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.