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Sun City Prop Busters celebrates 30-year anniversary

The Estevan based r/c club Sun City Prop Busters celebrated their 30-year anniversary on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12. President of the club Art Dougherty said the high temperatures caused issues for the celebrations, but they still went on nonetheless.

The Estevan based r/c club Sun City Prop Busters celebrated their 30-year anniversary on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12.

President of the club Art Dougherty said the high temperatures caused issues for the celebrations, but they still went on nonetheless.

“Everything went great both days,” said Dougherty.

“We had some issues with the heat both days unfortunately. It was just so hot that is was causing issues with electric motors in the remote controlled vehicles, but overall we had a really good turnout as far as participants coming out to fly planes. We had a cake cutting and barbecue going on and people coming out to camp for the weekend.”

The club began in the mid 1970s with a small group of r/c enthusiasts meeting at the local airport to fly their planes and helicopters. Over the years the club has had several different facilities and seem membership fluctuate as high and 60 to 70 members.

“It was about six people when the club first got together,” said Dougherty.

“At the time we were just flying at the old airport for something fun to do. We’ve had a lot of different fields at different times over the years. In the mid to late 1980s we started having regular club meetings, and since then we’ve always been evolving and growing. If anyone ever wants to just come out and watch us fly, they are more than welcome.”

The Prop Busters current facility is located four kilometres east of Estevan on highway 39 and two kilometres south on the Shand Power Station Road, and boasts a world class flying area as well as a dirt track for remote controlled cars.

Activities for the 30-year anniversary included a cake cutting on Aug. 11, followed by various flight demonstrations put on by members of the club and special guests from the Regina Windy Flyers.

“We had a gentleman tell us this weekend that he built an r/c plane 30 years ago but had forgotten how to fly it,” said Dougherty.
”He told us that he wanted to learn to fly it again and he just happened to hear about us for the first time this weekend, so that was one of the best parts of the weekend, we love having people come out and get involved with us. We encourage anyone that’s interested in learning or just seeing what we do to come down on Tuesday nights for our regular flying nights so they can come see what we’re all about.”

Those interested in joining the Sun City Prop Busters are encouraged to visit their flight facility or speak to a member. Membership fees are $50 per year for the club and $85 per year for the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada, which provides members with required liability insurance before they are able to fly with the club.
“We’re always available for general flight instruction for anyone in the public that wants to come out and learn how to fly,” said Dougherty.

“Drones are another thing that we cater to as we can fly them on our field and have some really good instructors, we also have our track for the r/c cars called the bumps and jumps circle track. I would say that we have one of the best fields for r/c enthusiasts in the entire province, and we’re really proud of the fact that we an kind of cater to all facets of r/c.”

The Sun City Prop Busters host a yearly fun fly, as well as regular Tuesday night flights, for those interested in becoming a part of the organization.

Our fun fly is a once per year event, and its just getting people to come out and have some fun while we all fly and hangout. It’s a great family sport and we encourage families with kids to come out and just have some fun,” said Dougherty.