MERRIMACK – Who among us hasn’t fantasized about taking off into the wild blue yonder, skirting the clouds and gazing down on the rugged New Hampshire landscape?

There are those who choose to experience this particular thrill by proxy – that is, building planes that range from painstaking replicas of vintage aircrafts to wild flights of fancy, and then setting them aloft through the magic of remote control.

For more than two decades, The Southern New England Flying Eagles R/C Club has been exploring this particular endeavor, as they gather regularly at Drobysh-Patterson Field in Merrimack.

On Sunday, Jan. 29, these intrepid hobbyists will gather for the 2012 Frozen Fingers Fun Fly at that location, an event that will pit pilots against each other in tests of skill and derring-do.

For Merrimack resident Joe Marrone, these events have afforded him countless hours of enjoyment and satisfaction.

“The club was founded some four years before I joined, back in 1990,” he said. “Basically, it just started with a few people from the southern New Hampshire area with the same interests, who decided that they wanted to form a club. First off, they had to find a field, and had one supplied to them by Mr. Dana Patterson.”

The field was designated the Drobysh-Patterson Field in 2001, in honor of Stanley Drobysh, a World War II pilot who flew mercy missions to bring more than 500 wounded soldiers back from the battlefield. Dana Patterson, now deceased, was recognized for allowing the field to be used as a flying site. After Patterson’s passing, Marrone said, his son graciously allowed the club to continue flying at the field.

Along the way, the club made significant improvements to the site.

“The first thing the club did was to build a runway,” Marrone said. “Further down the line, they supplied fencing and gating, to protect the site from vandals.”

Like any other club, the Flying Eagles has seen its share of ups and downs.

“The club started out with about a dozen members, back in the 1980s,” Marrone said. “By the year 2000, we were really flying high – we had about a 100 members, and reached a peak of about 126 participants. Then, some things started to happen in the hobby, and membership dropped off. We have about 60 members now.”

The development in question, according to Marrone, was the arrival of the Parkflyer, a small electric airplane that, due to its size, is easier to operate than traditional radio-controlled planes.

“People started buying these planes, and flying them in places that didn’t require them to join a club,” he said. “So there was a huge population of people who wanted to fly planes, but didn’t want to join a club – they didn’t want to pay the dues, or put up with the politics that can make life a little unpleasant.”

Far from being just weekend dabblers, the Flying Eagles are serious about their craft, and their passion is reflected in the sheer diversity of the models involved.

“They run the full gamut, from planes that are almost identical replicas of the real thing, all the way to planes that look real, but are cheaper and easier to build,” Marrone said. “Then there are sports planes, and some planes that have no bearing on reality whatsoever.”

Marrone says he has about seven or eight planes of his own, as well as a quadcopter, with four sets of blades, and an ornithopter, a novelty device that looks and flies like a bird.

As winter sets in with a vengeance, these hardy souls will venture out onto Drobysh-Patterson Field for the 2012 Frozen Fingers Fun Fly, and compete for prizes and honors.

“The Frozen Fingers Fun Fly was started some 12-14 years ago by one of our earlier active members,” Marrone said. “The concept was to pit the pilots against each other in flying events. There is some element of skill, as well as chance, to level the playing field. For example, a typical fun flight involves rolling the dice; whatever number comes up, you have to do that many rolls. Then, as soon as the plane comes in, you have to start rolling the dice again, until you come up with your original number. Of course, all the time, the clock is ticking, and you’re burning up time. Eventually, the events are all tallied and the person with the shortest time wins.”

Marrone said spectators are welcome at these events, and can just drop by and watch the pilots work their magic.

“People start to accumulate at about 8:30 or 9 a.m.,” he said. “At 9:30, we have a pilots’ meeting. That’s when the director tells everyone what the rules of engagement are for the day. At 10, the event actually starts. One by one, each pilot that has signed up to fly in the event will perform the exercise that is assigned. If the pilot is required to do the dice-rolling and plane-rolling event, then he does that; if it’s some other exercise, then that’s what he has to perform. All of the scores are kept, and then they just do another round robin, and each pilot who flew before flies again, this time in a different event. Then there is a third and fourth series of exercises before the day concludes, the scores are tallied, and prizes are handed out.”

Although the idea of flying remote-controlled planes in freezing temperatures doesn’t daunt the Flying Eagles on the whole, Marrone said he’s content to sit on the sidelines these days.

“I’m 71 years old,” he said. “I don’t do many of the winter events anymore. I have to admit the cold gets to me. I was out flying a couple of weeks ago, when it was about 45 degrees, but this event requires brave young men to brave those temperatures. I’m kind of out of that category now.”

Those “brave young men” are ready and willing to show off their skills with these planes, no matter what the thermometer reads. If one were to think the Flying Eagles have their heads in the clouds, it’s clear, from their expertise and dedication, that they have both feet firmly planted on the ground.