He moved his fingers on the levers to keep the helicopter image shown on the screen from crashing as he attempted landings. But each time the landings were a little rough.

“They’re not easy, are they?”Bob Deming asked while watching Rowell’s maneuvering of the helicopter.

“And down it goes,” Rowell declares watching the helicopter hit the ground hard.

“It has a tendency to just get away from you quickly,” Deming tells Rowell. “Airplanes are more forgiving.”

Photo by Mike Lamb Stu Galsted, right, chats with some aviation enthusiasts from Brookings, South Dakota while watching an aviation video during the Marshall Radio Control Club model plane show Saturday.

Rowell agreed.

“Wish I could go back to planes,” he said.

Rowell was operating the simulator that was setup inside a Marshall Area YMCA meeting room during Saturday’s annual model airplane show hosted by the Marshall Radio Control (RC) Club.

The simulator attracted three VinMoer siblings, Elijah, 12, Alicia, 11, and Isaiah, 9.

“It’s cool,” Elijah said.

Photo by Mike Lamb Brookings, South Dakota, resident Tim Missletz looks over the model aircraft on display during the model plane show hosted by the Marshall Radio Control Club.

“I’ve done something like it before with a plane we had. But it crashed,”Alicia said.

The model airplane show attracted youngsters and older people — some who expressed aviation interest.

“I’m trying to get into it a little bit,” Tim Missletz said. He was among a number visitors from Brookings, South Dakota. “I always wanted to fly real planes. I’m 70 years old. I just don’t see myself flying anymore. This (model airplanes) would be the next step.

Missletz was looking over the various model aircraft. He had already tried the simulator.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “It takes a little bit to get used to, but it’s definitely something I’d be interested in. We will see what happens.

Marshall residents Eric Van Leeuwe and Jim Hartke were also looking at the model aircraft on display while chatting about the hobby. Van Leeuwe is the president of the Marshall RC Club.

“I have not been in the club very long, but I started with an old version of that helicopter over there back in 2011, 2012,” he said pointing to the aircraft on display just a short distance away from where they were standing.

“I’ve always been interested in aviation,” he said. “I have a brother in the military. I have an uncle, several cousins. (in the military). Always been kind of (interested in) aviation. I like to do it. I always wanted to be a pilot. Like a full-scale pilot. Just never was in the cards. I couldn’t make that happen.”

Van Leeuwe explained that the cost varies depending on the model aircraft, such as the type of engine and size.

“You can get into the hobby for a couple hundred bucks if you want to start basic. And it just goes right up the ladder,” he said. “Like my aircraft that I have displayed here, a lot of these are electric powered. They use a battery. But you’ll see over there, there’s some planes, those are run on fuel, whether it be nitro or gasoline. You can go up the gambit of power.”

Hartke is not a member of the club, but shared his interest in model aircraft and reminisced on past experiences at 12 years old.

“I started out with the balsam wood, rubber band. It was a rubber band windup. It

had been crashing. It didn’t break quite easy,” he said. “I would take it up on top of the windmill. The windmill is 50 feet. And I let it go and see how far it went out in the cornfield. I never did find it.”