By Don Hart

There were more than twenty models displayed at the 2002 edition of the mall show – not all were signed in, so I don’t have an exact count. There were scale planes, sport planes, powered planes and sailplanes; large planes and small planes; beautifully finished planes and unfinished planes. It was a well-rounded assemblage of many aspects of R/C aircraft modeling.

I think the show gave the spectators a good feel for the variety of planes we build and fly, and some idea of the effort required to build some of them.

Dave Walker installed the FMS flight simulator on his laptop computer. While it is not a powerhouse computer, it did a great job of running the program. We used my Futaba four channel TX and interface cable. There were plenty of kids of all ages interested in giving the simulator a try.

The young kids picked up on the new "game" easily, though many were a bit over enthusiastic on the control sticks – I was actually worried that the sticks might get bent!

Game controllers are not used for subtle movements, so that was the approach many took. In spite of savage over-control, many of the kids were able to fly the simulator very well after only a couple of crashes.

I "sold" many of the free flight simulator programs. Hopefully, some of these young people will get the bug and want to give the real thing a try.

The winner of the drawing for the Firebird XL ARF electric system was Howard Hosick. Here’s to many flights, Howard!

The "People’s Choice" voting was won by the P-38 built and owned by Larry Bobisud. It was nearly a tie for first place, with Eric Bair’s Extra 330L giant scale aerobatic plane in second place. Bruce Bumgarner was third in the vote with his Predator XL, a 130 inch span thermal soarer. Congratulations to you all.

Larry also won a $20 give certificate donated by Wally’s World of Hobbies in Pullman. Many thanks to Wally’s World for their generous support.

Many thanks to Bertle Spence who, once again, did a great job of working with the Palouse Mall management in arranging the mall show.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered to man the show, thanks to Dave Walker for the use of his TV/VCR and laptop computer, and thanks to those who brought videos, and especially to everyone who donated their time.

We got the names of several perspective members, met many current, future and former modelers, and answered many, many questions over the three days of the event.

Thanks again to everyone for another great Palouse Ridge Runners R/C Aircraft Mall Show!