Keeping a fun hobby flying: RC Modelers take to the skies

MOSES LAKE — A little ways south of town, past where Road K goes from pavement to gravel, there’s a tiny little airport.

It’s called McKay Field. And if you were a pilot and it was an emergency and your life depended on it, you’d do better trying to land on Road K itself than you would on the nearly 360-foot-long McKay Field main runway.

Because the airfield is only designed for radio controlled model airplanes.

“We belong to the Moses Lake RC Modelers Club,” said Gale Vasquez, a science teacher at Othello High School, who is an avid model airplane pilot in his spare time. “Essentially, we go out there and have fun.”

Vasquez is sitting underneath a tent at the Grant County International Airport on Friday during the Moses Lake Airshow behind a sizable collection of radio controlled flying machines — from a helicopter to a biplane almost as big as he is — that he and other club members built and fly both for fun and in competition.

He flew one of the radio controlled aircraft at the 2019 air show — the hub holding the propeller popped off in flight and Vasquez had to land it unpowered — but he said air show organizers nixed a demonstration flight this year, citing Federal Aviation Administration “rules and regulations and red tape.”

“So we decided to come out here and show our wares and kind of get people interested, to let them know the kinds of aircraft we have and that we do this kind of hobby,” he said. “It’s not just radio controlled cars.”

James Bennett, a former club member who joined Vasquez for the day at the air show, said he’s flown radio-controlled airplanes for nearly 50 years, and it has helped him live out the fantasy of being a pilot without all that’s involved in being a “full-scale pilot.”

“The realism of flight is what interests me,” Bennett said. “With these, you have to operate it as if you are in the airplane itself. All the controls are the same, with the added challenge of flying it from outside that airplane.”

Vasquez said as a radio-controlled airplane pilot, he has gone to competitions sponsored by the Academy of Model Aeronautics — the national organization overseeing the hobby, including summer flight camps and competitions — to show off his skills.

“We fly precision, just like the big guys do,” he said, in reference to the pilots who would later show off their flying prowess diving and looping and turning. “We get judged the same way they get judged. It’s pretty intense.”

“It’s a challenge,” Bennett added. “That’s what these big ones are built for. They are very stable and acrobatic.”

When asked why he doesn’t just go and become a real pilot, Vasquez laughed. He’s spent enough money on model aircraft to buy another house, he said.

“Buying an airplane is not that expensive. A couple hundred thousand. That’s a motorhome,” he said. “But it’s the upkeep of the airplane — inspections, licensing, hangar space. That’s what costs money.”

Besides, Vasquez added, before retiring from the military, he’d spent over 5,000 hours in the back of helicopters. He’s had enough of the real thing.

“I’m pretty good with flying. I’m done,” he said.

And Vasquez said he’s hoping to see more young people involved in the hobby. There’s an easily accessible place to fly near Moses Lake, and it’s also a good and simple way for someone to become involved in aerospace and see if it’s interesting enough to pursue a career in.

“It’s fun. It’s a great hobby,” Vasquez said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.