Master Model Builder Ron Peterka has volunteered at the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s model shop for more than 20 years and has contributed to a variety of projects at the Museum. His modeling interests have also been applied to almost every form of aircraft modeling since WWII. Ron turned 81 years old this year.

He belongs to the U.S. Scalemasters Association (USSMA), which is a National RC scale modeling organization founded approximately 33 years ago in California. USMMA supports qualifying RC scale contests all over the country each year, about 24 per year.

Top qualifiers at each Qualifier contest, in each Classification, are allowed to compete in the annual National Championships, which are held at a different locale each year, moving from East Coast to West Coast to Central United States to allow competitors maximum opportunities to compete. Some qualifying pilot/builders come from foreign countries as well.

Classes include Expert (entrant must build and fly his/her own entry); Team Scale (model builder can join with a pilot to compete); and Pro-Am Pro (pilot can compete with a model built by someone else with limits on static judging points). There are also a couple of ‘Sport’ classes that are designed to provide entry-level competition without huge outlays of money for models.

This year’s Championships were held at Monaville, Texas, near Houston. Ron’s pilot, Curtis Kitteringham, and he have been competing as a Team for close to 15 years. They are a team because Ron’s piloting skills are nowhere near competition level.

This year Ron and Curtis won First Place in the Team Scale Class, which came with a huge trophy, which is now displayed at the model shop at the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex. Ron’s 1:5 scale model of a Stinson SR-5 Reliant had the second highest static judging score of the contest at 97.25 (out of a possible 100 points). In the contest the builder gets a trophy, and the pilot also gets a trophy.

The model shop is currently working on two projects. One is a Beech Turbo-prop model of a plane that was flown around the world by former library volunteer Dennis Stewart. At the age of 60, Stewart flew around the world with Robert Weiss in an A36 Beechcraft Bonanza. His story is told in the book, Bonanza Around the World, published by Wind Canyon Publishing, Inc. in 1998.

The other project is a 1:9 scale WWII B-17 Flying Fortress, with a 146 inch wingspan. Visitors are welcome at the model shop to watch these models progress on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex is located at 335 Kenney Street, El Cajon, CA 92020. The Annex is free and open to the public, but donations are welcome. The Annex is open from 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.