Flite Fest 2024 | Recap✨

This is the face of pure joy

Flite Fest is an annual model aviation and STEM festival hosted at Furey Field in Malvern, Ohio, which just celebrated its tenth anniversary. (Scroll to the bottom for the official recap video)

Hosted by the phenomenal YouTube channel Flite Test, Flite Fest is an international gathering of a passionate community who "build, fly, crash, repeat!" homemade remote-controlled airplanes.

Bohème building her first airplane.

Traditionally, homemade model airplanes are built out of balsa wood and covered with fabric or plastic using difficult and time-consuming methods. Since 2010, Flite Test has been lowering the barrier of entry to flying by designing airplanes that use everyday materials that are easy to work with. You can go to the dollar store, grab foam board (paper on both sides with foam in the middle), print out free plans from Flite Test, cut, hot glue, tape, and boom! You built yourself an airplane (minus the electronics)...

Final pre-flight check before we crash because it's too windy 😅

The atmosphere of the festival was full of joy and excitement. The wonderful people behind Filte Test are committed to fostering a kind and encouraging community in a hobby traditionally full of gatekeeping and a focus on competition over creativity/learning. Not that there is a lack of competition at Flite Fest! Three times a day, hundreds of airplanes took to the sky with just one goal: smash into each other!

Combat! Three times a day, hundreds of model airplanes take to the sky and try to smash into each other.

I first came across Flite Test over a decade ago, and they inspired me to build my own plane (see below)! Even though I couldn't afford the electronics then (I was 14), it gave me so much joy to be able to start with just a few simple materials, follow a basic design (from Experimental Airlines, another great YouTube channel), and make something that looked awesome and even glided! It gave me an achievable outlet for my creativity at a time when I had so many dreams as a maker and so few resources.

Fast-forward to 2022, and I'm working my first full-time job at the New York Hall of Science. Now that I had the resources and autonomy to do whatever I wanted, I hopped in my car and drove—by myself— for seven hours to my first Flite Fest! I had signed up to volunteer at the STEM tent. I wound up meeting and becoming fast friends with Trevor Sill, the FT STEM Curriculum Director. Outside of the typical STEM lessons that he taught, there wound up being many families who needed help getting in the air for the first time. I met so many kind and welcoming people and made so many spectacular memories; I am so grateful to have been able to go and return each year!

Speaking with Trevor in 2024... Bohème paparazzi'd this flattering picture 🙄

Keep your eyes 👀 open for an exciting announcement soon!

Below is part 1 of the official recap!