Jun/ '
InFocus Magazine
Top Models Take Flight
Radio-controlled model aircraft take the term 'hobby" to new heights.
By Ian Lidster • June/July 2012
The Courtenay River Estuary is a special and unique feature in the Comox Valley. Second only in importance to the Fraser River Estuary, bulimics
it is one of only eight Class one estuaries in British Columbia and provides habitat for 145 bird species—more than 70, no rx
000 birds. It is also home to 218 plant species, 29 fish species—including all five species of pacific salmon—and innumerable species of intertidal creatures.
Beginning with the inspiration of a single water droplet, the effort to raise awareness for the protection of this important estuary has spread to encompass the whole watershed, from mountains to ocean. The Keeping it Living estuary awareness campaign coordinated by Project Watershed Society is now in its third year, and has grown to involve artists, scientists, environmental groups and the outdoor recreational community.
Stained glass artist Nancy Morrison was one of the early visionaries of the campaign. In her Tin Town studio, surrounded by color and light, Morrison recalls the ideas that led to the development of the campaign, following Project Watershed's Heart of the Watershed estuary symposium several years ago.
"I had been thinking about art and the estuary for a few years, and heard about the symposium coordinated by Project Watershed in 2008. When I read the Keeping it Living statement that came out of the symposium, I was quite surprised that it was so similar to what I had been thinking about," she says.
Art is one of our biggest natural resources—we have the highest per capita of artists in North America," says Morrison. "We could use that resource as a means to spread the word—how beautiful it is here, to give everyone the information that the estuary is an incredible ecosystem, so important to the whole area."
"Project Watershed was at Earth Day, with a big 3D map of the whole watershed, and I thought 'Oh wow'!" she recalls. "It was such an incredible image, really bringing across that the watershed involves the whole of Baynes Sound, and the whole mountain range—the estuary is such a good focal point including the whole water system.
"A little picture of a water drop was with the display," she continues. "I had just finished a glass piece of the same image, a single water drop, because I had been thinking about the water situation on this planet. It was a crystal ball—'what does the future hold?' is what it meant to me. Seeing the same image at that display at Earth Day, all these things clicked."
Every year Morrison donates a piece to the community, so she decided to approach Project Watershed with her water drop piece, and her idea for an arts approach to Keeping it Living. Morrison met with Project Watershed business manager Caila Holbrook. "She was looking for a campaign—there was some synchronicity too!" Morrison recalls. "We had lunch, I told her the whole concept and she listened, she got it, and approached the board."
It is easy to see how Holbrook's energy and enthusiasm contributed to the campaign. Even now, with a young baby and on leave from Project Watershed, she projects the same spirit that carried the campaign forward. "Under the direction of Don Castleden, Project Watershed chair at that time, we formed the Estuary Working Group after the estuary symposium," Holbrook says.
"It took a long time to work out what we saw as the future for the estuary. We came out with a visioning document, then wanted a way to share it with the community. We wanted something where everyone was involved—that everyone has a stake in, whether recreationally or artistically. Then Nancy happened to walk in to the office one day with this beautiful art piece—the drop of water. That's how it started, she had so many ideas and great enthusiasm. It seemed that both of us were converging on a similar idea."
Project Watershed has been promoting community stewardship of Comox Valley watersheds through information, education and action since 1993. Their mission is recognized locally and internationally for the ability to provide technical expertise in the area of watershed inventory and mapping, and for the ability to involve volunteers in diverse stewardship programs.
Holbrook began as manager of Project Watershed's mapping centre service. "As things got going, we realized we needed someone to help with estuary activities," she says. "I am an environmental scientist, that's what I did my masters in. When Don Castleden started talking about the estuary, I got really excited, so did what I could to help out, such as fundraising. Then the position I was hired for morphed into 'estuary coordinator'."
The core fundraising concept was to invite artists to submit pieces for a silent auction, with 50 per cent of the proceeds to the artist and 50 per cent to the awareness campaign. The art entries are also awarded several prizes, including the purchase one of the art pieces to feature in the next year's campaign.
The first Keeping it Living campaign was launched in 2010. "The first year we had very lofty ideas!" Holbrook says with a laugh. "We had a big gala, with a creative production that really made the estuary come alive. We focused on celebrating the estuary on the positive side. We are at a point where a lot of the big industry is gone, a lot of what is causing areas to be degraded is moving out of the estuary. There is so much awareness now—the campaign is a way we can show the public what is going on, that we are continually working on this, that piece by piece, the estuary is becoming more what it once was."
The Keeping it Living campaign this year culminates with a special event on July 28—Experience the Estuary. This event involves the "Art for the Estuary" silent auction, an afternoon flotilla, a slough walk with Wayne White, and an early evening performance by the Kumugwe dancers at the K'omoks Band Hall and Big House.
"Every year another community group gets involved," says Holbrook. "I would love to see in the future Project Watershed being the organization that helps get the campaign going, but that artists, recreationists—anyone who wants to do something to contribute—can carry on. Getting as many people involved as possible and making it a fun thing—those are really important aspects of the campaign and hopefully will survive whatever it morphs into in the future."
Lauren LaBossiere, who works at Comox Valley Kayaks, took over the planning of the Keeping it Living campaign in the role of estuary coordinator when Holbrook left on maternity leave. With her help, the idea of a flotilla across the estuary as a finale event became part of the campaign. "My goal was to capture a larger breadth of the community: the stand-up paddlers, the kayakers, the canoeists," says LaBossiere. "As a person who works on and in the estuary, I thought it was a great opportunity to get involved. There are so many businesses adjacent to the estuary—it's part of our daily life and work."
Different launch sites for the flotilla will take the speed of different craft into consideration. "Dragon boats will go quickly, kayaks as well, canoes more slowly—there could be group leaders to set the pace and keep people together," says LaBossiere, noting that Comox Valley Kayaks has more than 50 kayaks and several canoes available to rent for the flotilla on July 28.
"I've learned a lot about our estuary just working with Project Watershed for that time," says LaBossiere. "I'm able to share that with our customers, providing an opportunity to our guides to impart that knowledge. Keeping it Living has been a successful event, and I think there's an opportunity to expand it further, be even more inclusive of the community and engage as many people as possible."
Paul Horgen, current chair of Project Watershed, and director Betty Donaldson joined the Project Watershed board after the first event. Donaldson, a retired professor of education, once served as president of the Canadian Recreational Canoeing Association. She spearheaded a survey of estuary residents last fall, revealing a growing awareness about the estuary.
Horgen, a retired biology professor, attended the Estuary Working Group meetings, joined the board and contributed immediately to the campaign.
"At the time the awareness campaign was starting, I decided a way to launch it was to purchase a painting by Bev Byerley," Horgen recalls. The Comox Valley artist—who has entered an art submission every year—is noted for her striking paintings of the estuary.
"You can see this as a tiered event, where every year has a different layer. Last year was information, this year is activities—to 'Experience the Estuary'," says Horgen. "This year, one of the things the education committee did was the residents' survey, which made it clear that what we're doing can have an effect. The more we get people to interact with Project Watershed and to think about the estuary as a special place, the more it's good for the community."
Growing up on the San Francisco Bay estuary, Horgen was surrounded by mountains and ocean. In 1972 he was hired as a cell and developmental biologist at the University of Toronto where he taught for 20 years, gaining an interest in molecular biology as time went on. He ran the departmental seminar series for several years, and got interested in biotechnology. When he retired after 35 years, Horgen moved to the Valley. Although he has lost most of his eyesight, he says, "I always liked living by water with tides, and mountains—even though I can't see them any more."
Horgen's golden lab guide dog Kona rests nearby, enjoying the blue sky and warm sunshine. "If we could have weather like this for a few more months it would be perfect!"
Horgen notes that the archaeological findings of Nancy Greene and David McGee of historic fish traps in the estuary have also generated interest. "Part of the awareness is to build up for the official launch of the bid for National Historic Site status for the estuary—the actual documentation will hopefully go in October. That will be a focal point for future years," he says. "There is also the idea of some kind of interpretive centre, with the First Nations involved in that. At some point I hope we have a facility dedicated to the natural history of the estuary and the culture that lived here."
As a scientist, when Horgen encountered the concept of 'Blue Carbon', he realized the potential to link Project Watershed's stewardship and rehabilitation efforts to wider interests. "One approach to eliminate CO2 in the atmosphere is through Living Carbon storage," Horgen says. "Living Carbon is commonly thought of as Green Carbon: the long-term storage of carbon in the tissues of trees and plants in forests. Blue Carbon is Living Carbon that occurs in estuarine environments, where aquatic plants such as eelgrass and sedges store carbon in the soils and sediments below."
"The first Keeping it Living gala event had Scott Wallace of the Suzuki Foundation as a keynote speaker," recalls Horgen. "He talked about putting an economic value on estuary functions, about how much more productive estuaries are on a per acre basis than just about anything else on earth. Our regional director Jim Gillis and I then met with him, and Jim said we have this carbon offset tax that we are going to have to pay, and we should be able to use a strategy to try to keep those funds locally. We had meetings with Regional District, planners in Comox and Courtenay, and heard a presentation about Green Carbon. It was clear that Blue Carbon also had lots of potential."
Horgen gathered a group of Project Watershed expertise to put together a background proposal. In October, he made a presentation to local politicians, presenting an overview of Climate Change, carbon sequestration, and carbon offsets. He described how estuarine plant communities could remove CO2 from the atmosphere much more efficiently than land plants, and permanently. The 'Blue Carbon-Blue Forest Pilot Project' could restore habitat lost during the last 75 years, which would help bring our estuary back toward its historical level of abundance, and contribute toward mitigating climate change. A resolution was pass unanimously to request that the Province of BC support this initiative through its Climate Action Charter.
The scientific concept of Blue Carbon led to the artistic theme of the 'Blue Forest' as the inspiration for artwork for the 2012 Keeping it Living Campaign.
"When I heard the term 'Blue Forest'—the idea captures your imagination," says Nancy Morrison. "Everyone gets it—we've all been in the forest and we know that feeling. The phrase takes you into the water."
The stained-glass work that Morrison is entering for the 2012 art auction and competition is spread in curved pieces on her work table. The fluid shapes reflect the 'Blue Forest' of eelgrass that lies under the water of the estuary.
Other artists she has approached are similarly inspired, and local venues are receptive to displaying the artwork. Artwork will be on display throughout July at the Gatehouse and Wandering Moose Café, Carderos, Mudsharks, Zocalo and Atlas cafés and Avenue Restaurant.
"There's a flow to the whole campaign—the synchronicity continues," says Morrison.
"I'm really inspired by David Bohm, the physicist. He talks about dialogue, that we all have a say—that's also the First Nations way, where everyone has their own perspective and listens to each other. Then from the whole group a solution arises.
"This is what a community can do, we can inspire the rest of the communities. If we focused on taking care of the water, we would by association take care of humanity and the planet and the economy would function properly. If we take care of the heart of our community we would create the return of abundance. We have such a beautiful place here, and this is the incredible artwork we are producing that could attract attention.
"A lot of it comes from spending time on the estuary—as an artist I was completely inspired," Morrison adds. "When you love a place you want to take care of it, to keep it living, because this is where you live."
For more information visit www.keepingitliving.ca.
The Courtenay River Estuary is a special and unique feature in the Comox Valley. Second only in importance to the Fraser River Estuary, Hemorrhoids
it is one of only eight Class one estuaries in British Columbia and provides habitat for 145 bird species—more than 70,000 birds. It is also home to 218 plant species, 29 fish species—including all five species of pacific salmon—and innumerable species of intertidal creatures.
From a distance it may look like child's play, but these radio-controlled airplanes are a far cry from being just toys.
Model airplanes that can sometimes cost well into the thousands of dollars, demand equally thousands of hours of construction time, and can be in certain cases one-third the size of the real thing, are a mighty major departure from a little balsa-wood flying plaything of the sort that you might take to the park with the kids on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Members of the Radio-Controlled Aeronautics Association of the Comox Valley have been flying their amazing craft for well over two decades. Secretary Tom Feenstra has been a member for a quarter of a century and his enthusiasm for a challenging and sometimes costly hobby has never wavered.
Right now he's in the process of completing a flying Chance-Vought Corsair fighter plane that he has been working on for many months in his home workshop. The Corsair was the plane used by 'Pappy Boyngton's Black Sheep Squadron in the old TV series of that name.
And it's going to be big. It will boast an 86-inch wingspan and the wings will have to be dismounted so the plane can be transported in a pickup.
The main construction is composed of that mainstay of hobbyists for decades—old-fashioned balsa wood, and then will be finished with fiberglass cloth.
"Building it can take two or three years," Feenstra says. "I'm still working, so for retired guys it's less. Of course, after all this work, the heartbreak will be if it crashes. And they do crash—usually due to pilot error. There are even mid-air collisions and that is really sad because it means two planes are ruined, and you only hope they can be repaired."
The aircraft of the Valley club fly regularly at a field owned by club president Frank McCrindle at his Merville property on Gunter Road.
"We cleared the land and created an airfield out of the bush on his property," Feenstra says. "That was 20 years ago. Prior to that we used to fly at a site off Macdonald Road in Courtenay, up behind what is now Crown Isle. But this was long before Crown Isle existed."
As for his own involvement with the hobby, Feenstra says he has always liked aviation and military history. At the same time, from when he was a kid, he liked building scale models. So, one sort of followed another as in, if you are going to build a model, why not build one that actually flies rather than being static? And that was how it happened.
"I enjoy building and modeling," Feenstra says. "And I began with building very simple and basic models. But I was inspired by the people who built truly magnificent models and as you become more skilled with it your own models become more elaborate."
As mentioned, there are the crashes, and that too is part of the learning process. As real aircraft do crash, albeit rarely, the models crash a little more often.
"In your early days you do crash lots," he says. "You have to accept that. When it happens you just pick up the pieces and start again. It's very much a hands-on business."
Feenstra notes there are many approaches to the hobby. The truly dedicated—especially those with sufficient time to devote to crafting—create scratch-built models, much as he is doing with his Corsair fighter, but there are also kit models, largely produced in China, that he admits are very impressive. At the same time he is creating his Corsair, he is also putting the finishing touches on a Chinese manufactured Spitfire.
"The hobby is changing," he says. "You have to accept that. In the early days you couldn't afford the kit-built models that were available, but with the new Chinese ones the prices are more realistic. They even offer ones with very effective electric engines that run on lithium-polymer batteries. They're very light and have a lot of power. That said, however, you still can't beat creating your own."
In Feenstra's case, he favors gasoline engines. Those come in two types both four stroke, burning either gasoline or what is known as 'glow-fuel', which is a combination of methanol and nitro and is very expensive, and two-stroke, using the sort of mixture of gasoline and oil used with chainsaws and outboard motors.
Don Loper's Supercub takes flight.
Photo by Boomer Jerritt
The gasoline engines are relatively costly. The one that is going into the Corsair—it looks remarkably like a very small motorcycle engine—was $500. A less elaborate two-stroke would cost around $300, he says.
As for the options the hobbyist can embrace, the sky's the limit, metaphorically speaking, and the range therein runs the gamut to be found with real aircraft from regular single-engine planes to multi-engine, to stunt planes to helicopters. There are land planes and float planes, and even jets designed to belly land.
In terms of multi-engine, a local endeavor was the construction of a four-engine Lancaster bomber of the sort that did stalwart duty in Europe in World War Two, and also flew out of CFB Comox for a number of years after the war. Two members of the local club created the Lancaster.
And, as mentioned, they can range from toy size to one-third the size of the real thing. Many of the World War Two planes are one-quarter size.
"One-fifth scale is a very popular size," Feenstra says. "There are two types of jet propulsion, and also small turbine engines. Purists can even buy radial engines, at a cost from $2,000 to $3,000 per motor. Some of the American modelers have produced planes that cost more than $10,000. I might add that the bigger airplanes fly better because they're more stable."
Then when it comes to the matter of flying an entirely new set of skills must come into play.
"I recently lost a Spitfire because I became disoriented," Feenstra says. "You need good eyesight and you have to be on top of what your plane is doing at all times. A Spitfire will do 100 miles per hour. You have to react quickly at that speed.
Once all the chores are completed, the true joy comes with the flying. "You can spend a wonderful day out at our field on Gunter Road in Merville," he says. "There we have everything we need for a fun day—benches, tables, barbecue, clubhouse and firepit. And our membership is good, ranging between 50 and 60 members in any given year. Some of our members are amateurs like I am, but we have a lot of ex-air force and commercial pilots."
Learning to fly the radio-controlled craft isn't entirely different from learning to fly the real thing, Feenstra says.
"It's not a simple matter to learn to fly," he says. "An instructor definitely has to help you. He'll stop by helping you to land, which is really difficult, but if you get into problems, with the buddy-cord system (that is, two hands at the controls like a two control driving school car) he can take over if you get into a jam.
"You simply cannot learn on your own. In fact, the process can actually be more difficult than learning to fly a real airplane because you constantly have to adjust for the direction in which you're going. In a real plane you're traveling with the craft so there's no doubt about your direction. Some people take a long time to get skilled and comfortable, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's for serious hobbyists."
There is, by necessity, as Feenstra explains, a distinct need for insurance. Indeed it is demanded. As the Comox Valley club is a member of MAC (Model Aeronautics Association) it must only fly in sanctioned fields, not in a back field or city park and great care must be taken in dealing with the aircraft.
They may be smaller than the real thing but a prop can hurt you and "people have lost fingers," Feenstra says. "People have even been killed when hit by planes, so liability insurance has to cover spectators."
He adds that there is always a possibility that a wayward plane might head toward a highway and crash into a car, leaving a potential for a fatal accident.
An RC plane's controls.
Feenstra explains the 'radio' aspect of the 'radio-controlled' facet of flying such aircraft. After all, the radio is the nerve-centre of operating these planes.
First there is the matter of cost. A good radio, he says, can run you about $500, but he adds you don't want to get a cheap one because the welfare of that costly airplane depends on it. He uses a 2.4-megahertz radio that is designed so that no other radio being operated can interfere with yours.
"It's known as spread-spectrum technology," he says. "The old technology when I began couldn't block out other frequencies. The one I have operates on eight channels. The Spitfire I have, for example, demands seven channels. It's wise to buy a good radio."
While the Comox Valley club flies virtually every Sunday at their local airfield—and visitors are certainly welcome—Feenstra says, most attendees are normally the modelers themselves. However, a larger meet will be taking place on Saturday, July 21st and the public is invited to come out and watch.
It's the annual Joel Clarkston Memorial Scale Event, and named in memory of former member, Clarkston, who was a longtime Regional District area director and who tragically died in helicopter crash in September, 2003. He was a highly respected member of the association.
The event begins at 10 a.m. and continues throughout the day at the club field at 2658 Gunter Road in Merville. The public is welcome to attend.
"We used to have a large annual meet at CFB Comox," Feenstra says. "But, after 9/11 everything tightened up security-wise. And then there were safety concerns, and liabilities and so forth. Likewise, we used to have a floatplane event at Comox Lake, but that got too risky as well. It's so busy up at the lake and we got afraid somebody would get hit. There still are float-plane events down Island, however, and it's an interesting hobby specialty."
Fortunately club president McCrindle has not only provided the land for the association's activities, he also operates a business that can provide club members with much needed items for their hobby. Flite Supply, says Feenstra, has proved to be very handy for the membership.
Not only does McCrindle offer the physical components of the hobby, he is also handy for advice, says Feenstra.
"It's easy for a newbie to get in," he says. "Frank knows what you need."
And one thing they do need, he adds, is some good instructors. "We lost some good instructors and we'd be very happy if somebody would like to come forward. There was a big influx of people in the association in the last year, and those that lend an active hand, like the instructors, are all volunteers."
RCAA Comox Valley is located at 2658 Gunter Road in Merville near Flite Supply.
For more information visit: www3.telus.net/rcaa-comox/index.html.
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