'Fly the Line' this weekend

The Texarkana Radio Control Flying Club hosts their annual "Fly the Line" event through Sunday. (Submitted photo)
The Texarkana Radio Control Flying Club hosts their annual "Fly the Line" event through Sunday. (Submitted photo)

The annual "Fly the Line" organized by the Texarkana Radio Control Flying Club will put winged wonders in the sky through Sunday.

Held at Ravel Stroman Field at Lake Wright Patman south of Texarkana, this event brings RC flying enthusiasts together for airborne fun from morning to dark, with pilots from the Four States Area and Missouri showcasing their planes, helicopters and drones.

"It's an RC event that we put on and we have people from 300 or 400 miles away, people that we know, people that we've gone to their events," explained Gary Strickland, president of the club. It's a community of pilots that come together for events like these.

"It's just kind of a fun fly," Strickland said. It started Thursday, but Saturday is the main day for spectators to come out to watch. Night flying is possible. Concessions are available.

The range of various RC planes, helicopters and jets represented is broad, from civilian to military, vintage war planes to aerobatic ones. The mode of flying varies, too, to include scale, plane hovering, 3D and more. You might see aircraft as small as 12-inch "foamies," as they're called, to plywood and balsa-made planes as large as 18 feet, powered by everything from gasoline engines to electric motors.

Strickland said it's a relaxed event with some participating RC enthusiasts camping out there on site. For pilots, there's a $25 landing fee.

But for spectators, the event is free to see. Spectators are welcome at any time when there's flying.

Strickland has been participating for about a dozen years and served as president of the group for about the last eight. "It's just relaxing flying, and of course the fellowship with other pilots," he said about what's enjoyable about this hobby.

Pilots tend to travel around to visit each other's events. Some fly-ins are specific to a certain type of plane, such as warbird events, but others are more general.

"Ours is bring whatever you want to fly," Strickland said.

If it rains, that could cause pilots to keep their aircraft parked, or if the winds are very high, but Strickland said there are good pilots who can handle some wind.

(Spectator admission is free. More info: TRCFC.org or Facebook.com/trcfc.org. To get to Ravel Stroman Field, take U.S. Highway 59 to Park Road at Lake Wright Patman, then take Corps Road 1 to the field, which is located near Wright Patman Dam.)

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