Welcome to
The Pensacola Free Flight Team
Homepage

			Gulf Coast Gumband Squadron #46
Charter 203	SAM 17	Member

The Pensacola Free Flight Team membership is made up of folks with very diverse interests in terms of the type of free flight activity they prefer, and all are welcome. Some members' primary interest is gas, some electric, some rubber, some scale, and some strictly gliders. Radio control activity is not available at our main flying site. We are especially interested in sharing our sport with anyone who is either new to the game or who have taken a few years of time out to make a living and raise a family.

We have members who live as far away as New Orleans and yet they are active in the business of the club. There are dozens of associate members who travel as much as 300 miles to fly at our outstanding flying site. We have well over 100 who subscribe to our newsletter, which, while briefly discussing local club activities, attempts to act more as a journal for the purpose of sharing ideas for building and flying free flight models. We are very fortunate to have weekly free access to one of the finest flying fields you can imagine - a Navy helicopter field with a mile square of mowed grass.

The Pensacola Free Flight Team, formally established as a nonprofit corporation in 1994, is the outgrowth of an informal group of free flight modelers who had been flying together since the 1930s.  In the early 1940's the informal leadership of the group was assumed by the late Tom McLaughlin whose extreme generosity of time and money was and continues to be a major influence on free flight modeling not only locally but nationally as well.  The label "Pensacola Free Flight Team" was developed in the 1960s as a consequence of Tom's leadership of a team of freeflight modelers entering FAI competitions nationwide.  Upon Tom's passing in 1993, Bob Junk assumed the leadership role, which he carried up through 2003.  We've labeled Bob as our "past president emeritus."  Paul Grabski is now our President and "Staffel Fuehrer."  Our newsletter, the Thermalier, was formally started in Novemeber 1998 by the late Jack Bolton.  Upon Jack's passing the task was assumed by George White, whose emphasis is upon providing information to builders and flyers to help them better enjoy the sport.


Questions, recommendations, contact:

George White - white76@cox.net