplanes, is keen to invite new members into the fold.

“This is a great place to be on a Saturday,” Kevin King, a longtime member of the Perfect Circle Flying Club who has been building model airplanes for over 40 years, said of the Kilcona Control Line Model Airplane Park at 1229 Springfield Rd. “Or anytime. It’s nice here.”

King, along with his wife and other members of the Perfect Circle Flying Club, are to thank for the condition of their parcel of Kilcona Park. Since taking stewardship of the plot in 1997, by way of the city’s Adopt-a-Park program, the club has created quite the amenity.

“We’re part of developing parks and recreation for the community here. This is our footprint, this is what we’ve done. We did it with our money and our sweat equity,” Larry Maltman, club president, said. “This place was a a jungle. It was horrible, with huge truck ruts across here.”

The club, with some help from local Air and Army Cadets, cleared the brush, levelled and reseeded the field, planted trees along the perimeter (with some support from Manitoba Hydro), poured cement for the two flying circles, added bollards, a small bridge across the ditch, and a decorative flagpole and flower garden next to the club’s sign.

“It was a lot of work,” King admitted. “But it’s worth it. You work all winter building an airplane, then in the summer you fly it.”

The Perfect Circle Flying Club, which is a member of the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada, has a lineage that can be traced back to the Model Aircraft League of Manitoba in the 1940s. The club itself came together in the 1980s, and for a time shared space with the Winnipeg Radio Control Club south of the city just off Highway 59. But when the province twinned the highway in the late 1990s, the group moved to its current home.

“You work all winter building an airplane, then in the summer you fly it…

“We have a membership, about 20 guys, 22 guys. It fluctuates. Some of our membership is older, and we’ve lost maybe one every two years right now, passing away or because they physically can’t do it anymore,” Maltman said. “This is a physical hobby. You have to be somewhat conditioned to do this. You don’t have to be a high level athlete, but when you fly these airplanes under certain conditions, like competition, you have to be on your toes and know what’s going on.”

Unlike radio controlled aircrafts, control line planes are controlled by two 70-foot lines — one to go up, one down — which are manipulated by the pilot, who stands in the centre of the flight circle.

“I also fly radio control, and I have my full pilots licence,” Maltman said. “I can tell you, this is more like flying a real airplane than radio control. Radio control operates on all the axes, and you have to know that, which makes the physics the same. But when it comes to the feel, this is more like the real thing. When you’ve got the stick in your hand and you’re doing a loop in a full-size airplane, you feel it in your body. This is not much different.”

Depending on the model of aircraft and the type of motor, a number of different activities can be undertaken.

“What we try to have happen here on our regular flying days (Saturday) is represent all facets of the hobby,” Maltman said. “We can fly scale aircrafts and have them doing all the things a full-size aircraft can do. We can do speed events, which focuses on engine technology. There’s racing, where we have two or three guys racing in a circle.”

“The plane I’m building now will do 120 miles per hour,” King noted, adding that combat flying in particular is an exciting discipline, both for pilots and spectators.

“That’s where we tie a streamer to each airplane, a measured length, behind the tail,” Maltman explained. “One starts at each side of the circle, then one chases the other, doing whatever to stay alive. The idea is to get as many cuts as possible from the propeller onto that streamer. That’s a cardio event, I kid you not.”

Stunt flying, or aerobatics, is also popular.

“That’s where you do 17 manoeuvres in a specific order in a specific period of time within your flight box,” Maltman said. “There’s a lot of hand-eye co-ordination and expertise in how you carve that manoeuvre out of the sky, and you’re not just doing one, you’re doing three in a row, all on the same track as though you’re flying level. It becomes precision aerobatics.”

Both Maltman and King are keen to get more folks out to experience control line flying.

“We need more members,” King said. “It’d be nice to have more people out here. Anyone who stops by, I go out of my way to give them the opportunity to fly. To feel it. Our hobby is getting smaller, but I want to keep the flame alive.”

For more information, visit www.maac.ca/en/clubs_details.php?club_id=377