Flying Giants RC, an International Brotherhood

[Kiwi]

At our most recent air show we have a great privilege of having Mr. Futaba ( Frank Noll Jnr ) in Santiago Chile for a few days. Getting an event pilot had proved hard for us this year with most everyone we approached being busy or committed to some other venue.

After a frantic run around all my good friends, Franks name popped up. Now we had asked a lot of guys up to this point but never had we even thought of asking Frank. I mean you don’t invite the guru of Futaba RC out for dinner if you’re a no name little club hanging way down by the south pole do you? Well what the heck, we were in a spot and needed to try anything so I gave him a call.

You could have heard a pin drop when I asked him the 64 million dollar question: “Hey Frank you doing anything next weekend”? “
No” replied Frank, “not yet anyway”.
“Want to come down to Chile for the weekend”?
“Where”?
“Chile mate”.
“You mean its cold were you are” he said.
I said “no not that Chilly mate, Chile!! You know South America, pretty mountains, beautiful people, a club you would kill to have in the USA”.
“OK I’m packing my bags” Allan, be there Thursday.

Well that was it, we had our pilot, we had our event. All we needed was the sun gods to come our way.
Given that the Incas worshipped the sun we felt sure we would be OK.

Thursday after being nearly body searched by customs for trying to smuggle in a Hobbico trainer, Frank finally put foot on solid Chilean soil for the first time.

Long story short, the first day the Incas failed to please the Gods. It was cold wet and miserable and the spirits were somewhat down.
Not to worry Friday we arose to the perfect day. Santiago has pretty much zero rain from the end of October through to the end of March so we had luck after that first freaky cold day.

The first thing we noticed arriving at the field Friday was the number of new faces. Pilots from thousands of miles away. Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Canada, Brazil and the USA. Yes truly international. It seems RC is a very popular hobby in the airline pilots fraternity and that made up for some of our international visitors. Having such a well known face such as Platinum Thumbs Frank at he event just added to the awesome experience.

Some of you guys know I travel a fair bit and I always manage to wedge my business trips in with an RC event. I mean you guys in the USA have something pretty darn decent most weekends someplace so its not exactly cooking the books to attend something. The friends I have made in the hobby doing just that are just un countable.

For once to be involved with staging an event where new guys meet faces you only ever seen in magazines or internet sites raised that RC brotherhood experience to at an all time new high for us.

The result of a three day fun fly can rarely be seen in the money raised for a local charity or the crates of empty beer cans after the Saturday night function.

But it can be seen in the sharing of cultures, information and the making of new memories that people will never ever forget. It’s forging friendships that last a lifetime.

Frank we owe you big time for making the effort to travel to such a far away place. You are the true ambassador to the hobby and of course the famous face for Hobbico and its products.

To the guys who came from all the other far flung points on the planet, your attendance, participation and genuine good camaraderie makes me an awfully proud bugger to be involved in this hobby and of course the Flying Giants website.

If any one is ever passing by Santiago Chile and wants to spend a day at the field go to our web site www.giantscaleaviation.com and there you will find email and phone contacts that will let you sort something out.

[Redneck Shaun]

We.ve been getting some great write-ups here lately!!!!! Two thumbs up Kiwi. Thanks for sharing.

[Richo]

I dont see any of those inflateable Lama's you like so much Alan!!

Nice work Alan, looks like you guys had a great event, well done.

[Kiwi]

They ran out of rubber Richo, something about the Aussies using it all to make blow up sheep mate.

Kiwi

[Richo]

Ah yeah! That's right, we had a run on the blow up sheep, when the Kiwi's came over for the cricket!

[Boulder]

Very cool write up, Kiwi.

It looks like everyone is having a ball, and you guys had an awesome variety of stuff flying.

Frank has got to be one of the most approachable guys in the hobby, huge props to Frank for making the trip, I'm sure you guys showed him a great time.

[Craven]

Frank is truly one of the greatest ambassadors this hobby has ever known!

[vmgajardo]

Kiwi,
Many thanks for the write up. I share with you the feelings and down right admiration for Frank Noll. He is such a modest and approachable guy, who gave answeers to all of us locals who had an infinite number of questions that required instant satisfaction from the guru of RC. We all got them. He gave us repeated demos of what flying RC really is. He flew giants and trainers alike. I really didn't know that a high wing trainer could fly so smoothly through the process of bombing the crowd with raw eggs !!! Or coming to a dead stick landing with a 3.3 m Extra from Composite doing 4 point rolls just before touching down. (I thought we would have to call the ambulance when he did the same number with Aurelio's brand new Yak 54. He nearly had a stroke to the power of 2.).
As I was there, I take the liberty to pass on to the FG community the fact that Kiwi, also known as Allan Maine, is also one of the great ambassadors of RC. He supports the hobby not only with his kiwi garb, (which he tries to hide behind his use of not a few aussie lingo terms that only a few iniciated can understand), but with actions. He participated actively in the organization of the event and with putting his models, together with his partners's models, effort and time, and also his contacts, so the event could be a total success.
Chile has few clubs and few events. RC is a hobby with a huge growth potential and Kiwi and friends are investing effort and time into it.
He even attended, at great personal expense to a regional event that took place in La Serena, in October last. He delighted us naive locals with giant models that none of us even suspected that existed. He introduced us to new technology and he is always ready to shere his wealth of knowledge regarding the hobby.
My thanks to Frank Noll and all the crowd that attended the event, especially to Marcelo Zini from Argentina, a young guy who delighted the crowd with his flying skills and modesty. But also, many thanks to Kiwi for his efforts and contacts and bringing a great write up in such a great site as Flying Giants.

[J.Paul]

Hi there! I've been lurking the forums for some time, but this is my first post!

I enjoyed Frank's demos a lot, he showed excellent 3D, precision and "glider" performance. He was very kind to questioning on new products as well!!!

I'd like to "double" thank Allan:
1) for making contact with Frank on this event
2) for joining our "other" air show more to the south in Chile . He has traveled more than once the many many many many many many many miles that separates our Club from his location, showing some really nice "FlyingGiants". I hope you can make it this year!!!


Saludos,
Paul

[3ddd]

blowup sheep, now that is funny sh*t no matter what you like

[mayaman]

Please Kiwi and other great writers, pleace keep us updated on such allmost fary tales stories of great ventures and satisfaction, its good for the community and all of us who are not flying that big giants to see!

Peace

Stein

[grimmy55]

How steady on: us Kiwi ,s don,t shear our sheep with just anybody ask alan( Haven,t seen Ron Loader around he must be in hiding alan)