Terry Smith Day, Sunday, June 4, 2017
A Day of Flying and Fun That Terry Would Have Loved
by Larry Forkum
On Sunday, June 4, 2017, RMC Flying Club members and friends gathered for an event to remember our friend and club member, Terry Smith, who passed away suddenly on May 20, 2017 at age 62. Terry's family and his friends from other flying clubs also joined us and we could not ask for a better day to hold this event. We had a full day planned that I think Terry would have enjoyed that included a swap meet, a cookout, and lots of great flying throughout the day. We also held a 50/50 raffle with the money raised going to a good cause. Thanks also goes out to the raffle winner for donating their prize back into the fund.
This event gave Terry's family members, including his son Corey, a chance to get together and meet some of Terry's friends and club members and see first-hand what Terry loved so much -- RC flying. Terry didn't just love RC flying, he loved teaching others to enjoy flying. About twenty years ago Terry taught me to fly and over the years he's taught many other people of all ages. Whenever someone in the club was having a problem, Terry was there to help and he always had a warm welcome whenever a new person joined the club. One of the biggest contributions that Terry made to the Club over the years was mowing the club field every week. It is not a small job. Mowing the field and keeping the airfield looking great took him about five hours every week, but he did it for his love of the club and he was happy to do it, really taking pride in how nice the field would look for our Club meetings. Terry always welcomed volunteers to help out whenever they could, which always made the job more fun for everyone.
Terry would have loved all the great flying demos there were on Sunday. The FPV guys put on a show for everybody and other Club members put on a show of their own to entertain Terry's family. In addition to seeing some great flying, Club members and friends shared a lot of good stories about Terry with the family like airplane crashes and some crazy builds we did with him and how no matter what happened -- we always had fun. On behalf of the Club I can say it was good to meet all of Terry's family and share our stories with them. I feel like we made some new friends and hope that the family feels the same way. Thank you to all who came out and enjoyed the day remembering Terry, a great RC flyer and teacher, but most importantly, our good friend.
Larry Forkum