INA — Even from a distance, the soaring wings of model airplanes can be seen from I-57 as Rend Lake Remote Control Club members fly their planes weekends in a field north of Rend Lake College.

Members of the club come together near the college to share their love of aviation and maintain their ever-growing collections of model planes.

Roger Flatt, the club’s vice president, joined the club in 1991 because he always wanted to fly, he said.

“I was a coal miner,” he said. “I spent 31 years in a hole in the ground. I had always dreamed of flying my whole life, but I never could afford it. So when I could afford it, I couldn’t pass the physical. So, I fly models.”

Flatt spends his post-retirement time and money on cultivating a collection of remote control model airplanes.

He said he has six model planes ready to fly, and six more that need parts before they can take to the air.

“I’ve got one I’m building,” he said. “You can never get enough airplanes.”

Flatt became interested in flying fixed-wing remote control model airplanes as an adult, when he was at a park and someone handed him a plane and offered him a chance to fly it, he said.

Some members of the club started their interest in model airplanes as children, however.

Cliff Christensen, the club secretary, said he has been building model planes since he was a child, starting with rubber band-powered planes, moving to  control models, which fly in a circle while the “pilot” controls it with a handle. Christensen later got his pilot’s license, he said, and that led into an interest in the RC club.

“The club’s a nice bunch of fellas,” he said. “We enjoy our hobby, and have good times. We fly two days a week. Since I’ve been retired, I’ve gotten a lot of joy out of it.”

Sam Hart, one of the club’s three safety officers, had his first model airplane at eight years old.

He continued that love of airplanes into service in the U.S. Navy, he said.

Hart was an air crew member in a patrol squadron that flew across the North Pacific from Hawaii to the Arctic Circle, he said, and after that worked for McDonnell Douglas on the F-4 Phantom II for several years.

“After that, I ended up working for the phone company as an electrical technician,” he said.

Hart finds RC planes to be a perfect match for his history in aviation and his interest in electronics, he said.

Even though RC planes are significantly less complicated than an actual aircraft, they still require maintenance, he said, and he performs a pre-flight check on his RC model planes before sending them up, just like pilots do.

“You want to make sure it’s nice and put together well so nothing’s going to come off,” Hart said. “If you have a crash out far away, the main thing that’s going to be hurt is your pocketbook and pride. You still want to make sure your airplane’s in good shape.”

The club flies together at the Rend Lake field because it offers plenty of space for planes with large wingspans, Flatt said.

“People say you could fly out of your backyard, but you might never get the plane back if you did that,” he said. “With three quarters of a mile and a plane with a three-and-a-half foot wingspan, that’s just a dot. It takes an expanse.”

The club’s members are required to join the Association of Model Aeronautics, a national organization that offers insurance in case of an accident during a model airplane flight.

Hart said accidents aren’t terribly common, but do happen, since there are thousands of RC model airplane clubs across the country.

“Model airplanes are a fun hobby, but as they have engines and propellers, they can do damage to hands,” he said. “It’s almost like a buzz saw on the front of the plane.”

Most fixed-wing model airplanes have an engine with about half a horsepower — enough power in the propeller to cut, break fingers or even cause amputations, Hart said, so the club takes safety seriously, especially with its flying field in close proximity to Rend Lake College.

“We don’t want to see anybody get hurt, and we don’t want to see any damage to property,” he said.

Hart said he enjoys working on the model planes, and helps out other members who aren’t able to perform maintenance on their planes.

“It’s a very rewarding hobby,” he said. “There’s been a lot of growth in the hobby, because people can buy their planes built. A lot of people don’t have the construction knowledge us old timers have. If you built it from start up, you know how to fix ‘em.”

The public are invited to join club members on weekends at the field north of RLC and watch them fly.

The club’s next major event is a Military Scale Fly-In on Sept. 12 at the RLC flying field.

RC model plane enthusiasts are invited to bring their military model planes from any era and join the club for flight and fun.

Registration begins at 8 a.m., and flying begins at 9 a.m.; the cost is $10 and membership in the AMA is required to fly.

For more information on the Fly-In, call Tom Duncan at 237-7731, or e-mail tduncanrc@netzero.com.