Model airplane enthusiasts gather in Naples for Fun Fly show

Back to their younger years, when spare change was traded for airplane kits and their free time was spent in fields of grass where they would strain their necks to watch planes soar through the sky.

Clutching the transmitter is the final step for people like Bill Hunt, who have spent more than two years building radio-controlled model airplanes. After countless hours of work and thousands of dollars later, the first launch of a plane is the most important.

And the emotions they felt when they were younger as they launched their model airplanes into the sky come gushing back once that transmitter's in hand.

"When I'm building something like this, and then it flies, that's about as high as I'm gonna get," Hunt of East Naples said, while admiring his 15-pound British airplane that he built from scratch.

Hunt is one of more than 160 members of the Collier Model Aeronautic Club, which sponsored Naples Aerodrome 2003 on Saturday and Sunday. The event featured antique-scale model radio-controlled planes from the 1903-1919 era.

About 30 pilots arrived to the 40-acre field off Manatee Road in southeast Naples to spend the weekend marveling at the 86 model airplanes and watching them glide through the sky like birds.

Many of the participants, some who traveled from places as far away as Oregon and Indiana, spent their younger years as pilots, military or commercial.

Joe Overbeck, vice president of the Aeronautic Club, said the group normally hosts annual Fun Fly shows, but this was the first time members concentrated on one particular era.

The show also honored the 100-year anniversary of the first manned flights by Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Claes Mouret of Naples said he enjoys the Fun Fly shows, which the club has at least once a year, because it gives the members a chance to show off their hard work.

"It's one of those hobbies that require a lot of skill," Mouret said. "It's not something anybody can go out and do. It's challenging to build them, and it's challenging to fly them properly."

Now that the Fun Fly show is over, model airplanes can still be seen flying high in the sky in the southeast Naples field.

From 9 a.m. until dusk seven days a week, aeronautic club members can go to the secluded area that sits off of a skinny, sandy road and reminisce of younger years as their planes leave the ground.

Hunt says operating a plane can sometimes be nerve-wracking, especially if the plane has never been off the ground before. But that's also what makes it so much fun.

"When I was a kid, I used to fly them," Hunt said. "Retirement brought me back (to it because) I don't like playing golf."