Flights Of Fancy

On a brilliant fall Saturday in New York State, the surface of Congers Lake reflects the small airplane motoring above it, rolling left, flipping over, circling in a Cuban Eight, then gliding effortlessly through the October wind. "Flying straight like that is very delicate," offers one nervous spectator. "He has the bare minimum amount of wind under his wings. If he gets it wrong, that plane will crash, straight down. You won't see it again."

Panic does not seize the day, though--not least because the pilot, an expert, is standing coolly on the ground, dual-levered radio transmitter in hand, 500 ft. below the aerobatics. Meet George Messetler, 80, the diminutive, elegant "grandfather" of the Rockland County Radio Control Flyers. Each week Messetler and other like-minded aviators in his 130-member model-plane flying club meet on a field and fly mini-airplanes they have constructed. They console one another when they crash. They grill burgers, give one another unsolicited aviation advice, show off for their wives and, if the wind is right...

"I call it my mental therapy because I have to be so precise," says Messetler, a former toolmaker for the jet-blade industry. "It helps me with straight thinking, because I have to anticipate the next move. At my age, you can sit back and watch TV--but that's no good. This is important, because I constantly keep learning."

Model-plane flyers--and there are lots of them--are a passionate breed. The brainy but little-known hobby has been on the rise in the past five years. Last year membership in the 64-year-old Academy of Model Aeronautics, the hobby's sanctioning body, grew by 6%, the largest increase ever. Some 2,500 clubs across the country meet regularly at lakes, small fields and grand minirunways. Though the flyers start as young as age 6, the hobby is especially popular with retired men. More than half of the AMA's 165,000 members are male and 50 or older. (Women make up just 2%.)

"It requires a certain commitment of time and money, and it can also be pretty complex," says John Hood, a retired physics professor and member of the 200-strong First Weedwackers Aero Squadron in Lakeside, Calif. "The older guys have the time to pursue it really vigorously."

Flying is a complicated business. The planes, made of balsa wood and plastic, range in style from stable training craft to detailed scale planes that replicate the real thing. They weigh from 10 lbs. to 125 lbs. and cost anywhere from $350 for a basic set to more than $4,000. There are gas-powered planes (more powerful but noisier) and newer electric ones. There's sport flying (for the fun of it) and competition, as well as combat flying, float flying (above water) and pattern aerobatics.

Some flyers, particularly those with full-time jobs, buy the newer, almost-ready-to-fly models. But for the retired, building is often half the fun. Depending on the flyer and method--some eschew kits, using their own wood and blueprints--the building process can take months or even years. Scale planes, with gauges, instruments and minipilots, can be especially labor intensive.