But the risk, the thrill and, sometimes, the chance to start all over again are what drew the members of the Eastern Shore Aeromodeler’s Club to their hobby, and, along with the chance to spend a day socializing and relaxing, they’re what brings them to their flying field in Hurlock each Sunday.

The club has about 50 members from the Eastern Shore, from Salisbury, Cambridge, Easton, Oxford and beyond, and their weekly meetings serve many different purposes. They’re a chance to learn from more experienced pilots, to get help repairing a plane, and to ensure that you’ll be flying safely.

But they’re also a chance to spend time with people who share your passion.

“I just like being around the people that are attracted to it,” says Jack Upchurch of Wye Mills, club president. “It’s a social activity.”

 Upchurch, an owner of Regal Designs in Easton, got into model airplanes about five years ago, when his wife suggested it as something for him and their 8-year-old son to do together. Upchurch’s starter plane cost between $400 and $500. Now, five years later, his son is more interested in other hobbies, but Upchurch has 15 airplanes of his own, with plans to build a scale model of a World War II plane, the P-38 “Lightning,” with a 10-foot wingspan.

“I’m not sure [my wife] is real happy,” Upchurch says of how his hobby has grown beyond her original suggestion.

But most who get into model airplanes don’t just dabble in the hobby — it becomes a nearly all-consuming passion. This is the case for one family which now has three generations of flyers.

Until a husband-and-wife team joined the club a few weeks ago, Teri Sebring of Hebron was the only female member of the Eastern Shore Aeromodeler’s Club. Teri has been flying since 1976, and along the way brought into the sport both her sons, her husband Matt, and now her 3-year-old granddaughter Hannah, who has tried flying on a “buddy box” system once or twice and loves spending time at the field.

Teri, Matt, and Teri’s son Chris Piasecki, 17, have about 20 airplanes, give or take a few — and they estimate they own between $50,000 and $70,000 worth of planes and equipment. But Teri’s response to those surprised at the investment is the same she gives when her mother wonders about the expense — there are plenty of less-worthwhile things they could be spending their money on.

“All hobbies are expensive if you carry them to the extreme,” she points out. “This is what we do, and we do it as an entire family. This is good, clean family fun.”

And everyone has fun in their own way. Teri enjoys flying, Matt loves to build and repair planes, and Chris, who began flying at 8 years old, is the competitor of the family.

In fact, at age 13, he flew in a major competition in Harrisonburg, Pa. Of 500 pilots, he placed second overall.

“They were flying planes that cost probably $10,000, and I had probably the cheapest one there,” says Chris. He’s still flying the plane he had that day, a red, white and blue Four Star 120 with an 81-inch wingspan, powered by a modified Weedeater engine. Chris estimates it’s worth close to $1,000.

In the world of model airplanes, competitions are limited only by your money, your imagination, and, perhaps most importantly, your willingness to risk a crash.

The safest races involve taxiing around a field. Then there are pylon races, where planes of equal size and engine strength race around pylons laid out in a triangle, trying to earn the fastest time.

“It’s like NASCAR,” Matt says. “It’s a matter of who’s a better pilot.”

Sometimes people have “bombing” competitions, strapping a dixie cup filled with a bag of flour to the top of a plane, then inverting or “jumping” the plane to drop the flour into a circle. Others execute routines of loops and twists set to music, like a figure skating routine. For the more daring, there’s the limbo, which involves flying your plane under a streamer between two poles, but often results in a dent or the loss of a wing. And for those who want to recreate the thrill of battle, the most modern solution is to buy a contraption that allows you to play laser tag with your plane and others. Chris, however, prefers the old-fashioned method: tying a streamer to your plane’s tail, then attempting to cut your opponent’s streamer with your propeller.

This is not a game for the faint of heart.

“Sometimes you go right through the other plane,” Chris explains.

The variety of things you can do with your plane in the air is easily matched with the endless opportunities to have fun with model airplanes on the ground. Matt and Jack Upchurch share a passion for building, planning and almost endlessly tinkering with their planes, always working toward something bigger and better. Upchurch’s 10-foot P-38, whenever it is finished, will be dwarfed by Matt’s dream: a plane with a 22-foot wingspan that he plans to build in the attic.

Matt, in fact, spends nearly all his time repairing and working on planes. Though he and Teri have been married two years now, he’s spent very little time in the air.

“He doesn’t even have time to fly,” Teri says. “We just keep breaking them.”

But Matt doesn’t mind.

“I don’t even fly, and I look forward to coming every week,” he says.

This, in fact, is the great thing about model airplanes — they can be enjoyed from every angle, whether as a pilot or a spectator, and perhaps best of all, there’s always a new maneuver to try, a new trick to master, an added detail to make the model more authentic, and of course, in the works there’s always a bigger, faster, better plane.

The Eastern Shore Aeromodeler’s Club welcomes visitors to their flying field on Sundays. For directions or more information about the club, visit www.esacclub.org.