The fliers club

Some guys just can’t get enough of flying.

Take Bill Bailey for instance. He began as a private pilot in 1946 and at 93 is still guiding aircraft through the skies.

And Bob Smith, a retired Western Airlines and Delta captain with 25,000 flight hours. At 72, Smith is still a “good stick,” as airmen refer to their accomplished peers.

But Bailey and Smith aren’t taking up passengers any more. Instead, they’re thrilling onlookers with their acrobatic maneuvers.

They’re members of the Coeur d’Alene Aeromodeling Society, or CAMS, as they call their club. And with 30 of their fellow members, they fly radio-controlled aircraft, both fixed-wing and rotor.

CAMS counts 96 men and women on its rolls, but the flying cadre is an all-male group.

“We don’t want it that way,” said President Jerry Mudge, “but we’ve just never been able to attract ladies to the aircraft.”

The nonfliers are social members, the friends, wives, girlfriends and children of the hands-on guys. They like to watch the action and they take part in the monthly meetings, too.

Mudge, 52, is possibly typical of the fliers. A Kaiser retiree, he started flying model aircraft controlled by hand-held wires in the 1960s, then converted to radio-controlled models in 1972.

He joined CAMS in 1969, the year after it was formed, and remained active until 1975. Mudge drifted off to other interests over the years, but in 1990, his 10-year-old son, Jared, was hit by a car.

Confined to a wheelchair for four months with a broken leg, arm and shattered elbow, model aircraft flying was one of the few sports Jared could participate in, so Jerry returned to CAMS, and he brought his son along.

Jerry’s been with it ever since, and now flies a huge plane, a model of a Russian YAK-55 aerobatic aircraft. It’s made of space-age composites with a 10-foot wingspan and a 100 cc engine.

It’s called an IMAC, he said, which stands for International Miniature Acrobatic Club.

Senior pilot Bailey has flown about 50 model aircraft over the years.

“I started building them as a kid, and the first ones were powered by rubber bands,” he said. “Now, I fly an 8-foot radio controlled plane.

“It’s a great hobby,” he continues, “challenging because every time you put a plane in the air it’s in different conditions of wind, temperature and the like. You just never quite master it fully.”

Bob Smith grew up in the aviation industry. His father ran a flight school in Denver, and by the time Bob graduated from high school and enlisted in the Navy in 1952, he’d accumulated 300 flight hours.

After his discharge, he continued his flight training under the GI Bill, then joined the airlines.

He started flying models when he was in his 20s. His first was a free-flight airplane that he’d fill with gas, guide into a takeoff, then chase with a vehicle.

Since then, Smith has graduated into radio-controlled models, and he now has about a dozen fixed-wing miniatures, two or three of which he takes to South Padre Island, Texas, where he and his wife spend six months every year.

As an experienced pilot, Smith has some advice for new fliers: Don’t try it alone.

“Radio-control flying is a little tricky to learn,” he said. “Remember, when the plane is flying toward you, the controls are reversed.”

Smith suggests taking lessons from a qualified instructor using a “buddy box.” That consists of two control modules linked by a cord, enabling the instructor to take over the flight if a crash is imminent.

CAMS members not only enjoy their hobby, they like to show it off to others. Their aerodrome is just east of Highway 41, a quarter mile north of Hayden Avenue. Members fly from it daily, weather permitting; however, most flights are on weekends.

Each year Coeur d’Alene Aeromodeling Society members give a demonstration to Scouts, special-needs kids and those enrolled in TESH. This year it will be from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Jerry Mudge invites the curious to CAMS club meetings, which begin at 7 p.m. the first Monday of every spring, summer and fall month at the CAMS aerodrome, just east of Highway 41, a quarter mile north of Hayden Avenue. Winter meetings also begin at 7 p.m. They’re held at the Civil Air Patrol Building on the Coeur d’Alene Airport.

For additional information, call Mudge, (208) 691-9592.