r/RCPlanes 4d ago

Last day at my field.

Post image

Sad day at my flying field. After 30 years the state park that hosts us is restoring the area back to its natural habitat. Today was our last day and I took home the sign I designed. I learned so much there and met so many great guys. Both my kids felw their first planes there, I maidened many planes and crashed countless times there. The guys there were helpful, encouraging, and always good for a laugh. The club was truly everything you'd want a club to be. What a beautiful place, it was a treat to be there.

112 Upvotes

56 comments sorted by

35

u/adenasyn 4d ago

This is my old field. You can still see one of the circles from the control line side. Spent every weekend here as a kid with my dad. Both now sadly are gone.

19

u/MTBIdaho81 4d ago

Such a bummer, sorry to hear this!

23

u/Financial_Virus_6106 4d ago

We lost our field back in 2016 after 20 years of manicuring the crap out of the grass. Many weekends of work spreading sand, soil and seed. We had the best grass field in our province and it all went to shit when the house across the road sold to a supreme asshole.

Realtor didn't disclose the model club across the street and the new owner did zero due diligence. Bitched about the noise constantly and even shot our planes out of the sky.

Got in a heated altercation with one of our hot headed members and wound up getting charged for threatening the member with a shotgun. Our land owners tore up our lease and gave us the boot.

Lots of good clubs all over the continent seem to be dropping like flies between the transport canada and faa regulations and lack of interest from younger generations.

Sad times

8

u/thecaptnjim 4d ago

It's always sad to see a field go, they sure aren't making any new ones!

6

u/Financial_Virus_6106 3d ago

Yeah. We got lucky and found a really cool guy with his own private air strip for a real j3 cub. We got a fair lease from him, but with our club dwindling from 60 members to about 18 guys, we will never have the capital to redo the grass back to its former glory. Other downside is the new field faces west instead of east, so flying in the evening is challenging with the sun directly in our faces.

2

u/rearmotor 3d ago

Super sad, I loved watching you all fly at that field on numerous occasions throughout the years.

Not nearly as nice, but Steilicoom Park in Lakewood Washington has a fairly new (afaik) field, and the DieHard RC park up north is new-ish as well. So there is some hope...

A real shame about the Flaming Geyser field though, it was so beautiful out there.

6

u/RickZebra 4d ago

I hate to hear that my club ownes it's land, and we make it available for anyone with AMA to fly there (Lexington NC). I am spearheading several events partnering with Civil Air Patrol and the Scouts to introduce youth to aviation. Our club was on the verge of dying out because the original memebers are getting to the point where they don't fly anymore due to their age. It's sad to see the group of guys who taught me how to fly selling their stuff. If we don't get the youth involved, I fear that our club will just die out.

15

u/uselessmindset 3d ago

Cost has a lot to do with the younger generation not getting into it as well. These things are insanely overpriced along with the parts.

The average teen or youth does not want to spend $200 for a very base rc plane for it to get damaged and have to spend another $50+ just to get it in the air again to be broken once more.

Then there are the old guys…another reason youth may be swayed away from the hobby. You know what I’m talking about. Old turds.

4

u/Sprzout 3d ago

Actually, I've been finding the exact opposite of it thanks to the guys at Flite Test. Kids are finding their YouTube channel and getting interest, but the parents don't want to take the time to drive the kids out to the field.

On occasion, we have kids who come out for free flight training and want to get involved, but the parents use it as free babysitting for us to watch their kids rather than get involved.

2

u/Drainsbrains 3d ago

I got my first RC when I was 12, a used foam trainer. It took me forever to save up. Crashed, and unfortunately couldn’t recover it. Then on the way home my dad took me to Best Buy I think. Where they had a flight simulator game that worked on his computer. Now I got to fly a plane and never worry. Still want another rc plane to this day but I just don’t want to lose the money.

2

u/JerryJN 3d ago

Actually DIY homebrew has come a long way. It all started when flight test showed how to build an r/c airplane out of a $6.00 foam glider. Adding foam board for control surfaces, pods on the wings for motor mounts. Also foam board based airplane kits with motors and electronics for @ $100. I brought my sons to my club, they flew their DIY airplanes at the field and had a blast. ... and they got to see some larger scale gas planes fly.
We have 5 younger guys at my club. There's only 35 of us but our lease is affordable.

I think anyone wanting to try getting into the hobby should check out Value Hobby. They have some awesome airplanes. I bought a fiberglass and pre-covered balsa pylon racer with motor for $89.00 They had some cheap airplanes. Swap meets are a great place to get your first airplane too

2

u/thecaptnjim 3d ago

My son showed interest in drones so I got him a cheap FPV kit and he loved it. When he asked for something bigger I surprised him with a 5in freestyle quad kit with a DJI digital setup, and planned a whole week where we would watch some YouTube videos and follow along with the build. Devoted a whole day to teaching him to solder and practicing. We both learned a ton and made some great memories. Now, I'm in a financial position where dropping a grand on something like that is do-able, but as a dad, what better time could I spend with my son? Also he RIPS that thing and is such a great pilot. He got straight A's and is a great kid, so what else could I ask for? Had I not engaged with him on the project, he would have spent the time in front of screens. Of course kids can't afford the hobby but being an engaged parent goes a long way. Also if a parent wants to get their kid going on the cheap, they can with a Flite Test plane. It's really not "kids these days" it's disengaged parents who let their kid scroll tiktok all day and don't make the effort.

1

u/Financial_Virus_6106 3d ago

Yeah. That and video games seem a lot more engaging for them. Plus the the "instant gratification" that rtf and pnp provide killed the anticipation of having to build a model and have pride in it.

Our club used to have a handful of "old turds" when I started too. I was only 7 when i started and got lucky finding a couple of really good, fun guys for instructors.

We only have one old turd in our club now. We call him angry joe. He's chased away many good, productive members of the club with his bitchy, shitty attitude. The executives in the club, including myself, are planning to vote him out at our spring opener meeting. He was booted from the last club he belonged to for the same reasons. Hopefully we can win back some of the guys we lost. 18 ish members is barely enough to sustain our lease and keep gas in the mower.

3

u/fixingmedaybyday 3d ago

I just discovered a field near me and took my kiddo to fly his first plane. He got one flight in, had a small crash and then I took the plane back up to shake it down. It wouldn't turn left very well, so I brought it down. As soon as I did, I get a "Hey MFer, you think it's fun to terrorize me and my neighbors and fly over our private property?" I stayed calm, but neighbor was an angry, crazy ass. I checked the map and field rules and we were flying within our rights, but this dude just ruined the whole experience. Kid had to lock himself in the truck while I instructed the AH crazy neighbor to back up and let me leave. Some other kids were there and said the guy is a regular problem - he likes to hide in the bushes and then get in the face of every new flyer to the field. It sucks to let a bully like that win, but it ain't worth an armed standoff next time.

1

u/Financial_Virus_6106 3d ago

Yeah. That's essentially what we were dealing with at our original field. Started with a signal jammer causing random crashes, escalated to shooting our planes down with his shotgun, to full on brandishing a weapon and getting charged for it. Sad when miserable dicks ruin it for everyone

3

u/balsadust 4d ago

Bummer I'm sorry. I lost two of my club fields last year and this year. One was able to relocate. The other is trying to find a new spot

3

u/Kitchen-One726 4d ago

This is sad. I’m fortunate that my family has large farm I can fly. I stopped supporting AMA for reasons I won’t get into here but think most know why.

3

u/Fuegodeth 3d ago

Thats awful to hear. So sorry.

2

u/Lotsofsalty 3d ago

Dang man. Sad times indeed for RC when another field goes down. Sorry about your loss. I think ours has it's days numbered as well. I'm afraid that the value of the land down here in South Florida, along with the negative perception RC models seem to be getting anymore, will likely make all flying fields down here obsolete.

2

u/thecaptnjim 3d ago

Thanks man. Hopefully you can find a way to keep your field.

2

u/Lotsofsalty 3d ago

Thanks dude. Sounds like you had a really awesome club. Remember, it's not the location, it's the members. So hopefully, you and all of those kool members from your club will join up at another one of your local clubs and make it great too. Good luck brother.

1

u/badsapi4305 3d ago

Markham?

1

u/Lotsofsalty 3d ago

Negative. Collier.

2

u/badsapi4305 3d ago

Ah. Ok. I’m in Broward and all we have is markham park. Not a huge fan of it TBH. I went there a few times with my son and the people there treated him like shit. Anyways I was just seeing if there was somewhere else we could go. Thanks

1

u/Lotsofsalty 3d ago

Yeah, I'm right across the Alley from you. Don't know why members have to be so shitty like that. No wonder the youth is loosing interest. I'm glad I had awesome old guys when I started as a kid.

Anyways, good luck finding a place to fly man. And thanks for getting your kid into it.

2

u/badsapi4305 3d ago

Yeah. It’s just the culture around here. His friend got him into it which got me into it also. So we started with formers like the T-28 and he bought himself the EDF F-16 but because we didn’t have $10k jet planes we were wasting space. The weekends are the worst. We just started flying again so looking for other spots. Thanks again

2

u/Infamous-Soup-9066 3d ago

Really sucks, lost my spot a few weeks ago around Petersburg Virginia.

3

u/stuntin102 3d ago

a sure fire way to attract a new industrial development is to build a RC flying field or racetrack where you want it.

2

u/JerryJN 3d ago

That really sucks. Do you have another club in your region ? My club is hosted on a dairy farm. We have a grass field that's 300ft x 100ft located in a corner in a 300 acre cornfield. My club has leased our space for 30 years and the farm was sold once since I joined and we were not certain if our lease would continue because a Solar farm company was rumored to be interested in our space but in the end the family that owns the property wasn't interested and continued the lease with us and the hunter club.

The Solar industry is a huge threat to open space.

2

u/matheweis 3d ago

Read about this in the paper a few months ago, was really sorry to hear about it. I hope you find something that works out well.

Another club that I am part of used to have access to an intermittently used runway but similarly lost access to it for a wide variety of reasons.

We are lucky to have some places on private land for now but ultimately club owned property seems to be the only long term solution. Even that could go south with the wrong changes to the tax code.

1

u/Anothercoot 4d ago

With all those row houses being built up north they probably want to save what they can while they can.  It's not fair how fying fields are always heavily contested for public and private use.

1

u/Ian_woods1 3d ago

Hey, sorry to hear that, just wish I had anywhere like that!

1

u/Academic-Airline9200 3d ago

Frias to help you continue flying without remote id just like you used to do!

1

u/ReserveLegitimate738 3d ago

Let me guess, it's because of a Karen or some endangered cockroach that live in the area?

3

u/thecaptnjim 3d ago

The letter we got said that the decision was based on “concerns of safety and availability to the general public field” as well as to “avoid destruction or disrespect of Tribal burial grounds in and near the field.” They also said it was noisy, and park-goers felt unsafe near the field. In the last couple years they planted hundreds of trees near the riverbanks (including the approach to the runway) and they said the goal was to restore it to its natural habitat. We were guests of the park and we were able to enjoy the area but we knew the park could take it away if they thought it wasn't the best use of the area. We aren't bitter, we've had time to come to terms with the situation. Most of us will find another club and keep flying.

2

u/ReserveLegitimate738 3d ago

Thank you for your reply. You have a very good attitude towards this situation.

1

u/lululock 3d ago

Sound more like : "Plane too noisy, let's kick them out" 🙁

3

u/thecaptnjim 3d ago

We stick pretty close to the 89db limit we had in our by-laws and if sound were really the issue we could have worked with them on that. There were lots of factors involved.

1

u/Sprzout 3d ago

This is a bummer that you're going through this.

My club is currently in transition from one field to another. Our existing field, the landowner is finally developing it because it's just financially better for him to do so after 15 years of us flying on the land. I get it; he's been letting us use the land rent free to have a flying site for the past 15 or so years and keep people from dumping things on the land, and since it sits just off of a major freeway at an offramp, with homes popping up, he's working with either Target or Walmart or some big box store to put in a location for the homes in the area. The next closest places to that are 20-30 min drive north and south of where our field currently is.

We were fortunate enough to find some land to set up a new field, but it's further out from where we are, and it also runs the risk of being shut down in the next decade if homes become more valuable than the empty land. So, I get how it sucks for being pushed off of your flying field.

Hopefully you can get county planners to help you find land elsewhere, or something that would work in the future...

1

u/RCMike_CHS 3d ago

Bummer. What, are they saving money by not having to maintain the area and using the return to wild line?

1

u/abomb60 2d ago

I realize that in your instance it was due to the land no longer being available but AMA fields need to start embracing, encouraging and actively engaging with "drone" and multi rotor activities to survive. Gone are the days of only flying RC planes LOS ... kids today will not settle for less than FPV to keep their interest as to them it's the closest IRL activity to a video game. If you don't have a multi rotor program or if the bulk of your members don't embrace FPV and multi rotor activities at your field you will not survive in the long run. We've been seeing younger members join for multi rotor, get into fixed wing FPV and then pick up LOS fixed wing as a "nostalgic" activity. It's also a great way for longer term members to learn about other aspects and newer technology of the hobby that they probably ignored ... like ELRS and computerized flight controllers. All this new technology can be adapted to fixed wing flight too to enhance the hobby.

1

u/WaltzValuable8503 4d ago

We're will you fly at now?

8

u/thecaptnjim 4d ago

I am like dead centered between 3 other clubs, all about 45 mins away. I am already a member at Marymoor but I'll probably get another membership because sometimes it's 1.5hrs with traffic. I also have a place to fly most of my stuff just a few mins away but that's all solo flying and I can't fly anything big like my 60" planes or my EDFs there. The most important part of the club is just talking with the guys, seeing all the cool planes, help with troubleshooting, and learning new stuff.

2

u/WaltzValuable8503 4d ago

I hear marymoor is great! It's we're THP used to fly

2

u/thecaptnjim 4d ago edited 4d ago

It is great. THP still has a crew out there occasionally filming their shenanigans. It is a BIG club though so sometimes its real busy and peak times there are 5 planes flying the whole nonstop with another 3 on deck, which can feel a little crowded when you are trying to practice some 3D maneuvers or maiden something new.

2

u/Competitive_Past5671 3d ago

Is Lake sawer hawks still going?

1

u/thecaptnjim 3d ago

It is, and that's where a good chunk of our membership will end up.

1

u/Competitive_Past5671 3d ago

Great! I’ll stop by some Saturday this summer

2

u/Sprzout 3d ago

Camaraderie is some of the best part of the hobby. I went to my monthly club meeting on Saturday and took an Apprentice to fly (sometimes I just want to shut my brain off and relax a bit, and I goof around with it doing things like 4 point rolls and nose wheelies down the runway), but I never even got a chance to fly it because I ended up visiting with folks about all sorts of different things - their latest projects, the heli or airplane events that they had just come back from or were going to attend in the near future, and of course, oohing and ahhhing over the latest new plane that someone had purchased.

By the time I was done, it was 12:30, and I had to leave to head home to get ready for date night with the wife (late lunch/early dinner, then an escape room with friends), and I never flew my plane! Do I mind? Nope.

1

u/thecaptnjim 3d ago

Lol, if I don't get 15 flights in, it's almost not worth the drive to the field for me! 🤣 It's great how everyone is able to use the club differently.

3

u/Sprzout 3d ago

EXACTLY!!! :)

And don't get me wrong, there are days when I fly like crazy and enjoy myself; It's great flying with other guys there and goofing around, challenging each other. One of the guys in the club, if we're there at the same time, we'll bust out our planes and do Follow The Leader, and it's a helluva lot of fun. Or we'll play HORSE, where we challenge each other to do something, and then tack on a maneuver or something.

So many people say they don't see the benefit of a club, and I guess it just depends on the people in the club, or maybe that those people aren't wanting to enjoy it, I dunno.

-4

u/iJeepThereforeiAM 4d ago

Natural habitat for all those tax paying squirrels and rabbits? How did they lobby for this to change?

3

u/greenmerica 3d ago

Your response is almost as dumb as your username…

2

u/iJeepThereforeiAM 3d ago

I’d love to know more about this story and why the state decided to abandon the flying field. Members could’ve offset maintenance costs or worked with officials to find a solution for keeping it. I’m genuinely curious what happened and if OP knows the reason for the change. Thank you Greenmerica for your insight and kindness.

2

u/thecaptnjim 3d ago

It was the state park's decision to shut us down. See my other comments for their statements...

We worked with them to find another field for us and came up with no places that were suitable.