A Martian Spaceship was all Tifton resident Gene Senkbeil and his Donalsonville friend Chuck Orrick needed to win Best In Show at the Southeast Electric Flight Festival held the first week of this month. Senkbeil and Orrick’s Martian Spaceship competed against over 400 other contestants at the largest remote-control electric fly-in in the world held at Hodges Field in Andersonville, S.C.

“There was nothing else there that was even similar,” Senkbeil said. The unusual -looking aircraft is a 1954 free flight design that was re-engineered and enlarged for radio flight in 1991. Last year, Senkbeil and Orrick modified the design for electric flight.

“The spaceship is about five feet long,” Senkbeil said. “It is about 20 inches in diameter and the tail fins come up about two feet off the ground. It doesn’t have wings. It lifts like a space shuttle.”

Senkbeil said they flew the spaceship just one time before entering it in the contest. “We took it to Sylvester late one Sunday afternoon,” he said. “We flew it for about 35 to 40 seconds.”

Senkbeil said of the SEFF event, “They had never seen anything like this. It flew and it flew impressively.” He said the craft is very light, only about 2 1/2 pounds, and was facing 18 to 25 mph winds. It is made of carbon fiber and balsa wood.

“I worked on it for six weeks, every day,” Senkbeil said. Senkbeil constructed the main structure and Orrick spent another two weeks attaching the strakes and building the wire landing gear.

Building models has been a lifelong hobby for Senkbeil, who said he has been doing it for some 44 years. “Lately I’ve gotten to be a builder,” he said. “And there are very few of us left.” He said taking a box of sticks and converting it into an aircraft is “an art that is being lost.”

“I was so excited!” Senkbeil said of the Best In Show win. Senkbeil and Orrick received a plaque and five $100 gift certificates from event sponsors. “That was totally unexpected,” Senkbeil said. The event staff picked the top six planes to nominate for the Best In Show award. The entire staff voted on the top six nominations and the winner was announced at the awards ceremony.

Orrick said, “Flying the fast and unusual design was difficult in the wind but Gene had done a great job building the main structure and I could not let him down in front of all those people!” The festival was attended by over 3,000 spectators. People came from all over the southeastern United States to attend the annual event.

Both Orrick and Senkbeil are members of Country Flyers RC Club. They have a Web site at www.countryflyers.com.

To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208.