Meet the Airbenders

But what came clear at the event was also the kind of passion for the sport that each of the flier possessed. Tweaking his radio while fiddling around with his transmitter,Yogendra Jahangirdar came out with his exquisite plane with a stellar performance. His love for the sport is visible in the way he opens the machine in an attempt to clean the engine or perhaps source methyl alcohol,both an integral part of radio controlling flying. For the 59-year-old,Pune based Jahangirdar,who has been coming to this event for the past six years opening up this flying machine is more of an adrenaline rush than seeing it fly. “ I have made this entirely on my own. When I got into aero modelling,it was for the joy of making an aircraft model that interested me the most.” The plane builder in fact also imparts flying training at the Hadapsar Gliding School and to the cadets of the National Defence Academy and holds the world record for the longest RC flight of its kind,from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 1987. He also flew from Karachi to Dhaka in 1990.

Similarly,Anurag Saraf,an aeromodeller from Nagpur,caught eyes not only by his stunts and hoverings,but also by his attitude towards the sport. Saraf,who runs a steel manufacturing business,flew a Sky Gate hawk aircraft made in the UK. Perhaps what is common to the more than 3000-strong aeromodelling community in the country is the thrill of controlling a machine in flight,in making it hover and relish in its aerobatics. Distributed along the nation right from Mumbai,Delhi,Chennai,Bangalore,Pune,Ahmednagar,Jaipur,Nagpur and Udaipur,one can see how this sport is catching aero modellers in its might.

The championship here also saw some fabulous performances from international fliers. Winfried Ohlgart,Editor,Jet Power who was also present spoke about his long stint with the sport. “ I was six years old,when my father had got me a rubber powered model. It was a free flying model and I would run behind it to get it back. From that day to today,where we can get ready built scale models,it has been a long journey for aero modelling.” Sebastiono Silvestri,13 times Italian Champion and owner Seb Art enthralled audiences with his aero gimmicks. Talking about the show,Silvestri,who had started flying at the age of 10 and has been pursuing this sport since 26 years, said,“ I like designing this planes and that is closer to my heart than even flying. I started this company eight years ago and I am planning for a distribution centre in India from this year. We sell more than eight thousand kits all over the world and I think the Indian market in this field is really a growing one that we would like to tap into.”