The Buzz Was Radio Controlled
Watching Harry Andrews ornithopter make it's way around center court brought smiles to faces of those around.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Oskaloosa’s Penn Central Mall is many things for the community, but on Saturday it became a landing strip of sorts.
The Ottumwa Radio Controlled Flyers made their way back to town to showcase their hobby to the people of Oskaloosa. While there, people could see different types of R/C Aircraft and watch some of the smaller battery operated craft make their way around center court.
Harry Andrews, of Oskaloosa, was having fun flying his ornithopter around the confines of center court entertaining those sitting on the steps and benches as it playfully moved around the rafters and then buzzed low to get the kids attention as they looked upward at this unconventional aircraft with wide eyes.
I asked Andrews what a ornithopter was and how it was able to fly. “It basically beats the air into submission,” Andrews said with a chuckle. “Saying it’s the most fun, you’ll ever have with $40, you’ll ever have in your entire life.”
Ornithopters are normally shaped like birds according to Andrews, but his is shaped and looks like a large bug with glowing red eyes as it makes it’s way through the air.
Bob Bratten (left) and Harry Andrews are seen here having some fun with their R/C helicopters
Andrews says he’s been flying R/C aircraft for nearly 15 years, after his father had got him interested in it. “I’ve had planes on the brain ever since I was a little kid.”
“Balsa dust is worse than crack cocaine,” Andrews joked. “Once it gets in your systems, it’s hard to get it out. It is incurable and I would say a lot of fun; it’s harder than it looks.”
Andrews described the skill that is needed to fly a radio controlled aircraft, using the example of how the operator must understand how to operate the craft because, at points during flight, the craft is facing different directions, “You go from left being left” then to say after a turn, “right is left and left is right” saying “your brains gotta work through that. It takes some time.”
Bob Bratten, of Ottumwa, was demonstrating how to hover his R/C plane, a skill that took Bratten 2 years to master, “Once it clicked, it just clicked.”
The group also had set up an R/C aircraft simulator for people to try. The two flyers agreed that the feel of the simulator is very near the real life control of an R/C aircraft. “The simulator’s really taken our hobby a lot further. If you can do it in a simulator, you can do it for real. That’s how I learned to land,” said Andrews.
If you want to know more about the Ottumwa Radio Controlled Flyers you can visit them at their website HERE.
