Jun 24, 2007 By Laura Rayle For The 4 min read

CARMICHAELS – People from all over the world gathered in Carmichaels recently for the 11th annual Fly In, hosted by John Brodak on his 23-acre property. Control-line airplanes were used for the event, which allows flyers to control their planes without spinning themselves around in circles. The event has been held on Brodak’s property since the Fly-In 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 back when I was a kid in the ’50s, 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.

Control-line pilot Ian Smith came to the competition in Greene County 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 consisted of two judges who kept a scorecard with 17 different categories. Most of those categories range from 10 to 40 points. Landings, flight patterns and appearance were three categories and the other 14 were specific maneuvers each flyer had to perform.

“It’s about precision – sizes, shapes, it’s a bit like figure skating in the sky,” Smith said.

Two judges watched 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 also were six participants from Spain and two from Sweden.

Other contestants arrived from Georgia, Vermont, Washington and Florida, to name a few.

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.”

Allen Brickhaus has served as contest director for the Fly-In for the past seven years. He said there is a lot of planning ahead for the event.

“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.”