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Zigzagging through the Skyways By Kevin Opsahl Jun 20, 2022 01:00 AM A A 3 View all photos Rogue Eagles Radio Control Club gets students in aviation camp flying remote control planes for the first time Tacitus Ward flies a remote control plane with Jay Strickland at Agate Skyways in Eagle Point Friday during Aviation Camp. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Lenny Haptenstall learns on a simulator with Larry Cogdell at Agate Skyways Friday during Aviation Camp. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Mike Freeburg and Henry VanDerLinden land a remote plane at Agate Skyways. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Amid cloudy skies and rain nearby, it appeared early Friday as if middle-schoolers’ first chance to fly remote control planes in Eagle Point would crash and burn — to use an aviation analogy. But plans (and planes) went off without a hitch just after 9 a.m. at Agate Skyways, as kids did loops and figure 8s with the help of their experienced “buddy boss” from Rogue Eagles Radio Control Club. “Very nice turn. Nice and gentle. Well done, Tacitus. That was excellent,” said buddy boss Jay Strickland, a member of the club sponsoring an aviation camp that started Wednesday and was scheduled through Saturday. It was the first time the camp — now in its second year — held remote control flying sessions Strickland shared the controls with Tacitus Ward, who signed up for the camp and experienced flying a remote control plane for the first time. “I didn’t actually know what this would be about until I came the first day,” said Ward, who admitted his mom was the one who insisted he join the camp. Before he started flying with a remote control, Ward took to a flight simulator that camp officials had him use to practice the real deal. “I crashed it seven times,” Ward said. On that note, the young man was thinking while holding his hand on the remote control, “I hope I don’t crash. “Because it started doing this after I took control,” Ward said, gesturing his hand in a downward motion. As Ward’s “buddy boss,” Strickland — a retired Naval officer who boasted of his pride for shooting planes out of the sky — used the remote to take off and land the model plane, but he let Ward use controls of his own for much of the time. “I say, ‘Pretend like that stick is bolted to the bottom of the airplane,’” Strickland said. “That’s all they have to worry about, and then I give them a couple of little tricks, like, ‘You cannot think as fast as the RC plane.’ So, you develop a reflex after so many times of flying it.” Compliments also are part of the equation. “I want the young man to have a good time and enjoy what he’s doing,” said Strickland, who thought of his role in the camp as fun rather than a burdensome responsibility. “This is a tool,” Strickland said, referring to the planes, “but it’s just pure fun, if you just take that for what it’s worth.” Rob Merriman, Rogue Eagles’ public relations officer, noted how pleased he was at 2021’s inaugural camp, but it was missing a crucial element. “The one area that I felt we needed improvement on was the opportunity for every kid to have a significant amount of time actually flying a radio-controlled plane,” Merriman said. Each student was able to fly a plane for about 15 minutes. “That’s a fair amount of time when you’re concentrating really hard, and especially when it's brand new,” Merriman said. He talked about the different remote control planes the camp had on hand. Some were made of balsa wood, others of foam. Not only is the latter type lighter than a lot of counterparts; it is not a gas-guzzler because it uses an electric motor. “Frankly, the products that are available now in the radio control world are amazing,” Merriman said. “I’ve seen people come out on their very first day and just do phenomenally well because of things that are built into beginning planes now.” One of the students who reportedly used the remote controls amazingly well was Henry VanDerLinden, who heard about the camp at school and decided to pay the small fee to sign up. “I said, ‘Oh, it’s only $35,’ so I went for it,” VanDerLinden said. “I really love airplanes. The fact that you can get a chunk of metal flying into the sky is a pretty amazing feat of technology. That’s what attracted me to physics and aerodynamics.” VanDerLinden called himself a “naturalist learner” who absorbs new material best while outside. Friday was his first time flying a remote control plane. “First thing I thought was the plane is a little bit slower to react than the simulator,” VanDerLinden said. “A lot of kids who like to play video games — their idea is to react fast and move things quickly; I’m really bad at that anyway, so it makes it a little bit easier (to control the plane).” He likened flying the remote control plane to the powers of Peter Pan or feeling like you’re in a video game come to life. Merriman has another way of thinking about his passion. “Aviation is kind of like a bug, and when it bites, you just can’t get enough of it,” he said. In addition to flying remote control aircraft, the camp students received instruction on fundamentals of aerodynamics at Skyways, and they spent a day at the Rogue Valley International-Medford airport to tour aircraft and meet pilots. Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.