"Our New Hobby?" ;)

Don and I have seen T.R.A.M.P.S., a model airplane club (http://www.traversemodelpilots.com), advertised in a hobby shop's window in downtown Traverse City, and have stopped and looked at the window display many times.  On one of our bike rides around our new home, we came across one of their flight sites, located through the woods and at the opposite end of the grass airstrip just south of us.

One morning last week, Don came in from outside and said, "grab the car keys, I hear a model airplane being flown and would like to go check it out".....which is what we did.  ;)

This is Ben, who is a board member of the club.  He also lives "just through the woods" from our house.  ;)  He had brought 2 of his planes to the club site to do a bit of flying.  Don had heard him flying his gas fueled model (the green plane behind him).  When we arrived, introduced ourselves, and chatted for a bit, he then gave us a demonstration and flew this plane, which is battery powered.......and "totally" silent.

It was a "perfect" flight!  His take off, flying (even a couple of "loop de loops"), and landing couldn't have been smoother......in our opinion, at least. ;)

Here is a close up of his "gas" airplane......I may be wrong, but I "think" he said something about using nitro fuel.  As of now, I have no idea what that really means.

Another club member, Dan, arrived and brought a model plane that he had been working on.  He'd brought it to show Ben but was not able to fly it that day.  Notice the custom built platforms for the planes?  This club is a well run and very supportive group of people.

We're planning on attending one of the clubs "air shows" soon.......