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Look up, way up on fall fair Sunday

Between 11-2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 8, the Terrace Model Airplane Club will be flying their models in a show to dazzle spectators below.
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Dennis Raymond with a scale model of an S-BACH 342

BE SURE to look up at the sky during fall fair this year.

Between 11-2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 8, the Terrace Model Airplane Club will be flying their models in a show to dazzle spectators below.

Dennis Raymond, club president, said club members will be flying two to three model aircraft for the three-hour performance.

Each performance will be about 10 minutes in length before recharging and refuelling is needed.

“Your brain is really busy when flying a model,” Raymond said.

The model aircraft resemble in every way a real aircraft, Raymond explained and even run with gas combustion engines. Batteries provide power for lights and the remote control.

“Basically they are scale models,” he said.

One of those models is the S-BACH 342, which is powered by a 50cc model aircraft engine and runs on a combination of high-octane gas mixed with oil. And this seven-foot wide aircraft, with a 22 inch propeller, is 20 pounds and is one of the larger model airplanes in the club’s fleet.

The aircraft are controlled by a multi-channel transmitter remote that the pilot uses from the ground. In earlier years, Raymond said it was easy to interrupt the transmitter’s signal, and truck drivers’ radios were able to knock an aircraft out of the sky, but now he said it is a very secure link.

On Sept. 7, the club will be clearing a 300 ft. stretch at the Thornhill Community Grounds to work as the runway for both takeoff and landing for the performance.

Fencing will be set up along the runway so that spectators are kept a safe distance away from the models.