Radio controlled air show coming to Fair Haven

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The Rutland County RC Flyers will be hosting its annual ‘Fun Fly’ at the Fair Haven Municipal Airport on Saturday, July 19 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The flyers have been in existence for over 20 years and originally used the Rutland Airport for their shows. However, when the Fair Haven Airport closed the members made a deal with Fair Haven to use this facility.
“We are one of the few radio control aircraft groups lucky enough to use a real airport for our shows.” Pete Galligan, a member of the flyers said, “It is a great location, we have access to the original gravel runway as well as the adjacent grass runway and this keeps us away from communities and houses a little bit.”
Admission to the event for spectators is free and there will be plenty going on to enjoy. In addition to watching some impressively well built radio control aircrafts soar through the skies, spectators can also enjoy a full picnic area, a concession area and a full restroom facility.
“We’ll have burgers, hot dogs and that type of stuff for a nominal fee, but the admission is free.” Galligan explained.
Some of the featured aircrafts will include large scale World War II model fighters, high-performance aerobatic flyers, unique helicopters, enormous gliders and many others.
“Some of them use gas, some use electric,” Galligan stated, “My personal glider has almost a 10-foot wingspan and we’ve seen flyers as large as a model B-17 with a 15-foot wingspan.”
During the official free fly hours, there is almost non-stop action taking place in the air.
“The spectators will be behind a fence for their safety, but it is really close to the action,” Galligan added, “They will have a great view of the flights.”
Around noon, spectators will be able to step inside of the fence to talk with the pilots and see these enormous model aircrafts up close.
“We have pilots from all of the neighboring states,” Galligan said, “Pilots come from New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts and of course Vermont.”
Although the official fun fly will only take place during the allotted time slot, it will be a weekend long event, as campers are welcome Friday through Sunday.
In addition to putting on air shows, the flyers also offer training programs for prospective flyers.
“We have a good training program, where a qualified pilot works with a student pilot and shows them how to fly these aircrafts.” Galligan added, “You may not believe this but sometimes these radio control aircrafts can be harder to fly than the real things, because you aren’t up there inside the plane.”