If you happen to be driving north of Hartford this weekend and hear the drone of a (relatively) giant aircraft buzzing nearby, don”™t look in the direction of Bradley International Airport ”“ look instead toward Bloomfield.
The town is the site of the International Miniature Aircraft Association Inc.”™s (IMAA) regional “fly in” for giant-scale, radio-controlled model aircraft, some of which can have wingspans well in excess of 10 feet.
Such models are the “drone” of choice for Mike Fusco, who practices internal medicine, and his son Alfred, with the junior Fusco”™s name gaining altitude in the tight-knit world of giant-scale models before he even hit his teen years.
For his part, the elder Fusco eased into the hobby over four decades, first dabbling in radio-controlled modeling at the age of 12 after an impulse purchase of a magazine on the hobby while out shopping with his own father.
By the time the junior Fusco reached the same age, he was already a seasoned flyer with the two having built 40 model aircraft over the past five years.
“For me and my son, it”™s been an exceptional experience,” Fusco said. “I could see at an early age he was very inquisitive. You”™d get him blocks or Legos, and he”™d have it done in a half-hour.”
While cheap radio-controlled airplanes can be purchased for under $25, the giant-scale versions can go for $2,500 or more. Even for a physician in Stamford like Fusco, that is a hefty price tag, and he has financed the hobby by selling existing models in his squadron to upgrade to new planes.
The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) sanctions 35 radio-controlled flying clubs in Connecticut that have a total of about 2,000 members, including.the Norwalk-based Country Squire Modelers, which includes Fusco among its 70 members.
Other AMA-sanctioned clubs include the New Canaan R/C Society; the Trumbull Indian Ledge RC Club; and two clubs in Danbury, the Stormville RC Club and the Fairfield League of Yankee RCers.
In addition to the annual IMAA Fly-In at Bloomfield, giant-scale enthusiasts gather each spring at the Joe Nall Giant Scale Fly-In, a national gathering in Woodruff, S.C. And throughout the year the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale holds world championships for an array of model aircraft.
Locally, Country Squires holds its own “air show” next month at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport, where it maintains a runway and fly zone that draws no shortage of curiosity seekers.
AMA and other clubs have been working to increase interest in the hobby ”“ the Muncie, Ind.-based organization succeeded in getting Bristol-based ESPN to air a short clip this month on a member”™s model helicopter.
Jon Chappell, president of Country Squires, said that Alfred Fusco is a natural at handling the aerodynamics of giant-scale model airplanes. While beginners now have access to software simulators that shorten the learning curve, he knows several pilots and aviation engineers who say flying radio-controlled models is harder than flying the real thing, and plenty of videos exist on YouTube depicting even seasoned experts crashing and burning their models, many of them painstakingly rendered.
At a Country Squires meeting last April, member Norbert Kramer showed up with a model F-15 Eagle fighter jet made of fiberglass whose turbine engine tops out at 180 miles per hour. The 22-pound model carries a gallon of fuel (adding more than 6 pounds of extra weight), allowing it to stay airborne 10 minutes.
“These planes are big, heavy, expensive, and they fly fast,” said Jon Chappell, a Rye, N.Y. resident who is president of Country Squire Modelers. “You need considerable eye-to-hand coordination and experience to pilot the aircraft safely and successfully, coupled with the building skills to make sure the model is airworthy. Having said that, the hobby has never been easier to get into and more inviting than it is now.”
