11th PIHABF

What to See

The Philippine Aeromodellers Club

The Philippine Aeromodellers Club group is pleased to announce our participation in the coming 9th PIHABF. The group will provide radio controlled airplane airshows of various aspects. Any or all of the following will be performed:

1. Solo or group Freestyle Aerobatics - using unlimited aerobats such as the Extra 300 and the Sukhoi Su26, this event contains radical airplane aerobatics. Manuevers such as snaps, spins, hover, and even the lomcevak is prominent in this program. Some even complemented with music. A full program runs about five minutes.

2. Scale - using scaled down models of real aircraft such as the P-51 mustang, piper cub, etc...Tis event boasts of accurately crafted scale model of airplanes of their full scale counterpart, including fly-by's and some simple manuevers. A full five minutes per program.

3. Pylon racing - using quickie 500 and formula 600 airplanes, this is a high speed, high adrenalin event that can drive the audience wild. Ten laps of high speed runs on two pylons 150 meters apart, this program takes no more than three minutes per heat.

4. Gliders on hi-start launch- using unpowered gliders, this program displays the ability of an aircraft to stay in the air even without an engine. maximum 10 minutes per launch.

5. Banner Tow / Object drop - great for advertising , about 15 ft long and 1.5 foot wide banner can be towed by an rc airplane on the flying field. Candy or confetti can be dropped on the audience.

6. Helicopter Exhibition - Scale and acrobatic helicopters will do stuff even real pilots cant imagine.

7. Electric Powered Aircraft - These micro machines is at par with their gas counterparts and can do both outdoor and indoor flying.

8. Aeromodeling Symposium - Building and flying lectures and demonstrations will be provided to interested audiences

SKYDIVING RAMBLINGS

It is not a death wish.

You'd probably roll your eyes in disbelief and quietly steer kids away from me, but stay with me on this.

I had a dream when I was a child—I was an odd one—it was an equally odd dream. Home from school, I'd head straight up to the roof and sit for hours watching birds fly. How serenely sweet they were, playing and dancing with the wind. I thought no one coud ever be as happy and as free as a bird, swooping, gliding, singing…

I was envious, but not with the singing bit! I can scare of a whole town with my singing! The idea that I'm merely human and earthbound gnawed at me for years on end. Every time I see birds flying there's this little child in me taunting, chanting, “Neener neener neener…”

Years later, sitting on the same roof (not that I was just there the whole time, but you get the idea), I saw parachutes! Just like in the movies, it seemed that everything became brighter and a choir of angels was singing in the heavens. It could be the church choir next-door, but it didn't matter!

I made my first jump in 1996, and I have logged hundreds since then. Each jump has always been as exhilarating as the first. I'm just a teeny weenie little maya bird really—I am but a fledgling to my mentors: Mort Freedman and Martin Imatong. They taught me how to fly.

Their patience and encouragement kept me in the air, I was not the easiest of students. I've held grips with friends in freefall and I have shared their sky. I have touched the clouds and m humbled by the privilege.

Perhaps in my next life, I'd be a bird. But then again, with my luck, I'd probably be a cockroach with the oddest unpredictable flight patterns.

This is my life. Up there is my playground. Come fly with me.

Gigi Auditor

KITE ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES (KAP)

The Kite Association of the Philippines (KAP), is an all-volunteer, non-profit, nongovernmental-cultural organization founded by a group of kite enthusiasts. Its main aim and purpose is to revive, develop and promote a centuries old Asian practice, which is also part of Filipino culture and tradition—kite making and kite flying.

Since the 1990s, the founding members have been in the forefront of serious efforts to revive and perpetuate this valuable component of our rich and deeply rooted heritage, by participating in the organization of local kite festivals and competitions.

We can fly without entering a real cockpit. With a PC and software like Microsoft's Flight Simulator, you too can join us!

Many of us are in the Philippines. But we have friends all over the world as well—with members from Canada to Cameroon, San Francisco to Surabaya. We fly in groups over the internet, playing habulan (tag) from Cebu to Sydney, while sitting in our living rooms in Seoul or San Juan. Some of us have even become student and private pilots in the process. Our friendships span the World Wide Web and we've even been featured on TV.

We create virtual scenery for Philippine airports, so real that passengers stroll the terminal in Davao and manananggals maraud in Capiz. We build photo-realistic simulator models of Philippine airplanes, so detailed right down to the correct aircraft registration number (see actual screenshots above).

The KAP also attends foreign kite activities and represents the country in international competitions where it has reaped honors and recognition from world-renowned kite experts and foreign associations. Part of its policy is to organize and coordinate the relevant aspects of conducting local, regional, national and international events. As a result, the KAP has not only gained the ability to organize kite activities on the domestic level, but the authority and capability to coordinate with foreign kite authorities all over the world, thus raising the standard and recognition of Philippine kite activities and projects to world-class status.

THE PHILIPPINE FLIGHTSIM GROUP

Could you land a Boeing 747 at NAIA? With no formal flight training? In the middle of a tropical thunderstorm?

With the Philippine Flightsimmers Group, you absolutely can — without having to leave the comforts of home.

The Philippine Flightsimmers Group is a gathering of both young and old, professionals and students, retirees and teenagers and a handful of real-life pilots. We share a unique hobby—flight simulation on home PCs. And it can be as real as we want it to be. We use airline procedures on 12-hour flights to San Francisco, buzz the beach at Boracay or test our skills at Laoakan, Baguio. We fly real weather with air traffic controllers or soar a Cessna in sunlit solitude.

Interested? We can help you take off. I you want to be a member, you already are! No fees, no forms. Just an interest in flight and fun. Visit us at www.philskies.net

The Philippine Flight Simmers Group will have a ‘flyable' mock-up of a Beechcraft King Air as well as a desktop computer ‘cockpit' for everyone to try-out at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival on Feb. 10-13, OMNI Aviation, Clark. See you there!