Sky High
Crowds from around the globe ‘Fly In’ for Carmichaels event CARMICHAELS-People from all over the world gathered in Carmichaels this past week for the 11th annual Fly In, hosted by John Brodak on his 23-acre property.
The Fly In began Tuesday and concludes Saturday evening. Control Line Airplanes are being used fo rthe event, which allows flyers to control their planes without spinning themselves around in circles. The event has been held of Brodak’s property since it began in 1996.
“We try to make [the Fly In] real comfortable. My dad used to farm this land when I was a kid, but I never flew planes on it,” Brodak said. “I have 23 acres, but I only use about 13 for flying.”
Brodak, who owns Brodak Manufacturing Control Line Flying in Carmichaels, has the largest control line manufacturing company in the world.
“I built airplanes when I was a kid in the 50’s, and then I got out of it until about 1984. Everybody quit making control line planes, and now we’re the largest control line company worldwide,” Brodak said. “We advertise in magazines and keep a list of customers and we put out our own magazine.”
Brodak’s love for control line planes grew, along with the number of people who attend the annual Fly In.
“Eleven years ago we had 38 people and now we have 170 [participants] and over 300 people here,” Brodak said.
There are four classes in which contestants can compete: beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert.
“If you’re just learning how to fly you’re in the beginner class, then you get promoted to intermediate, then advanced and then expert,” he said.
Ian Smith, a control line pilot, came to the competition from Sydney, Australia and competes in the intermediate class.
“I was a kid in London during World War II and flying was a big, big thing,” Smith said. “Right after the war I got into rubber planes.”
Smith, who has enjoyed flying control line planes since 1948, also competes in competitions throughout Australia.
“The difference is there are more people here, things are more organized and more in synch, and it’s a little more stressful here than it is in Australia,” Smith said.
The competitions consist of two judges who keep a scorecard with 17 different categories.
Most of those categories range from 10 to 40 points. Landing, flight pattern and appearance are three categories and the other 14 are specific maneuvers each flyer has to perform.
“It’s about precision, sizes, shapes; it’s a bit like figure skating in the sky,” Smith said.
Two judges watch the flyers as they control their planes and perform the patterns.
“They have two flights and the judges add together the scores and then divide by two,” Brodak said. “It’s a standard pattern and they all know it. They have to make sure it’s steady and stays in the same place. It’s an art and you have to study it.”
Smith was not the only participant that came to Carmichaels from out of the country. According to Brodak, there were six participants from Spain, one from Australia in Smith, and two from Sweden.
Other contestants traveled from Georgia, Vermont, Washington and Florida.
Tom Morris, a contestant from Alabama, explained that the methods of flying are very similar to ballet.
“It’s 50 percent science and 50 percent art,” Morris said. “It’s the melting of science and art into a ballet.”
Contest Director Allen Brickhaus has held this position with the Fly In for the past seven years. He is in charge of contests that are held, and he also plans for the event that will take place the following year.
“We do a lot of talking and telephone calls and e-mailing trying to get the stuff ready for the next year, and right now my brain is thinking about 2008 ,” Brickhaus said.
The invitations for the event go out early in March, but information is on the Brodak Web site in early January because the participants need to know the rules of how to build their planes.
“We know who is going to be here the week before the event, and we have 157 pilots this year, and they may bring anywhere from three to a dozen airplanes,” Brickhaus said. “We have 900 to 1,000 official flights flown, and that’s not counting practice flights.”
Friday’s events will include an 8 a.m. pilots meeting; control line precision aerobatics (first flight); fun scale: all ages combined, model will not transfer to profile scale or sport scale, current AMA rules apply; profile sport and F4B static judging at 11 a.m.; speed limit combat: speed limit is 7.3 sec/2 laps with no streamer, string cut counts zero, clean match bonus of 200 points to both pilots if the match is completed with no midair crash line tangle or flyaway, all ages combined; junk yard wars flying at 5 p.m.; and a complimentary buffet at 6 p.m.
Saturday’s events will include an 8 a.m. pilots meeting; control line precision aerobatics (second flight), fun scale: all ages combined, model will not transfer to profile scale or sport scale, current AMA rules apply; sport scale: all ages combined, current AMA rules apply; profile scale: all ages combined, current AMA rules apply; and an award ceremony.