CASPER — Planes parked along a runway on the north side of town while above the pavement, a motor revved as a plane spun up on a climb.
Farther to the north at a pond, a pilot had just fished his craft out of the waters after a mishap into the drink.
It’s all in a morning’s enjoyment for members of the Casper Air Modelers Association who know the thrill of throttling colorful propeller and jet engine aircraft across a few acres of land they call North Platte Park.
Association President Joshua Gollnick, 33, pointed to fenced pilot stands for members to hold their transmitters next to the runway, umbrella covered tables, and shelter buildings erected on the property by club members over its 55 years.
“It’s now a beautiful little facility that we all take great pride in,” he said.
The 36-member nonprofit club is sanctioned by national Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) and during the summer sees hobbyists from around the country who belong to the association stop in on their way to Yellowstone or other destinations to get a chance to fly in the West.
Gollnick, who remembers flying radio-controlled airplanes with his father as a boy, said the club is a great family activity and its members come from all walks of life who include mechanics, tin workers, landscape laborers, city employees, company managers, and pilots who fly people for a living.
“I would say everyone that is a member here loves aviation or something to do with aviation,” he said. “It’s not just that I love airplanes, but I like that memory that you make with your family doing it. It’s something that all ages really get into. Kids love it just as much as the adults.”
Casper Airmodelers Association President Joshua Gollnick said the group is always looking for new members. The group opens to the public twice a year with a “Come Fly With Us” event and a “fly-in” that draws hobbyists from around the region and country. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Gailin Stoumbaugh, 87, is the oldest member of the Casper Airmodelers and one of its most skilled pilots. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Justin Gollnick said he got into flying radio-controlled aircraft after his brother sent him an airplane as a gift. He said he really enjoys the camaraderie of club members. “You will never meet a bad soul in this hobby,” he said. “You go anywhere in the country to another air site, and they will treat you like they are your best friends, and you do the same thing here when people show up.” (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Joshua Gollnick said his jet radio-controlled aircraft runs around $9,000 and uses the same type of jet fuel used in engines for airplanes that fly passengerts across the country. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Casper Air Modelers Association posts its safety code just off the flight line. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Club members’ planes line up near the runway. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Casper Airmodelers Association offers instruction and opportunities for radio-controlled aircraft enthusiasts to fly model airplanes off their own runways. The club has been around for 55 years. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The electronics of an aircraft owned by Justin Gollnick that has a 92-inch wing span and twin-cylinder 70 cc engine with an electronic start. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Craig Bastion has been flying model aircraft for decades. He said he enjoys building the aircraft and admits to crashing them every once in while. “Sometimes it’s mechanical failure, but most of the time it is pilot error,” he said. He currently serves as the vice president for District 9 of the national Academy of Model Aeronautics. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Skill Needed
Learning to fly the miniature aircraft takes some time and Gollnick, who also flies ultralight aircraft, said radio-controlled pilots need to know the stall speed of their aircraft as well as pay attention to thermal activity and winds.
Flying is done mostly in the morning between 8 a.m. and noon because wind conditions are generally favorable.
Gollnick said in the past, people would spend money and hundreds of hours to build an aircraft for the opportunity to crash it on their first flight. Now there are other options.
“You can buy ready to fly airplanes for under $400 that has everything with them and comes with the remote (control) and it’s got batteries,” he said. “The best thing about those starter airplanes is that there are thousands of styles to choose from.”
There are also ARF, or almost-ready-to-fly, aircraft that allow the person to choose a separate engine and require some work to put together.
The starter airplanes are made of foam and if they crash, all one needs to do is soak the foam with water and use a glue gun to put it back together.
On a day Cowboy State Daily visited, Trevor Penor, who in real life flies private jets around the country, was at the club with his dad, Rob, also a jet pilot who had just returned from Rome. Trevor was going to fly a twin-engine F-14 jet for the first time. The craft was powered by electric batteries.
Trevor Penor said he owned several other radio-controlled aircraft, including an F-16 jet and another blue plane he brought for the day that can fly 160 mph.
“They always say don’t get into a hobby that is related to your career field,” he said. “I guess I am not really doing that.”
Rob Penor said he spent time in his college years building and selling radio-controlled planes as a way to afford to fly his own model airplanes. Raising Trevor, he said he found his son better at the controls of the little planes than he was.
“I bought them and wrecked them, and he was able to successfully fly them,” he said.
Trevor Penor said the trick with flying the miniature jets is to keep the throttle up because “jets don’t do well at slow speed.”
At 87, He’s Still Flying
Gailin Stoumbaugh, 87, said he has belonged to the club for 35 years. When he started, he made his first two planes from scratch. He remembers bringing a plane to fly at the club years ago.
A member asked him what he was going to do. When Stoumbaugh told him he was going to fly it, he was promptly told that he couldn’t because he didn’t have the experience.
“I will fly it for you,” Stoumbaugh recalled the man saying. “And he did. It lasted three flights.”
Gollnick characterized the senior club member as one of the group’s most skilled pilots.
“He flies aircraft that a lot of people have never even mastered the skill yet to fly and he is still sharp enough to fly them around,” he said.
The club offers two special events for the community each year so people can learn more about the hobby. A “Come Fly With Us” day allows the general public to fly with a simulator first and then actually take the controls of a club plane with help from a club member.
“They can get a free membership to the club for a few months while they train and get that hands-on experience without spending the money out of their own pocket first to see if it’s something that they like,” Gollnick said.
He said they also have an annual fly-in event that this year will be July 24-27. Participants come from around the region and the country to fly in Casper for four days. Enthusiasts with turbine jets worth $160,000 to $180,000 typically show up along with other hobbyists with a variety of aircraft.
The fly-in features contests where pilots compete for the shortest takeoff and landings as well as a “best-in-show” contest and candy and balloon drops for the kids.
“We also have glider events for children each year where they can win RC helicopters and airplanes for the farthest throw of a free-flight airplane,” Gollnick said.
Annual dues for the club are $60 a year and pilots who fly need a license from the AMA, which will also provide insurance for any incidents with the aircraft. That costs $75.
Barrel Racing
Gollnick pointed to two pylons with colored barrels attached a few hundred yards apart out on the club’s property. In the summer he said members build several race planes that are exactly the same and compete in flying around the pylons.
“Our club race planes are doing like 100 mph and it’s really fun to see five or six airplanes side-by-side stacked wing tip to wing tip racing,” he said. “The skill that is involved is absolutely wild … I mean, heaven forbid when they touch racing — the destruction of watching an airplane go in. We all hate to see it, but we all love it at the same time.”
One thing about the hobby is that people can make experimental aircraft that may have been designed but never built. Gollnick said there are several hobbyists who show up at fly-ins that have built planes based on actual World War II designs that during the war never made it off the drawing board.
And then there are flying pizza box planes. Gollnick said some of the hobbyists across the nation make “pizza box flyers.”
“It’s literally a Domino’s pizza box with a motor on the front and a rudder and elevons on the back of the box and it flies around and looks like a pizza box and it is absolutely wild,” he said. “The hobby is only limited by yourself.”
In addition to the hobby flying, Gollnick said the club can help those interested in flying drones for surveying or photography obtain instruction and the appropriate licenses. They also have helped local STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) students with rocketry lessons and projects.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
