This is a well-attended fly in because the folks from Smith Lake Flyers are all-around great and you don't
need a giant scale plane to have fun.
Text, photos and video by Tom Hintz
Posted – 7-21-2019
One of the RC clubs I belong to, the Smith Lake Flyers (Mt. Pleasant, NC) has a rather unique facility that includes a 100 x 550ft grass runway with a 30 x 300ft fabric runway and a lake! While they don’t fly on the lake all the time, they have been putting on two Float Fly’s per year for a long time.
Both Float Fly dates are well attended because the Smith Lake Flyers know how to run events. No less important is having a great bunch of members that go to great lengths to assist visiting pilots to insure they have a good time.
There is a darker side to this membership though in that they blatantly cheat in how they attract visiting pilots. They make home-made ice cream, usually at the lake, during the Float Fly. Making this even more sinister is that it is GREAT ice cream!
Normally the Smith Lake Flyers make the ice cream during the event with the churn driven by an old garden tractor. For this event it was decided to make the ice cream before the Float Fly in due to forecast temperatures well over 90-degrees augmented with lots of Carolina humidity. That batch of several flavors was kept in a freezer, in a member’s trailer, powered by a portable generator. You get the feeling that if this club somehow got stranded on a deserted island, one of them would have strawberry ice cream along.
Of course, before the ice cream comes out the Smith Lake Flyers put on a great lunch, all of which is made by members and their families. I suspect the quality and selection available makes this lunch another attraction for visiting pilots, family, friends and me.
Having access to a lake does not itself make a float fly possible. The Smith Lake Flyers bring in a temporary, short pier and put out markers in the water separating the “runway” from the pit area near the shore. They also roll out a section of artificial grass carpet that serves as a ramp to smooth the transition from water to land. Like I said, these folks know how to put on a float fly.
A rescue boat is always on hand for when things
don't go quite right.
It goes without saying that flying RC planes over water can have a downside. The Smith Lake Flyers have been doing float flies for a long time and while not a frequent occurrence, they know about planes in water. They have a small boat on hand, dedicated to retrieving now-wet planes.
At one of last year’s Float Fly’s I saw an RC tugboat, complete with push bars on the front go out after a stalled plane. It had no trouble pushing the plane back to shore, and its relieved owner. I know this sounds like going to the next level but for the Smith Lake Flyers, it just isn’t surprising.
Ingenuity runs rampant in the RC community and that means the range of airplanes that arrive on floats can be surprising. There are a bunch of foam-based planes that were designed to accommodate floats and that makes this type of event accessible to more pilots. However, you are also likely to see vintage models afloat.
The size of the plane appears to have little to do with flying off water. Everything from park fliers to giant scale planes take to the water for the Smith Lake Fliers Float Fly. Occasionally, a plane and float combination appear a bit dubious, but few have trouble taking off or landing on the lake.
In all the years the Smith Lake Fliers have been putting on these Float Fly’s they have only canceled one due to weather. That took a hurricane and its 40+mph winds to draw the cancellation. This spring 2019 event was faced with high temperatures and for a while, dark clouds, lots of sort of distant lightening, thunder and just a sprinkle of rain, while I was flying. Once again, the Smith Lake Fliers positive relationship with the weather gods spared the event and the dark clouds dissipated.
Throughout the day dozens of flights were made by a bunch of different style planes with only one crash of which I am aware. As is one of the goals of a RC flying event, there was lots of meeting new people and catching up with old friends. It is not uncommon at RC events to see people sign in, pay their landing fee, put together a plane then set it and themselves under their canopy and never take to the air.
Something else that stands out with the Smith Lake Flyers is the interest older members have in bringing new members into the fold. Most RC flying events have a raffle that helps fund the club and for this Float Fly there were a few planes and a couple radios among the prizes. In more than one case, senior members who had a winning number gave the prize to a young person or new member in attendance. This kind of generosity permeates the Smith Lake Flyers membership and bodes well for the future of this club.
Visit the Smith Lake Flyers web site –Click Here
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