Interlake Spectator 

The Gimli model airplane festival is taking off!

More than 1,000 people turned out last weekend for the second edition of the increasingly popular event. They were entertained by fun flys, static displays and an air show at the festival site in a farm field on PR 231 just west of Highway 8.

“The crowd was bigger than the first year,” said pleased organizer Barry Martin of the Gimli Tourism Board. “As well, the number of model owner-pilots rose to 80 from 55, and they came from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Northwestern Ontario.”

The festival was launched in the summer of 2004 after three years of planning by a four-person committee composed of Martin, Gimli Mayor Kevin Chudd, Todd Shulba and Jeff Esslinger.  Martin and Shulba had met as co-workers at Air Canada while Esslinger, of Winnipeg’s Western Turbo Co., is zone director for the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada. The show’s popularity is prompting Martin and other committee members to think about expansion and a move to a larger site. The Gimli tourism official said the festival has already outgrown the eight-acre farm field, with the result that the committee is eyeing a 20-acre site at Gimli Industrial Park.

“We’re looking at a long-term development,” Martin said. “It would eventually include a pond for radio-controlled boats and float planes.”  Even now, the entertainment level is high for model airplane buffs. This year they were treated to on-land displays including a flying lawn mower designed by Shulba, a flying Superman by Len Carlson and a Delta wing jet model travelling up to 300miles-per-hour with the help of an on-board computer. Martin said sponsors of the festival include Gimli Tourism, the community’s three car dealers, Rogers Wireless, Western Turbo and Oakley Optical. Besides the flying activities, the festival featured a fish fry and lots of animated conversations around the food concession operated by Gimli Kiwanis Club.

“There was a plenty of socializing,” Martin said. “People in the model airplane community know each other and have a passion for what they do. They were here to show off, although this was not a competition.”
He said one spin-off of the festival is that Gimli area residents have formed a model airplane club with about 30 members.“Our show has come a long way in a short time,” he added. “One reason is our location close to Winnipeg. Our nearest competitors are Asessippi in Western Manitoba and Fort Frances, Ont.”

Roger Newman