This has been an interesting winter and perhaps one of the hardest things has been controlling all the pent-up energy of the young. The Edgartown Boys’ and Girls’ Club has been busy trying to do this, and succeeded one recent afternoon when the Martha’s Vineyard Model Flying Club came and flew in the gymnasium.

It was exciting as the little planes and a helicopter whizzed around overhead, trying not to bump into each other.

The fliers brought a collection of planes, from the small ones which may be flown indoors to the absolutely huge ones that have a six-foot wing span and have to be flown outdoors.

The audience sat and watched, not so quietly. Children were chatting and yelling and loving every minute of it.

In winter the model club usually flies planes at the larger gymnasium at the regional high school; however, this year they are building an airstrip near the school where they can fly outside without interfering with the larger airport, not far away.

Members of the club who helped lug the planes (try fitting one into an automobile) to the boys’ and girls’ club were Joe Costa, Cedric Belain, Cam Alexander, Tom Flynn, Fred Kingsbury (who is responsible for starting the club), Gary Ben David and Carl Watt, who had just finished building a huge Corsair of balsam with a radial engine that really looked real. (That’s the one with the six foot wing span.)

There was even the kind of plane children once had that ran on an elastic band. Interested youngsters were given directions on how to make flying plane from a paper plate, one that flies on the thrower’s power.

All the planes fall under the auspice of the American Model Aeroplane rules; members abide by their rules and laws. There are 15,000 such clubs in this country with members all having the time of their lives building, designing, learning and flying these wonderful things that taxied around the gym floor.

The Model Club will use its new landing strip this summer. Meanwhile, it is hoped that some of those watching at the boys’ and girls’ club will be interested and become flyers themselves.