Little Airplanes Put On Big Show

The Mile Square Park Radio Control Air Show here Sunday was in many ways like the annual gig at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station--except it was vastly scaled down.

Where a B-2 stealth bomber buzzed El Toro, Mile Square offered a model Northrop Flying Wing, which looks like a silver boomerang with wooden propellers.

The Blue Angels awed El Toro fans. A model with a real jet engine did the same at the park.

But there was a key difference.

Where El Toro willingly bade farewell to fans this year in anticipation of the air station’s closing, Mile Square Regional Park modelers are working to save their show and the use of the park as the county moves ahead with a proposal to raze the hobby strip for a golf course.

“This is out of love for the hobby,” said Robert A. Richards, 66, of Fountain Valley, chairman of the Save Mile Square Coalition. “We’re not in this to make money, we’re here to save our flying site.”

No one’s quite sure if Sunday’s sixth annual show was the last, but the radio pilots, many of them veterans of World War II and later conflicts, won’t give up without a fight.

“The day they say this thing is going to close for a golf course is the day we put an injunction against them,” Richards said.

Though concerns to preserve the hobby area permeated the day, the love for model aircraft was not lost as the little planes performed aerobatic tricks--including rolls, loops and something called “the avalanche,” a loop with a roll.

Only the best 25 or so model pilots in Southern California were invited to the show, which offered winners trophies and bragging rights but no purse.

“It’s only for those who have particular skills and have been flying for years and years--their routines are top notch,” said Betty Bliss, 74, of Whittier, an organizer.

The most experienced fliers ran models with 70- to 100-inch wingspans, capable of speeds up to 200 mph and ranging in price from $1,400 to $4,000--not including hours of building, painting and tinkering.

“You don’t want to flatten one of these babies,” said event organizer Joni Whitsitt, 55, of Westminster. “If you do, you have to save the pieces, go home and try to put it back together.”

Most of the planes are modeled after the most beloved aircraft in history, biplanes from World War I, bombers from WWII, jets of Korea and beyond and aerobatic planes. Pilots said they look for a personal connection to the aircraft they model. Some flew in battle, others had fathers who did. Some worked in aerospace.

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Though hobbyists fly at Miramar in San Diego and other big air shows, Mile Square is the biggest models-only show in California, organizers said.

The show’s sponsors, Orange Coast Radio Control Club and Scale Squadron, footed the $1,400 bill but made some back on raffle tickets. Admission was free.

By noon Sunday, several thousand people watched the show from the sidelines. Six thousand were expected by day’s end.

The whizzing models certainly were quieter than the real deal at El Toro. Per an agreement with the county, modelers keep sound below 100 decibels.

George Normington, 75, of Huntington Beach said Mile Square--the county’s only public place for model flying--rivals the best strips in the nation.

But even at the best site, hobbyists must prepare for the worst, Normington said. “I hate to emphasize this but they all crash at one time or another.”