Model pilots — Wasatch Aero Modelers fly radio-controlled electric, gas-powered and sailplane models

It was war.

The pilots strained their concentration as their airplanes rolled and dived through a seemingly random swarm of wings and propellers, each pitted against the other.

The location: Syracuse, Utah. The objective: to get as many points as possible by cutting ribbons trailing other model airplanes and to just stay in the air.

This combat contest of the Wasatch Aero Modelers club on the morning of July 7 is just one of the activities the club holds throughout the year. The whine of these radio-controlled miniatures has been a siren call to people in many different walks of life along the Wasatch Front, including former career pilot Keith Harris of Davis County.

When Harris, 83, heard the motor of his first gas-powered model airplane come to life as a teenager, he was hooked.

His love for flight has led him to complete a career as a pilot and to develop a lifetime love for building and flying model airplanes. For Harris, this hobby has not only provided a chance to do something fun, it has helped him spend time with his sons and make friends with other aero modelers.

Harris is one of about 118 members of the Wasatch Aero Modelers club based in Syracuse. The club began in 1987 and has air-loving members from Ogden to North Salt Lake. It is a non-profit organization and part of the larger Academy of Model Aeronautics. Its members fly radio-controlled electric, gas-powered and sailplane models.

Harris' love for the air led him to fly and instruct during World War II and enjoy a career with Continental Airlines and as a chief pilot for an oil company.

Now Harris sticks with the models. They stand in corners and sit on tables throughout his Davis County home. Outside, Harris has a van dedicated to the hobby with makeshift shelves holding wings and parts.

"He builds absolutely gorgeous airplanes, drop-dead gorgeous airplanes," said Terry Pitkin, the club's treasurer, about Harris' models. Flying Harris' planes is a real "treat" for other members of the club, he said.

Harris has been building them from scratch since he was a kid, his first a rubber band-propelled glider he gave to his doctor. "He took it and put it on his desk, and I thought that was pretty neat that somebody would want something that I made," Harris said.

Harris, as a teenager, took his first model-airplane motor to mechanics in his hometown of Lovell, Wyo. They offered to help him get it working after their shift.