ROCHESTER – There’s an old saying in float flying, according to Warren Williamson of Mattapoisett.

“It’s hard to miss the runway.”

Williamson and dozens of other members from the Bristol County Radio Control Club gathered on a “perfectly windy” morning at Mary’s Pond in Rochester on Saturday, Aug. 20, for the John Nicolaci Memorial Float Fly.

The float fly is like a model plane show, but in this case, members of the club stand at the water's edge to fly their creations. Some of these planes are like interactive artwork, taking years of construction and research to make small-scale models of historical planes.

The event honors late Marion resident John Nicolaci, a World War II veteran who first acquired use of the pond for himself and other club members 15 years ago, but passed away in 2009.

Since then, club members have gathered together for a recreational “float and fly” each year to pay homage to Nicolaci.

“You could say [Nicolaci] was a mentor for many of the people in the club today,” said Ned Watts of Mattapoisett, who helped organize the event. 

Jimi Two Feathers traveled from Concord to fly his plane, saying the location at Mary’s Pond is one of the best and most beautiful spots to fly.

“To fly like this, I would drive two hours,” he said.

Members had a wide variety of model planes, taking anywhere from a few hours to eight years to build.

Williamson flew a model of a civilian plane from the ‘50s called a Piper Cub J3 that was originally built by his father in the 1970s.

“I found a bunch of old, yellowed pictures of him with it the other day,” Williamson said. “He’s wearing ‘70s clothes and he looks all skinny.”

While some members of the club joked that they’re just “old men still playing with GI Joes,” Gerry Dupont of Dartmouth thinks of it as “delightful foolishness.”

“It’s just goofy fun,” he said with a grin.

Dupont calls the activity a “Walter Mitty extravaganza,” referring to the New Yorker short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” where a man has vivid daydreams about being a fighter pilot.

Dupont’s daydreams have taken him eight years of work, as he showed off a historically accurate model of a specific plane flown by Japanese fighter pilot Keizo Yamazaki in World War II. He did a lot of personal research on Yamazaki, discovering that his descendents now own a whiskey distillery in Japan.

Dupont says that when he’s done flying the model plane, he has plans to donate it to a museum in Japan. However, he said it was pretty nerve-wracking for him to get it up in the air for the first time.

“If I’d had two cymbals between my knees, I would’ve kept good time,” he joked.

Fellow Dartmouth resident Joe Martinez helped Dupont 3D-print some of the parts for his creation. As a stay-at-home dad during the pandemic, he said that the project “helped him get back into his old routine.”

Williamson called Martinez an “unbelievable pilot,” adding that the Dartmouth resident is “probably the best in the club.”

This was easy to believe, watching Martinez fly his model Macchi M.C. 72 upside-down, backwards, and in several loops – impressive tricks that would probably have a real pilot losing their lunch.

Ruth Nicolaci, John Nicolaci’s wife, stood at the check-in table, watching all the activity. A former pilot that’s not part of the club herself, she still helps raise money for the club and attends the memorial event every year.

“All the members are very generous, if the club needs something everybody kicks in,” she said.

Nicolaci added that the one thing she’d like to see would be more young people in the club and at the events.

Those interested in learning more about the club or participating in future events can reach out to Nancy Dupont at nanw395@comcast.net or visit the Facebook page at Bristol County Radio Control Club.