Control-line model aviators in several Northwest locations put up flights on various kinds of Ringmasters over the Oct. 5-6 weekend (and surrounding dates) as part of the worldwide Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon sponsored by the Brotherhood of the Ring.

The Brotherhood's John Cralley gathers flight data from around the world and compiles a spreadsheet showing what variants of Ringmasters were flown at the many locations where the flying took place. Latest flight data is available on the fly-a-thon website.

Worldwide report:

Updated! As of Thursday, Oct. 17, the worldwide tally was 11,160, flights by 606 pilots, with reports still coming in.

See final worldwide tally

By John Cralley

Northwest Ringmaster flights

In the Northwest, flights are known to have taken place in Auburn, Wash.; Chehalis, Wash.; Junction City, Ore.; Portland, Ore.; Roseburg, Ore.; Richmond, B.C.; and Parksville, B.C. At least 474 flights were made by at least 50 pilots at Northwest venues.

The reports below are from the various organizations and individuals who participated; some of the data is taken from the worldwide report.

Data and reports will be added if more are received by Flying Lines.

Washington state

Some of the Skyraiders' planes lined up awaiting action Randy Ling photo.

Auburn, Wash., Ringmaster flights

Oct. 5-6, Roegner Park, Auburn, Wash.

By Dave Gardner

Nine Northwest Skyraiders pilots made a total of 122 flights. The chart below lists the pilots, the type of Ringmaster and the number of flights.

Click here for a detailed report of the Skyraiders Ringmaster event and lots more photos.

Pilots	No. of Flights	Airplane /Engine	Airplane / Engine
Rodney Claus	10	S-1 / Brodak 25	RingMonster I/Fox 78
Jim Schneider	7	S-1 / OS 25	RingMonster II/LA46
Jim Schneider	3	RM Jr./ Enya 15
Jim McCartney	6	S-1 / Johnson 29	RM Jr. / OS 15
Steve Ashmore	56*	PJ RM 576/ Electric	RM Jr. / OS 15
Steve Holt	5	S-1 / OS 25FP	RM Flash / Fox 15
Will Tilse	4	S-1 / Fox 35	Baby RM / Cox 049
Kris Millard	29*	S-1 / Throttled OS25
Jeff Potter	2	S-1 / OS 25
TOTALS: 8 Pilots	122	9 planes	6 planes

More Skyraiders planes await action. Randy Ling photo.

Skyraiders (from left) Jim Schneider, Rod Claus, Dave Gardner and Kris Millard. Randy Ling photo.

Roegner Park ballfield park site. Randy Ling photo.

Chehalis, Wash., Ringmaster flights

Oct. 5-6, Faro Field, Chehalis, Wash.

By Jeff Christenson

Three of the Faro Field Flyers flew our ringmasters during the fly-a-thon weekend for a total of 104 flights. it seems a lot for three people but we have our thousand-lap club every year so our flights are actually an average of about 30 laps give or take.

Pilots were myself Jeff Christenson, My wife Tina Christenson and John Milton with Sonny helping out.

Planes were two Ringmaster S-1's and a self designed 36" RingMistress that Tina flies.

Oregon

Eugene, Ore., area Ringmaster flights

Lineup of Ringmasters awaiting flights by the Eugene Prop Spinners. Flying Lines photo.

By John Thompson

Oct. 3, Can Do Ranch, Junction City, Ore.

The Eugene Prop Spinners worked Ringmaster flights into their weekly flying session. Russ Hester, Dave La Fever, Gene Pape, John Thompson and Gary Weems flew, with support from Jim Corbett. Eleven Ringmaster flights were made. Flights were:

Russ Hester: S-1
Dave La Fever: Junior (2 flights), Super.
Gene Pape: S-1 (3 flights).
John Thompson, S-1, Super, Baby.
Gary Weems, S-1

Portland Ringmaster flights

Lineup of Ringmasters awaits action at Jim Walker Memorial CL Field in Portland's Delta Park. Jess Walls photos.

Reported to Brotherhood of the Ring by Don Curry

Oct. 6, Jim Walker Memorial field, Delta Park, Portland, Ore.

The Northwest Fireballs flew on Sunday.

The people who flew were: Don Curry, Dave Royer, Dave Bush, Jess Walls, Tex Newman, Leighton Mangels, Terrance Bardue, Doug Powers, Niels Madsen, Jim Cameron and Darrin Bishop.

Ringmaster variants flown were Board Wing 1/2-A, Baby, Junior and S-1.

The club logged 162 total flights.

Below is a gallery of Ringmaster photos from the Portland event.

A beautiful fall day for flying in Portland.

Medford, Ore., Ringmaster flights

Rogue Eagles flying site, Roseburg, Ore., Oct. 5

By Walter Hicks

Six flights were made by:

Tony Dallas (2)
Chuck Jenks (2)
Richard Schwagfel (1)
Walter Hicks (1)

Roseburg, Ore., Ringmaster flights

Church on the Rise flying site, Roseburg, Ore., Oct. 5

By Bob Lewis

We added seven Ringmaster flights to the worldwide score on the Global Ringmaster Fly-a-Thon. Mark Schluter 4, Bob Lewis 2, Stan Olzaski 1. All planes were the original S-1 version. Mark’s was powered by a Fox .35. Bob’s (and Stan’s) were powered by a Veco .19 and an Enya .20.

Watch a video by Stan Olzaski.

British Columbia Ringmaster flights

Parksville, B.C.

From left, Steve Hughes, Tom Stevens and Jim Sheppard at the PDQ Flyers club flying site in Parksville, B.C., on Vancouver Island.

By Steve Hughes

Over the past year several members of our club have been actively promoting CL flying and we now have up to six members coming out to give it go every Tuesday afternoon winter and summer. Although it would be great to see more, this is a start.

In the meantime we did again manage to do our small part for the world wide Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon with three flyers fielding five Ringmasters and logging 20 flights. Our flyers included Tom Stevens with his PAW .19-powered S1 as well as a electric S1; Jim Sheppard flew his vintage S1 with a OS .25 FP ( this plane is a '60's survivor!); and Steve Hughes put in his flights with a standard S1 with a OS .25 FP and a "Snoopy" modified Ringmaster pulled around by a OS .25 FP. Unfortunately the Red Barron failed to show up - curses!!

All in all we had a great afternoon with ideal conditions spent enjoying our hobby with good company, lets hope that next year a few more flyers will join us for this fun event. For general information regarding our club check out www.pdqflyers.com or for our C/L activity I can be reached by email.

Vancouver, B.C. area

Richmond, B.C, Rice Mill Road site, Oct. 5

Some of the Rice Mill Road fliers, from left: Larry Lewin, Larry Bell, Dennis Cousineau, Ron Simonson and Dave Doerksen. Chris Cox photo.

By Chris Cox

The Vancouver Gas Model Club and the Pacific Aeromodellers Club members met at the Rice Mill Road flying site in Richmond, B.C. Turn out compared to last year was lower than hoped for, but for those who did show up, had a very good time and enjoyed near perfect weather conditions.

Twelve fliers participated, making a total of 42 flights, about half of last year's number.

James Cox readies the ever reliable pink Ringmaster for flight. His Ringmaster flew a total of 15 flights on the day of the Fly- In.

Left: Longtime modeller Dave Finney showed up with a new Ringmaster equipped with a Greg Davis modified McCoy Redhead.
Right: Glenn Little flew this very pretty Ringmaster. Glenn flew it twice and Dave McCheyne flew it another two times.

Left: Chris Sackett flew this Vintage Super Ringmaster. Right: Denis Cousineau brought this rescued Ringmaster to fly. It spent the past 30 or more years in a barn at the Delta Airpark. Nobody knows anything more about the old girl, but it was fun to see her get some air under her wings again. Denis flew her nine times!

Rose Cox soloed! I wonder how many people made their very first solo flight on a Ringmaster. Rosie put up five flights and loved it!

Northwest fliers participate in 2024 Ringmaster fly-a-thon

See fly-a-thon website for up-to-date worldwide flight total