Blimp Flyby Mends Rift With Models : Aviation: Its skin patched after being punctured by a radio-controlled plane, the Goodyear Columbia attends a gathering of the hobby aircraft to show there are no hard feelings.

L. J. (Nick) Nicolary, pilot of the Goodyear blimp Columbia, is a man who doesn’t hold a grudge.

Nicolary, who was flying the blimp over Carson last month when it was punctured by a radio-controlled airplane, made a guest appearance Sunday at a gathering of model aviation enthusiasts, albeit at a comfortable distance of 1,000 feet.

To show he bore no ill will toward fliers of radio-controlled aircraft, he circled the model aviation field at the Whittier Narrows Recreation Center in South El Monte in the now-repaired Columbia. Seventy model helicopter and plane pilots and numerous spectators, gathered for the 2nd annual Great Pumpkin Fun Fly, waved and cheered. The event was sponsored by the Orange County Radio Controlled Helicopter Assn.

“I just wanted to show that I don’t hold a grudge against the safe and sane model airplane fliers,” Nicolary said. “It would be the same analogy as a guy who drives drunk. You can’t be mad at all the other people who drive cars.”

Nicolary was piloting the Columbia with seven passengers aboard Sept. 30 when the blimp was buzzed several times by a model plane flown by John William Moyer, 28, of Redondo Beach, police said. Moyer is accused of deliberately guiding the model plane into the side of the blimp, tearing a hole three feet in diameter in its Dacron skin, and forcing Nicolary to make an emergency landing at its home field in Gardena.

Moyer has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism and tampering with an aircraft, rendering it unsafe, all felonies.

Sunday’s flyby came about when Tom O’Key, president of the model helicopter club, wrote to the Goodyear Tire Co. to express concern over the incident, and to emphasize that it was not characteristic of enthusiasts of radio-controlled aircraft. He followed that up with a phone call to the director of public relations, and Key said Goodyear was eager to show support for his event. “They volunteered to do this,” he said.

Hobbyists who gathered for the event, which raised more than $5,000 for the Orangewood Children’s Foundation in Orange County, expressed concern that the actions of one person reflected poorly on all pilots of radio-controlled aircraft.

“People don’t realize that anyone can go out and get one of these things,” said Greg Colella of Whittier. “Our concern right now is that we’re going to be punished for one person’s stupidity.”

Duane Jenkins works at the Hobby Warehouse in Lakewood and sells the kits used to assemble the model planes and helicopters. Although the policy at his store is not to sell equipment to people who don’t know how to use it and aren’t willing to seek certified instruction, he encounters many customers who don’t want to bother with such formalities.

“They just want to buy and fly,” he said.

As far as Columbia pilot Nicolary is concerned, however, most model plane pilots are safe and responsible. “(Moyer) is not representative of them at all,” he said. “It was a case of one outlaw who did it.”