This Friday an interesting article in our local newspaper caught my eye. It was called "Junior Flyboys" and had a big picture of a gown-up man with what appeared to be a gigantic toy airplane and a big smile in his face. 
I thought to myself - it just confirms a long-standing theory that boys never stop playing with their toys! Another well-known saying came to my mind: "Difference between men and boys is the price of their toys".
All my scepticism and sarcasm aside, I read the entire article and found out that the ariplane in the picture is not a toy, but a radio-controlled aircraft capable of great aerobatic maneuvers. It has a powerful engine and requires a great skill to fly - the only difference betweeen a radio controlled and a real airplane is the location of the pilot. In case of R/C the pilot is on the ground.  At the end of the article was an answer to my desire to see these flying machines in action - this weekend just a few miles from our house the best ground pilots will be competing in the IMAC (International Minature Aerobatic Club) challenge.
Sunday morning my husband and I packed our cooler, grabbed our loan chairs, camera, binoculars, and headed for the grand air show.
Directions to the event read something like this : go 9.5 miles to the landfill, look for a farm house on the side of the road, turn on the dirt road and follow the irrigation ditch. Needless to say, it was a challenge. Would have been nice if the numerous event sponsors would have invested in at least a cardboard sign pointing to the event. We passed the farmhouse couple times since it was overgrown by large trees and not readily visible from a highway.
Finally we arrived! I immediately fell in love with small but mighty airplanes. I tried to take a picture from a distance. All I got was a fence and some white tables. However, event organizers noticed my sneaky paparazzi act and granted me VIP entrance onto the flight field. I was able to snap some pictures of the beautiful, graceful, and  colorful airplanes. I wish my camera would have been able to capture them in flight! The show was trully amazing. For a moment, looking high into the sky I forgot that these are not the real full-size airplanes.
While walking around and taking pictures I thought to myself, "So that's how it would feel to be a giant lost in the airport!" Here are a few moments from IMAC 2008 captured with my trusty camera:

Tags: IMAC Love-Air RC Radio Controlled Aircraft Radio Controlled Airplanes

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