New Life Fox Valley Aero Club
for
August 2006 33
& FLYING FIELDS
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
An aerial shot shows the layout of the FVAC’s new field in Illinois and its relationship to other sites in the area.
THE FOX VALLEY Aero Club (FVAC) is
located approximately 40 miles west of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois. Since it
was founded in 1929, the club has enjoyed
steady growth and amiable relations with the
community. Most people would consider it to
be a typical AMA club.
But in 2003 and 2004 the FVAC felt the
full force of a series of events that had been
building for a number of years. It resulted in
the club’s losing its flying field and being
forced to either finance and construct a new
field in a short period of time or simply fade
into the history books.
The FVAC’s experience is one that other
clubs across the country are facing more and
more often as local communities wrestle with
the need to enlarge their tax base through
new-home construction and expansion. In the
process, any available open land surrounding
these communities is being annexed for the
greater good of the public, which always
outweighs the needs of the few—such as RC
fliers.
Background: Founded in 1929 as the
Flying Fools, the club began its existence in
the days when model aviation consisted
primarily of hand-launching FF gliders and
rubber-band-powered airplanes. In those
days members flew their models at a variety
of informal field locations scattered
throughout the area. In 1979 the Flying
Fools changed its name to the Fox Valley
Aero Club.
Working in cooperation with the city of
Saint Charles and the Saint Charles Park
District, the FVAC was able to secure a 15-
acre “permanent” site for an RC flying
field—part of 365 acres of land that had
recently been acquired by the Park District
from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A local drive-in restaurant donated a steel
pavilion that served as the main gathering
area and provided shelter from inclement
weather.
As the years passed, the FVAC and the
surrounding communities continued to grow.
During that time several of the club’s key
members continued building relationships
with local government and Park District
leaders in the hopes of protecting the group
from the relentless expansion and growth
that was taking place. Those efforts would
eventually help the FVAC find a new
home—but it would be years later.
Soccer Is King: When the FVAC opened its
old field, it was surrounded on three sides by
farmland and sat adjacent to the Saint
Charles youth center: a state of Illinois
correctional facility that houses
approximately 500 wayward young men.
by Darryl Hedges
34 MODEL AVIATION
The perimeter of the new field was cut out of the cornfield
prior to full-scale construction operations.
Having dedicated club members perform most of the manual
labor saved the club thousands of dollars in construction costs.
Bob Walker stands next to the club’s monument that he
designed to honor FVAC members who have passed away.
Club members used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to
level the flying field and clear away debris.
An aerial shot shows the new airfield and the 1,550-foot access
road that was cut out of an existing cornfield.
Photos courtesy the author
August 2006 35
The completed state-of-the-art Fox
Valley Aero Club field is a testament to
what dedicated club members can do.
This steel pavilion was once part of Rex’s Drive-In. Now it
serves as command central for fliers and guests.
The construction operations are in full swing. A bulldozer and grader work together to
level the field prior to the delivery of asphalt.
A view from the air of the old FVAC site with new soccer fields being constructed on all sides.
The 50 x 800-foot runway base being laid. More than 4,200 tons of
gravel were used on runway, taxiways, parking lot, and access road.
But that didn’t last forever. As one member
put it:
“Over the years, housing started coming
out west with a vengeance. When you have
houses, you have kids. When you have kids,
you have soccer, and when you have soccer,
you have soccer moms.”
Take heed; soccer moms are a formidable
driving force for change within any
community today. Soccer’s growing
popularity required the Park District to build
more soccer fields. As more soccer fields
popped up throughout the area, the club was
faced with a couple of unique problems.
Imagine having an RC flying field
surrounded by soccer fields on three sides
and a state-run correctional facility on the
other. Not only were the kids often distracted
in the middle of a soccer game by the RC
models flying nearby, but the possibility of
an airplane going off-course and injuring a
child was an ever present danger.
On top of that, if a model traveled in the
other direction, over the barbed-wire fence
surrounding the youth center, and was lost, it
was an adventure trying to retrieve it. If the
right people were on duty at the time, things
usually went well. But more often than not,
there was considerable friction with the
administration of the facility.
One Wayward Airplane Changes
Everything: Then in 2003 the hammer finally
fell. A guest who was visiting the club
crashed his model on a soccer field during
half-time of a game. That’s all it took to set
things in motion.
Although the club worked feverishly with
the Park District to severely restrict the hours
when the field could be in operation by
limiting flying to between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.,
the Park District soon notified the club that it
would be closing the flying field to make
room for more soccer and football fields.
The clock began running. The club had
one year and a $5,000 donation from the
Park District to find and build a new field
elsewhere.
Dealing With Disaster: Where do you start
when you get the word that your current field
is about to be acquired by the local
community?
The Park District suggested that we begin
our search for a new home by talking with
the city of Saint Charles to determine
whether or not the city owned any open land
that would be suitable for a new field. After
many meetings with city and county
officials, a 10-acre site was identified. It was
located adjacent to a city waste-processing
facility and the Tri-County 911 Emergency
Dispatch Center.
The good news was that the site was
actually part of a larger piece of land that
was technically located in a floodplain, so no
new homes could be built on it. The Illinois
Department of Corrections owned the
property, and it was leased to a local farmer
for growing crops.
The bad news was that the site had no
direct access road and was being farmed. In
addition, the land was straddling the
boundaries between Saint Charles and its
neighboring community to the south: the city
of Geneva.
At the city’s suggestion, the club hired an
architect to draw plans based on the new
location. The club originally wanted to have
the field built facing north to minimize the
effects of the sun during early morning and
winter hours. That would have placed the
field on the Geneva side of the property.
When Geneva realized that an RC field
would be on its property, it nixed the idea
because of concerns about liability, even
though the club was going to be covered by
AMA’s liability insurance. So the field was
turned around and oriented on the Saint
Charles side of the property facing south.
That simple change in plans cost the club
$3,500 in wasted architectural drawings.
A Budget for a New Field: For a number of
years the FVAC had made it a practice to
take a portion of all revenue generated by
events or dues and deposit it in a fund for the
eventual construction of a new field.
When the time finally came, the club had
approximately $60,000 in the bank.
Everyone thought that was going to be more
than enough to construct the new field. Butreputable construction company in the area
to build the field. The bid was to include the
installation of a 50 x 800-foot asphalt
runway to accommodate jets and large-scale
aircraft and provide plenty of room for our
trainers; the removal of any existing trees;
the installation of a storm sewer to control
water runoff; the construction of a paved
access road to the property; and final grading
of the land and seeding.
The contractor’s price was an eyepopping
$255,137! The contractor estimated
that all work could be completed within a
six-week timeframe.
Faced with this staggering construction
estimate, the FVAC asked the architectural
firm that had drawn the plans for the new
field to submit an alternate budgetary
estimate. It came back with a figure of
$191,278: a savings of roughly $63,000, but
still well above what the club had
anticipated.
At this point the group was faced with a
decision to either find a way to raise a lot of
money quickly or find a way to cut costs, by
having club members do most of the manual
labor. The club chose the latter while
devoting major efforts to figuring out how to
do the former.
Members Are a Club’s Greatest Resource:
One of the FVAC members was a heavyequipment
operator by trade and volunteered
to head up the project. Through his efforts
and those of a core of dedicated club
members, the new-field construction project
moved forward.
The first thing that had to be done before
construction could begin was to have a
“Field Tile Survey” completed to locate
water-runoff subsystems. The existing
blueprints had to be revised and the field
tiles relocated as part of the construction
process.
July 14, 2004, at a preconstruction
meeting with the Saint Charles engineering
department, the club submitted its “Financial
Guarantee” and “Escrow Agreement.” The
city required these to ensure completion of
the project.
That afternoon club members began
cutting down weeds and removing brush at
the new field. A week later a professional
tree service began removing trees and
grinding stumps. Before any earth-moving
could be done, club members erected more
than 2,800 linear feet of silt fencing during
one of many regularly scheduled “work
parties.”
For construction to proceed at the
accelerated pace needed to finish the field
before the end of 2004, the club arranged to
have city inspections done on an almost
daily basis. July 30, 2004, full-scale grading
of the property began with donated and
rented bulldozers. To save money club
members were taught how to check the grade
38 MODEL AVIATION
for proper elevations.
In the next several months activity at the
new field reached a fever pitch. A host of
subprojects went on simultaneously:
construction of an asphalt runway and
taxiway; construction of a 1,550-foot access
road and parking lot; striping on the runway
and parking lot; construction of a concrete
pad for the steel pavilion brought from the
old field; and installation of a flag pole and
spectator bleachers. The field passed its final
inspection on October 31, 2004.
Additional amenities were installed in
the spring of 2005, such as a chain-link
fence separating the active field area from
the parking lot and spectator areas, eight
pilot stations along the flightline, tennis nets
donated by the local high school to act as
safety netting along the flightline, a number
of new wooden work tables, a monument
honoring past members who had passed
away, and electric power at the pavilion.
Creatively Financing The Future: While all
this activity was taking place, the FVAC’s
board members were trying to devise a way
to pay for everything without having to
mortgage their homes. Using the club’s
$60,000 new-field fund and the $5,000
donated by the Park District as a starting
point, the club was faced with the task of
having to raise roughly $125,000 in an
extremely short period of time. Following is
how it was done.
1) The board of directors approved the
levying of an “assessment” of $300 per club
member to be used for construction of the
new field. At that time the club had roughly
200 members. If all members had agreed to
pay the assessment, that would have raised
approximately $60,000. In actuality, 55
members chose to drop out of the club
without paying the assessment.
When the project was finally finished, it
was estimated that the assessment paid by
existing members and new-member
“initiation fees” contributed roughly
$73,000 to the fund.
2) Several long-standing club members
agreed to secure a four-year unsecured loan
from a local bank for the projected $50,000
shortfall. Shortly after the loan went into
effect, the adjustable interest rate on the loan
went up, and the loan holders were faced
with paying approximately $400 per month
in interest on the loan. A better solution was
needed immediately.
3) One of the club’s members came up
with the idea of a unique “lottery.” The club
purchased a large glass fishbowl and filled it
with 50 wooden golf balls numbered 1
through 50. Each ball was worth $1,000.
Members were encouraged to purchase one
or more balls at their discretion.
In effect they were loaning the club
$1,000 for each ball they purchased—
interest free. The intention was for the
FVAC to begin repaying the “loans” as
soon as it was back on its feet financially.
The board promised members that it
would begin drawing balls from the jar asquickly as possible.
As it turned out, all 50 balls were
purchased within days. Some members
bought one and others more than one. One
member purchased 34 balls. True to its word,
the club began drawing balls for repayment
in late 2005. As of February 2006, only 14
balls remained unpaid.
Lessons to Be Learned: What advice would
the FVAC have for your club?
1) Start saving for your future field now.
Begin setting aside monies now for that new
field in the future. Land prices continue to
skyrocket.
Figure that a new field will
conservatively cost a minimum of $100,000.
Depending on the amenities you provide and
the initial cost of the land, your final cost
could easily be two or three times that
amount. It would not be out of the question
to take your initial projected budget amount
and double it.
2) Start looking for a new field now.
Have members keep their eyes open for
potential flying-field locations. Work with
your local community’s planning and
building departments to determine where
future housing development and growth is
likely to occur. Identify unused or unwanted
land and determine if it could be converted
for use as a flying field.
Consider buying available farm property
immediately if possible. Finance the
purchase over an extended period of time.
Buy far more land than you think you will
actually need.
In the end the FVAC negotiated a 10-year
lease with the city of Saint Charles for the
9.5 acres that it currently occupies, with an
option for a second 10-year period. The club
pays a reasonable $805 per year.
3) Ask for help. Maintaining and
nurturing your club’s relationship with the
local community and government agencies is
critical to its survival.
Enlist the help of various government
agencies at the local, county, and state
levels. Identify people in the government
who can be your allies and who can get
things done on your behalf, such as the
mayor, city councilmen, city attorneys, and
local park-district officials. Even your
state senator or representative can
intercede on your behalf if needed. The
Illinois Department of Corrections was a
major player in our drama.
4) Give back to the community. Look for
ways your club can demonstrate its goodwill
and enhance its role as a “good neighbor”
with the local park district and other
community organizations.
Approach them with a “What can we do
for you?” attitude. Give back to the
community you live in. Car washes, fundraising
events, and charity drives are proven
ways of supporting other groups in the
community.
5) Get kids involved with your club.
Sponsor a “Kids’ Day” each year to train
kids how to fly. Work with your local Boy
Scout and Girl Scout organizations, Civil Air
Patrol groups, and church and fraternal
organizations to get kids involved in the
sport.
Every child has one or two parents,
which can be your greatest allies in fending
off hostile attacks from outside sources.
Remember those soccer moms? Parents are
always looking for new activities they can
enjoy with their kids. Joining the local RC
club is just one of the ways they can have
fun together!
6) Publicize your events. Get the word
out about who you are and what your club
has to offer people.
Get the local television stations and
newspapers to cover club-sponsored events.
Hold open houses and training classes for
newcomers to the sport. Work with other
clubs to sponsor swap meets and outings.
Educate the public about the joys of flying
RC models.
I hope your club will not have to cope with
the types of events the FVAC did in 2003
and 2004. Preparing now for that inevitable
day in the future when progress brushes your
club aside to make room for more soccer
fields or a new shopping center will make
your life much easier! MA
Darryl Hedges
1578 Hunting Hound Ln.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 33,34,35,36,38,40
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 33,34,35,36,38,40
New Life Fox Valley Aero Club
for
August 2006 33
& FLYING FIELDS
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
An aerial shot shows the layout of the FVAC’s new field in Illinois and its relationship to other sites in the area.
THE FOX VALLEY Aero Club (FVAC) is
located approximately 40 miles west of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois. Since it
was founded in 1929, the club has enjoyed
steady growth and amiable relations with the
community. Most people would consider it to
be a typical AMA club.
But in 2003 and 2004 the FVAC felt the
full force of a series of events that had been
building for a number of years. It resulted in
the club’s losing its flying field and being
forced to either finance and construct a new
field in a short period of time or simply fade
into the history books.
The FVAC’s experience is one that other
clubs across the country are facing more and
more often as local communities wrestle with
the need to enlarge their tax base through
new-home construction and expansion. In the
process, any available open land surrounding
these communities is being annexed for the
greater good of the public, which always
outweighs the needs of the few—such as RC
fliers.
Background: Founded in 1929 as the
Flying Fools, the club began its existence in
the days when model aviation consisted
primarily of hand-launching FF gliders and
rubber-band-powered airplanes. In those
days members flew their models at a variety
of informal field locations scattered
throughout the area. In 1979 the Flying
Fools changed its name to the Fox Valley
Aero Club.
Working in cooperation with the city of
Saint Charles and the Saint Charles Park
District, the FVAC was able to secure a 15-
acre “permanent” site for an RC flying
field—part of 365 acres of land that had
recently been acquired by the Park District
from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A local drive-in restaurant donated a steel
pavilion that served as the main gathering
area and provided shelter from inclement
weather.
As the years passed, the FVAC and the
surrounding communities continued to grow.
During that time several of the club’s key
members continued building relationships
with local government and Park District
leaders in the hopes of protecting the group
from the relentless expansion and growth
that was taking place. Those efforts would
eventually help the FVAC find a new
home—but it would be years later.
Soccer Is King: When the FVAC opened its
old field, it was surrounded on three sides by
farmland and sat adjacent to the Saint
Charles youth center: a state of Illinois
correctional facility that houses
approximately 500 wayward young men.
by Darryl Hedges
34 MODEL AVIATION
The perimeter of the new field was cut out of the cornfield
prior to full-scale construction operations.
Having dedicated club members perform most of the manual
labor saved the club thousands of dollars in construction costs.
Bob Walker stands next to the club’s monument that he
designed to honor FVAC members who have passed away.
Club members used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to
level the flying field and clear away debris.
An aerial shot shows the new airfield and the 1,550-foot access
road that was cut out of an existing cornfield.
Photos courtesy the author
August 2006 35
The completed state-of-the-art Fox
Valley Aero Club field is a testament to
what dedicated club members can do.
This steel pavilion was once part of Rex’s Drive-In. Now it
serves as command central for fliers and guests.
The construction operations are in full swing. A bulldozer and grader work together to
level the field prior to the delivery of asphalt.
A view from the air of the old FVAC site with new soccer fields being constructed on all sides.
The 50 x 800-foot runway base being laid. More than 4,200 tons of
gravel were used on runway, taxiways, parking lot, and access road.
But that didn’t last forever. As one member
put it:
“Over the years, housing started coming
out west with a vengeance. When you have
houses, you have kids. When you have kids,
you have soccer, and when you have soccer,
you have soccer moms.”
Take heed; soccer moms are a formidable
driving force for change within any
community today. Soccer’s growing
popularity required the Park District to build
more soccer fields. As more soccer fields
popped up throughout the area, the club was
faced with a couple of unique problems.
Imagine having an RC flying field
surrounded by soccer fields on three sides
and a state-run correctional facility on the
other. Not only were the kids often distracted
in the middle of a soccer game by the RC
models flying nearby, but the possibility of
an airplane going off-course and injuring a
child was an ever present danger.
On top of that, if a model traveled in the
other direction, over the barbed-wire fence
surrounding the youth center, and was lost, it
was an adventure trying to retrieve it. If the
right people were on duty at the time, things
usually went well. But more often than not,
there was considerable friction with the
administration of the facility.
One Wayward Airplane Changes
Everything: Then in 2003 the hammer finally
fell. A guest who was visiting the club
crashed his model on a soccer field during
half-time of a game. That’s all it took to set
things in motion.
Although the club worked feverishly with
the Park District to severely restrict the hours
when the field could be in operation by
limiting flying to between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.,
the Park District soon notified the club that it
would be closing the flying field to make
room for more soccer and football fields.
The clock began running. The club had
one year and a $5,000 donation from the
Park District to find and build a new field
elsewhere.
Dealing With Disaster: Where do you start
when you get the word that your current field
is about to be acquired by the local
community?
The Park District suggested that we begin
our search for a new home by talking with
the city of Saint Charles to determine
whether or not the city owned any open land
that would be suitable for a new field. After
many meetings with city and county
officials, a 10-acre site was identified. It was
located adjacent to a city waste-processing
facility and the Tri-County 911 Emergency
Dispatch Center.
The good news was that the site was
actually part of a larger piece of land that
was technically located in a floodplain, so no
new homes could be built on it. The Illinois
Department of Corrections owned the
property, and it was leased to a local farmer
for growing crops.
The bad news was that the site had no
direct access road and was being farmed. In
addition, the land was straddling the
boundaries between Saint Charles and its
neighboring community to the south: the city
of Geneva.
At the city’s suggestion, the club hired an
architect to draw plans based on the new
location. The club originally wanted to have
the field built facing north to minimize the
effects of the sun during early morning and
winter hours. That would have placed the
field on the Geneva side of the property.
When Geneva realized that an RC field
would be on its property, it nixed the idea
because of concerns about liability, even
though the club was going to be covered by
AMA’s liability insurance. So the field was
turned around and oriented on the Saint
Charles side of the property facing south.
That simple change in plans cost the club
$3,500 in wasted architectural drawings.
A Budget for a New Field: For a number of
years the FVAC had made it a practice to
take a portion of all revenue generated by
events or dues and deposit it in a fund for the
eventual construction of a new field.
When the time finally came, the club had
approximately $60,000 in the bank.
Everyone thought that was going to be more
than enough to construct the new field. Butreputable construction company in the area
to build the field. The bid was to include the
installation of a 50 x 800-foot asphalt
runway to accommodate jets and large-scale
aircraft and provide plenty of room for our
trainers; the removal of any existing trees;
the installation of a storm sewer to control
water runoff; the construction of a paved
access road to the property; and final grading
of the land and seeding.
The contractor’s price was an eyepopping
$255,137! The contractor estimated
that all work could be completed within a
six-week timeframe.
Faced with this staggering construction
estimate, the FVAC asked the architectural
firm that had drawn the plans for the new
field to submit an alternate budgetary
estimate. It came back with a figure of
$191,278: a savings of roughly $63,000, but
still well above what the club had
anticipated.
At this point the group was faced with a
decision to either find a way to raise a lot of
money quickly or find a way to cut costs, by
having club members do most of the manual
labor. The club chose the latter while
devoting major efforts to figuring out how to
do the former.
Members Are a Club’s Greatest Resource:
One of the FVAC members was a heavyequipment
operator by trade and volunteered
to head up the project. Through his efforts
and those of a core of dedicated club
members, the new-field construction project
moved forward.
The first thing that had to be done before
construction could begin was to have a
“Field Tile Survey” completed to locate
water-runoff subsystems. The existing
blueprints had to be revised and the field
tiles relocated as part of the construction
process.
July 14, 2004, at a preconstruction
meeting with the Saint Charles engineering
department, the club submitted its “Financial
Guarantee” and “Escrow Agreement.” The
city required these to ensure completion of
the project.
That afternoon club members began
cutting down weeds and removing brush at
the new field. A week later a professional
tree service began removing trees and
grinding stumps. Before any earth-moving
could be done, club members erected more
than 2,800 linear feet of silt fencing during
one of many regularly scheduled “work
parties.”
For construction to proceed at the
accelerated pace needed to finish the field
before the end of 2004, the club arranged to
have city inspections done on an almost
daily basis. July 30, 2004, full-scale grading
of the property began with donated and
rented bulldozers. To save money club
members were taught how to check the grade
38 MODEL AVIATION
for proper elevations.
In the next several months activity at the
new field reached a fever pitch. A host of
subprojects went on simultaneously:
construction of an asphalt runway and
taxiway; construction of a 1,550-foot access
road and parking lot; striping on the runway
and parking lot; construction of a concrete
pad for the steel pavilion brought from the
old field; and installation of a flag pole and
spectator bleachers. The field passed its final
inspection on October 31, 2004.
Additional amenities were installed in
the spring of 2005, such as a chain-link
fence separating the active field area from
the parking lot and spectator areas, eight
pilot stations along the flightline, tennis nets
donated by the local high school to act as
safety netting along the flightline, a number
of new wooden work tables, a monument
honoring past members who had passed
away, and electric power at the pavilion.
Creatively Financing The Future: While all
this activity was taking place, the FVAC’s
board members were trying to devise a way
to pay for everything without having to
mortgage their homes. Using the club’s
$60,000 new-field fund and the $5,000
donated by the Park District as a starting
point, the club was faced with the task of
having to raise roughly $125,000 in an
extremely short period of time. Following is
how it was done.
1) The board of directors approved the
levying of an “assessment” of $300 per club
member to be used for construction of the
new field. At that time the club had roughly
200 members. If all members had agreed to
pay the assessment, that would have raised
approximately $60,000. In actuality, 55
members chose to drop out of the club
without paying the assessment.
When the project was finally finished, it
was estimated that the assessment paid by
existing members and new-member
“initiation fees” contributed roughly
$73,000 to the fund.
2) Several long-standing club members
agreed to secure a four-year unsecured loan
from a local bank for the projected $50,000
shortfall. Shortly after the loan went into
effect, the adjustable interest rate on the loan
went up, and the loan holders were faced
with paying approximately $400 per month
in interest on the loan. A better solution was
needed immediately.
3) One of the club’s members came up
with the idea of a unique “lottery.” The club
purchased a large glass fishbowl and filled it
with 50 wooden golf balls numbered 1
through 50. Each ball was worth $1,000.
Members were encouraged to purchase one
or more balls at their discretion.
In effect they were loaning the club
$1,000 for each ball they purchased—
interest free. The intention was for the
FVAC to begin repaying the “loans” as
soon as it was back on its feet financially.
The board promised members that it
would begin drawing balls from the jar asquickly as possible.
As it turned out, all 50 balls were
purchased within days. Some members
bought one and others more than one. One
member purchased 34 balls. True to its word,
the club began drawing balls for repayment
in late 2005. As of February 2006, only 14
balls remained unpaid.
Lessons to Be Learned: What advice would
the FVAC have for your club?
1) Start saving for your future field now.
Begin setting aside monies now for that new
field in the future. Land prices continue to
skyrocket.
Figure that a new field will
conservatively cost a minimum of $100,000.
Depending on the amenities you provide and
the initial cost of the land, your final cost
could easily be two or three times that
amount. It would not be out of the question
to take your initial projected budget amount
and double it.
2) Start looking for a new field now.
Have members keep their eyes open for
potential flying-field locations. Work with
your local community’s planning and
building departments to determine where
future housing development and growth is
likely to occur. Identify unused or unwanted
land and determine if it could be converted
for use as a flying field.
Consider buying available farm property
immediately if possible. Finance the
purchase over an extended period of time.
Buy far more land than you think you will
actually need.
In the end the FVAC negotiated a 10-year
lease with the city of Saint Charles for the
9.5 acres that it currently occupies, with an
option for a second 10-year period. The club
pays a reasonable $805 per year.
3) Ask for help. Maintaining and
nurturing your club’s relationship with the
local community and government agencies is
critical to its survival.
Enlist the help of various government
agencies at the local, county, and state
levels. Identify people in the government
who can be your allies and who can get
things done on your behalf, such as the
mayor, city councilmen, city attorneys, and
local park-district officials. Even your
state senator or representative can
intercede on your behalf if needed. The
Illinois Department of Corrections was a
major player in our drama.
4) Give back to the community. Look for
ways your club can demonstrate its goodwill
and enhance its role as a “good neighbor”
with the local park district and other
community organizations.
Approach them with a “What can we do
for you?” attitude. Give back to the
community you live in. Car washes, fundraising
events, and charity drives are proven
ways of supporting other groups in the
community.
5) Get kids involved with your club.
Sponsor a “Kids’ Day” each year to train
kids how to fly. Work with your local Boy
Scout and Girl Scout organizations, Civil Air
Patrol groups, and church and fraternal
organizations to get kids involved in the
sport.
Every child has one or two parents,
which can be your greatest allies in fending
off hostile attacks from outside sources.
Remember those soccer moms? Parents are
always looking for new activities they can
enjoy with their kids. Joining the local RC
club is just one of the ways they can have
fun together!
6) Publicize your events. Get the word
out about who you are and what your club
has to offer people.
Get the local television stations and
newspapers to cover club-sponsored events.
Hold open houses and training classes for
newcomers to the sport. Work with other
clubs to sponsor swap meets and outings.
Educate the public about the joys of flying
RC models.
I hope your club will not have to cope with
the types of events the FVAC did in 2003
and 2004. Preparing now for that inevitable
day in the future when progress brushes your
club aside to make room for more soccer
fields or a new shopping center will make
your life much easier! MA
Darryl Hedges
1578 Hunting Hound Ln.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 33,34,35,36,38,40
New Life Fox Valley Aero Club
for
August 2006 33
& FLYING FIELDS
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
An aerial shot shows the layout of the FVAC’s new field in Illinois and its relationship to other sites in the area.
THE FOX VALLEY Aero Club (FVAC) is
located approximately 40 miles west of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois. Since it
was founded in 1929, the club has enjoyed
steady growth and amiable relations with the
community. Most people would consider it to
be a typical AMA club.
But in 2003 and 2004 the FVAC felt the
full force of a series of events that had been
building for a number of years. It resulted in
the club’s losing its flying field and being
forced to either finance and construct a new
field in a short period of time or simply fade
into the history books.
The FVAC’s experience is one that other
clubs across the country are facing more and
more often as local communities wrestle with
the need to enlarge their tax base through
new-home construction and expansion. In the
process, any available open land surrounding
these communities is being annexed for the
greater good of the public, which always
outweighs the needs of the few—such as RC
fliers.
Background: Founded in 1929 as the
Flying Fools, the club began its existence in
the days when model aviation consisted
primarily of hand-launching FF gliders and
rubber-band-powered airplanes. In those
days members flew their models at a variety
of informal field locations scattered
throughout the area. In 1979 the Flying
Fools changed its name to the Fox Valley
Aero Club.
Working in cooperation with the city of
Saint Charles and the Saint Charles Park
District, the FVAC was able to secure a 15-
acre “permanent” site for an RC flying
field—part of 365 acres of land that had
recently been acquired by the Park District
from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A local drive-in restaurant donated a steel
pavilion that served as the main gathering
area and provided shelter from inclement
weather.
As the years passed, the FVAC and the
surrounding communities continued to grow.
During that time several of the club’s key
members continued building relationships
with local government and Park District
leaders in the hopes of protecting the group
from the relentless expansion and growth
that was taking place. Those efforts would
eventually help the FVAC find a new
home—but it would be years later.
Soccer Is King: When the FVAC opened its
old field, it was surrounded on three sides by
farmland and sat adjacent to the Saint
Charles youth center: a state of Illinois
correctional facility that houses
approximately 500 wayward young men.
by Darryl Hedges
34 MODEL AVIATION
The perimeter of the new field was cut out of the cornfield
prior to full-scale construction operations.
Having dedicated club members perform most of the manual
labor saved the club thousands of dollars in construction costs.
Bob Walker stands next to the club’s monument that he
designed to honor FVAC members who have passed away.
Club members used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to
level the flying field and clear away debris.
An aerial shot shows the new airfield and the 1,550-foot access
road that was cut out of an existing cornfield.
Photos courtesy the author
August 2006 35
The completed state-of-the-art Fox
Valley Aero Club field is a testament to
what dedicated club members can do.
This steel pavilion was once part of Rex’s Drive-In. Now it
serves as command central for fliers and guests.
The construction operations are in full swing. A bulldozer and grader work together to
level the field prior to the delivery of asphalt.
A view from the air of the old FVAC site with new soccer fields being constructed on all sides.
The 50 x 800-foot runway base being laid. More than 4,200 tons of
gravel were used on runway, taxiways, parking lot, and access road.
But that didn’t last forever. As one member
put it:
“Over the years, housing started coming
out west with a vengeance. When you have
houses, you have kids. When you have kids,
you have soccer, and when you have soccer,
you have soccer moms.”
Take heed; soccer moms are a formidable
driving force for change within any
community today. Soccer’s growing
popularity required the Park District to build
more soccer fields. As more soccer fields
popped up throughout the area, the club was
faced with a couple of unique problems.
Imagine having an RC flying field
surrounded by soccer fields on three sides
and a state-run correctional facility on the
other. Not only were the kids often distracted
in the middle of a soccer game by the RC
models flying nearby, but the possibility of
an airplane going off-course and injuring a
child was an ever present danger.
On top of that, if a model traveled in the
other direction, over the barbed-wire fence
surrounding the youth center, and was lost, it
was an adventure trying to retrieve it. If the
right people were on duty at the time, things
usually went well. But more often than not,
there was considerable friction with the
administration of the facility.
One Wayward Airplane Changes
Everything: Then in 2003 the hammer finally
fell. A guest who was visiting the club
crashed his model on a soccer field during
half-time of a game. That’s all it took to set
things in motion.
Although the club worked feverishly with
the Park District to severely restrict the hours
when the field could be in operation by
limiting flying to between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.,
the Park District soon notified the club that it
would be closing the flying field to make
room for more soccer and football fields.
The clock began running. The club had
one year and a $5,000 donation from the
Park District to find and build a new field
elsewhere.
Dealing With Disaster: Where do you start
when you get the word that your current field
is about to be acquired by the local
community?
The Park District suggested that we begin
our search for a new home by talking with
the city of Saint Charles to determine
whether or not the city owned any open land
that would be suitable for a new field. After
many meetings with city and county
officials, a 10-acre site was identified. It was
located adjacent to a city waste-processing
facility and the Tri-County 911 Emergency
Dispatch Center.
The good news was that the site was
actually part of a larger piece of land that
was technically located in a floodplain, so no
new homes could be built on it. The Illinois
Department of Corrections owned the
property, and it was leased to a local farmer
for growing crops.
The bad news was that the site had no
direct access road and was being farmed. In
addition, the land was straddling the
boundaries between Saint Charles and its
neighboring community to the south: the city
of Geneva.
At the city’s suggestion, the club hired an
architect to draw plans based on the new
location. The club originally wanted to have
the field built facing north to minimize the
effects of the sun during early morning and
winter hours. That would have placed the
field on the Geneva side of the property.
When Geneva realized that an RC field
would be on its property, it nixed the idea
because of concerns about liability, even
though the club was going to be covered by
AMA’s liability insurance. So the field was
turned around and oriented on the Saint
Charles side of the property facing south.
That simple change in plans cost the club
$3,500 in wasted architectural drawings.
A Budget for a New Field: For a number of
years the FVAC had made it a practice to
take a portion of all revenue generated by
events or dues and deposit it in a fund for the
eventual construction of a new field.
When the time finally came, the club had
approximately $60,000 in the bank.
Everyone thought that was going to be more
than enough to construct the new field. Butreputable construction company in the area
to build the field. The bid was to include the
installation of a 50 x 800-foot asphalt
runway to accommodate jets and large-scale
aircraft and provide plenty of room for our
trainers; the removal of any existing trees;
the installation of a storm sewer to control
water runoff; the construction of a paved
access road to the property; and final grading
of the land and seeding.
The contractor’s price was an eyepopping
$255,137! The contractor estimated
that all work could be completed within a
six-week timeframe.
Faced with this staggering construction
estimate, the FVAC asked the architectural
firm that had drawn the plans for the new
field to submit an alternate budgetary
estimate. It came back with a figure of
$191,278: a savings of roughly $63,000, but
still well above what the club had
anticipated.
At this point the group was faced with a
decision to either find a way to raise a lot of
money quickly or find a way to cut costs, by
having club members do most of the manual
labor. The club chose the latter while
devoting major efforts to figuring out how to
do the former.
Members Are a Club’s Greatest Resource:
One of the FVAC members was a heavyequipment
operator by trade and volunteered
to head up the project. Through his efforts
and those of a core of dedicated club
members, the new-field construction project
moved forward.
The first thing that had to be done before
construction could begin was to have a
“Field Tile Survey” completed to locate
water-runoff subsystems. The existing
blueprints had to be revised and the field
tiles relocated as part of the construction
process.
July 14, 2004, at a preconstruction
meeting with the Saint Charles engineering
department, the club submitted its “Financial
Guarantee” and “Escrow Agreement.” The
city required these to ensure completion of
the project.
That afternoon club members began
cutting down weeds and removing brush at
the new field. A week later a professional
tree service began removing trees and
grinding stumps. Before any earth-moving
could be done, club members erected more
than 2,800 linear feet of silt fencing during
one of many regularly scheduled “work
parties.”
For construction to proceed at the
accelerated pace needed to finish the field
before the end of 2004, the club arranged to
have city inspections done on an almost
daily basis. July 30, 2004, full-scale grading
of the property began with donated and
rented bulldozers. To save money club
members were taught how to check the grade
38 MODEL AVIATION
for proper elevations.
In the next several months activity at the
new field reached a fever pitch. A host of
subprojects went on simultaneously:
construction of an asphalt runway and
taxiway; construction of a 1,550-foot access
road and parking lot; striping on the runway
and parking lot; construction of a concrete
pad for the steel pavilion brought from the
old field; and installation of a flag pole and
spectator bleachers. The field passed its final
inspection on October 31, 2004.
Additional amenities were installed in
the spring of 2005, such as a chain-link
fence separating the active field area from
the parking lot and spectator areas, eight
pilot stations along the flightline, tennis nets
donated by the local high school to act as
safety netting along the flightline, a number
of new wooden work tables, a monument
honoring past members who had passed
away, and electric power at the pavilion.
Creatively Financing The Future: While all
this activity was taking place, the FVAC’s
board members were trying to devise a way
to pay for everything without having to
mortgage their homes. Using the club’s
$60,000 new-field fund and the $5,000
donated by the Park District as a starting
point, the club was faced with the task of
having to raise roughly $125,000 in an
extremely short period of time. Following is
how it was done.
1) The board of directors approved the
levying of an “assessment” of $300 per club
member to be used for construction of the
new field. At that time the club had roughly
200 members. If all members had agreed to
pay the assessment, that would have raised
approximately $60,000. In actuality, 55
members chose to drop out of the club
without paying the assessment.
When the project was finally finished, it
was estimated that the assessment paid by
existing members and new-member
“initiation fees” contributed roughly
$73,000 to the fund.
2) Several long-standing club members
agreed to secure a four-year unsecured loan
from a local bank for the projected $50,000
shortfall. Shortly after the loan went into
effect, the adjustable interest rate on the loan
went up, and the loan holders were faced
with paying approximately $400 per month
in interest on the loan. A better solution was
needed immediately.
3) One of the club’s members came up
with the idea of a unique “lottery.” The club
purchased a large glass fishbowl and filled it
with 50 wooden golf balls numbered 1
through 50. Each ball was worth $1,000.
Members were encouraged to purchase one
or more balls at their discretion.
In effect they were loaning the club
$1,000 for each ball they purchased—
interest free. The intention was for the
FVAC to begin repaying the “loans” as
soon as it was back on its feet financially.
The board promised members that it
would begin drawing balls from the jar asquickly as possible.
As it turned out, all 50 balls were
purchased within days. Some members
bought one and others more than one. One
member purchased 34 balls. True to its word,
the club began drawing balls for repayment
in late 2005. As of February 2006, only 14
balls remained unpaid.
Lessons to Be Learned: What advice would
the FVAC have for your club?
1) Start saving for your future field now.
Begin setting aside monies now for that new
field in the future. Land prices continue to
skyrocket.
Figure that a new field will
conservatively cost a minimum of $100,000.
Depending on the amenities you provide and
the initial cost of the land, your final cost
could easily be two or three times that
amount. It would not be out of the question
to take your initial projected budget amount
and double it.
2) Start looking for a new field now.
Have members keep their eyes open for
potential flying-field locations. Work with
your local community’s planning and
building departments to determine where
future housing development and growth is
likely to occur. Identify unused or unwanted
land and determine if it could be converted
for use as a flying field.
Consider buying available farm property
immediately if possible. Finance the
purchase over an extended period of time.
Buy far more land than you think you will
actually need.
In the end the FVAC negotiated a 10-year
lease with the city of Saint Charles for the
9.5 acres that it currently occupies, with an
option for a second 10-year period. The club
pays a reasonable $805 per year.
3) Ask for help. Maintaining and
nurturing your club’s relationship with the
local community and government agencies is
critical to its survival.
Enlist the help of various government
agencies at the local, county, and state
levels. Identify people in the government
who can be your allies and who can get
things done on your behalf, such as the
mayor, city councilmen, city attorneys, and
local park-district officials. Even your
state senator or representative can
intercede on your behalf if needed. The
Illinois Department of Corrections was a
major player in our drama.
4) Give back to the community. Look for
ways your club can demonstrate its goodwill
and enhance its role as a “good neighbor”
with the local park district and other
community organizations.
Approach them with a “What can we do
for you?” attitude. Give back to the
community you live in. Car washes, fundraising
events, and charity drives are proven
ways of supporting other groups in the
community.
5) Get kids involved with your club.
Sponsor a “Kids’ Day” each year to train
kids how to fly. Work with your local Boy
Scout and Girl Scout organizations, Civil Air
Patrol groups, and church and fraternal
organizations to get kids involved in the
sport.
Every child has one or two parents,
which can be your greatest allies in fending
off hostile attacks from outside sources.
Remember those soccer moms? Parents are
always looking for new activities they can
enjoy with their kids. Joining the local RC
club is just one of the ways they can have
fun together!
6) Publicize your events. Get the word
out about who you are and what your club
has to offer people.
Get the local television stations and
newspapers to cover club-sponsored events.
Hold open houses and training classes for
newcomers to the sport. Work with other
clubs to sponsor swap meets and outings.
Educate the public about the joys of flying
RC models.
I hope your club will not have to cope with
the types of events the FVAC did in 2003
and 2004. Preparing now for that inevitable
day in the future when progress brushes your
club aside to make room for more soccer
fields or a new shopping center will make
your life much easier! MA
Darryl Hedges
1578 Hunting Hound Ln.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 33,34,35,36,38,40
New Life Fox Valley Aero Club
for
August 2006 33
& FLYING FIELDS
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
An aerial shot shows the layout of the FVAC’s new field in Illinois and its relationship to other sites in the area.
THE FOX VALLEY Aero Club (FVAC) is
located approximately 40 miles west of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois. Since it
was founded in 1929, the club has enjoyed
steady growth and amiable relations with the
community. Most people would consider it to
be a typical AMA club.
But in 2003 and 2004 the FVAC felt the
full force of a series of events that had been
building for a number of years. It resulted in
the club’s losing its flying field and being
forced to either finance and construct a new
field in a short period of time or simply fade
into the history books.
The FVAC’s experience is one that other
clubs across the country are facing more and
more often as local communities wrestle with
the need to enlarge their tax base through
new-home construction and expansion. In the
process, any available open land surrounding
these communities is being annexed for the
greater good of the public, which always
outweighs the needs of the few—such as RC
fliers.
Background: Founded in 1929 as the
Flying Fools, the club began its existence in
the days when model aviation consisted
primarily of hand-launching FF gliders and
rubber-band-powered airplanes. In those
days members flew their models at a variety
of informal field locations scattered
throughout the area. In 1979 the Flying
Fools changed its name to the Fox Valley
Aero Club.
Working in cooperation with the city of
Saint Charles and the Saint Charles Park
District, the FVAC was able to secure a 15-
acre “permanent” site for an RC flying
field—part of 365 acres of land that had
recently been acquired by the Park District
from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A local drive-in restaurant donated a steel
pavilion that served as the main gathering
area and provided shelter from inclement
weather.
As the years passed, the FVAC and the
surrounding communities continued to grow.
During that time several of the club’s key
members continued building relationships
with local government and Park District
leaders in the hopes of protecting the group
from the relentless expansion and growth
that was taking place. Those efforts would
eventually help the FVAC find a new
home—but it would be years later.
Soccer Is King: When the FVAC opened its
old field, it was surrounded on three sides by
farmland and sat adjacent to the Saint
Charles youth center: a state of Illinois
correctional facility that houses
approximately 500 wayward young men.
by Darryl Hedges
34 MODEL AVIATION
The perimeter of the new field was cut out of the cornfield
prior to full-scale construction operations.
Having dedicated club members perform most of the manual
labor saved the club thousands of dollars in construction costs.
Bob Walker stands next to the club’s monument that he
designed to honor FVAC members who have passed away.
Club members used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to
level the flying field and clear away debris.
An aerial shot shows the new airfield and the 1,550-foot access
road that was cut out of an existing cornfield.
Photos courtesy the author
August 2006 35
The completed state-of-the-art Fox
Valley Aero Club field is a testament to
what dedicated club members can do.
This steel pavilion was once part of Rex’s Drive-In. Now it
serves as command central for fliers and guests.
The construction operations are in full swing. A bulldozer and grader work together to
level the field prior to the delivery of asphalt.
A view from the air of the old FVAC site with new soccer fields being constructed on all sides.
The 50 x 800-foot runway base being laid. More than 4,200 tons of
gravel were used on runway, taxiways, parking lot, and access road.
But that didn’t last forever. As one member
put it:
“Over the years, housing started coming
out west with a vengeance. When you have
houses, you have kids. When you have kids,
you have soccer, and when you have soccer,
you have soccer moms.”
Take heed; soccer moms are a formidable
driving force for change within any
community today. Soccer’s growing
popularity required the Park District to build
more soccer fields. As more soccer fields
popped up throughout the area, the club was
faced with a couple of unique problems.
Imagine having an RC flying field
surrounded by soccer fields on three sides
and a state-run correctional facility on the
other. Not only were the kids often distracted
in the middle of a soccer game by the RC
models flying nearby, but the possibility of
an airplane going off-course and injuring a
child was an ever present danger.
On top of that, if a model traveled in the
other direction, over the barbed-wire fence
surrounding the youth center, and was lost, it
was an adventure trying to retrieve it. If the
right people were on duty at the time, things
usually went well. But more often than not,
there was considerable friction with the
administration of the facility.
One Wayward Airplane Changes
Everything: Then in 2003 the hammer finally
fell. A guest who was visiting the club
crashed his model on a soccer field during
half-time of a game. That’s all it took to set
things in motion.
Although the club worked feverishly with
the Park District to severely restrict the hours
when the field could be in operation by
limiting flying to between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.,
the Park District soon notified the club that it
would be closing the flying field to make
room for more soccer and football fields.
The clock began running. The club had
one year and a $5,000 donation from the
Park District to find and build a new field
elsewhere.
Dealing With Disaster: Where do you start
when you get the word that your current field
is about to be acquired by the local
community?
The Park District suggested that we begin
our search for a new home by talking with
the city of Saint Charles to determine
whether or not the city owned any open land
that would be suitable for a new field. After
many meetings with city and county
officials, a 10-acre site was identified. It was
located adjacent to a city waste-processing
facility and the Tri-County 911 Emergency
Dispatch Center.
The good news was that the site was
actually part of a larger piece of land that
was technically located in a floodplain, so no
new homes could be built on it. The Illinois
Department of Corrections owned the
property, and it was leased to a local farmer
for growing crops.
The bad news was that the site had no
direct access road and was being farmed. In
addition, the land was straddling the
boundaries between Saint Charles and its
neighboring community to the south: the city
of Geneva.
At the city’s suggestion, the club hired an
architect to draw plans based on the new
location. The club originally wanted to have
the field built facing north to minimize the
effects of the sun during early morning and
winter hours. That would have placed the
field on the Geneva side of the property.
When Geneva realized that an RC field
would be on its property, it nixed the idea
because of concerns about liability, even
though the club was going to be covered by
AMA’s liability insurance. So the field was
turned around and oriented on the Saint
Charles side of the property facing south.
That simple change in plans cost the club
$3,500 in wasted architectural drawings.
A Budget for a New Field: For a number of
years the FVAC had made it a practice to
take a portion of all revenue generated by
events or dues and deposit it in a fund for the
eventual construction of a new field.
When the time finally came, the club had
approximately $60,000 in the bank.
Everyone thought that was going to be more
than enough to construct the new field. Butreputable construction company in the area
to build the field. The bid was to include the
installation of a 50 x 800-foot asphalt
runway to accommodate jets and large-scale
aircraft and provide plenty of room for our
trainers; the removal of any existing trees;
the installation of a storm sewer to control
water runoff; the construction of a paved
access road to the property; and final grading
of the land and seeding.
The contractor’s price was an eyepopping
$255,137! The contractor estimated
that all work could be completed within a
six-week timeframe.
Faced with this staggering construction
estimate, the FVAC asked the architectural
firm that had drawn the plans for the new
field to submit an alternate budgetary
estimate. It came back with a figure of
$191,278: a savings of roughly $63,000, but
still well above what the club had
anticipated.
At this point the group was faced with a
decision to either find a way to raise a lot of
money quickly or find a way to cut costs, by
having club members do most of the manual
labor. The club chose the latter while
devoting major efforts to figuring out how to
do the former.
Members Are a Club’s Greatest Resource:
One of the FVAC members was a heavyequipment
operator by trade and volunteered
to head up the project. Through his efforts
and those of a core of dedicated club
members, the new-field construction project
moved forward.
The first thing that had to be done before
construction could begin was to have a
“Field Tile Survey” completed to locate
water-runoff subsystems. The existing
blueprints had to be revised and the field
tiles relocated as part of the construction
process.
July 14, 2004, at a preconstruction
meeting with the Saint Charles engineering
department, the club submitted its “Financial
Guarantee” and “Escrow Agreement.” The
city required these to ensure completion of
the project.
That afternoon club members began
cutting down weeds and removing brush at
the new field. A week later a professional
tree service began removing trees and
grinding stumps. Before any earth-moving
could be done, club members erected more
than 2,800 linear feet of silt fencing during
one of many regularly scheduled “work
parties.”
For construction to proceed at the
accelerated pace needed to finish the field
before the end of 2004, the club arranged to
have city inspections done on an almost
daily basis. July 30, 2004, full-scale grading
of the property began with donated and
rented bulldozers. To save money club
members were taught how to check the grade
38 MODEL AVIATION
for proper elevations.
In the next several months activity at the
new field reached a fever pitch. A host of
subprojects went on simultaneously:
construction of an asphalt runway and
taxiway; construction of a 1,550-foot access
road and parking lot; striping on the runway
and parking lot; construction of a concrete
pad for the steel pavilion brought from the
old field; and installation of a flag pole and
spectator bleachers. The field passed its final
inspection on October 31, 2004.
Additional amenities were installed in
the spring of 2005, such as a chain-link
fence separating the active field area from
the parking lot and spectator areas, eight
pilot stations along the flightline, tennis nets
donated by the local high school to act as
safety netting along the flightline, a number
of new wooden work tables, a monument
honoring past members who had passed
away, and electric power at the pavilion.
Creatively Financing The Future: While all
this activity was taking place, the FVAC’s
board members were trying to devise a way
to pay for everything without having to
mortgage their homes. Using the club’s
$60,000 new-field fund and the $5,000
donated by the Park District as a starting
point, the club was faced with the task of
having to raise roughly $125,000 in an
extremely short period of time. Following is
how it was done.
1) The board of directors approved the
levying of an “assessment” of $300 per club
member to be used for construction of the
new field. At that time the club had roughly
200 members. If all members had agreed to
pay the assessment, that would have raised
approximately $60,000. In actuality, 55
members chose to drop out of the club
without paying the assessment.
When the project was finally finished, it
was estimated that the assessment paid by
existing members and new-member
“initiation fees” contributed roughly
$73,000 to the fund.
2) Several long-standing club members
agreed to secure a four-year unsecured loan
from a local bank for the projected $50,000
shortfall. Shortly after the loan went into
effect, the adjustable interest rate on the loan
went up, and the loan holders were faced
with paying approximately $400 per month
in interest on the loan. A better solution was
needed immediately.
3) One of the club’s members came up
with the idea of a unique “lottery.” The club
purchased a large glass fishbowl and filled it
with 50 wooden golf balls numbered 1
through 50. Each ball was worth $1,000.
Members were encouraged to purchase one
or more balls at their discretion.
In effect they were loaning the club
$1,000 for each ball they purchased—
interest free. The intention was for the
FVAC to begin repaying the “loans” as
soon as it was back on its feet financially.
The board promised members that it
would begin drawing balls from the jar asquickly as possible.
As it turned out, all 50 balls were
purchased within days. Some members
bought one and others more than one. One
member purchased 34 balls. True to its word,
the club began drawing balls for repayment
in late 2005. As of February 2006, only 14
balls remained unpaid.
Lessons to Be Learned: What advice would
the FVAC have for your club?
1) Start saving for your future field now.
Begin setting aside monies now for that new
field in the future. Land prices continue to
skyrocket.
Figure that a new field will
conservatively cost a minimum of $100,000.
Depending on the amenities you provide and
the initial cost of the land, your final cost
could easily be two or three times that
amount. It would not be out of the question
to take your initial projected budget amount
and double it.
2) Start looking for a new field now.
Have members keep their eyes open for
potential flying-field locations. Work with
your local community’s planning and
building departments to determine where
future housing development and growth is
likely to occur. Identify unused or unwanted
land and determine if it could be converted
for use as a flying field.
Consider buying available farm property
immediately if possible. Finance the
purchase over an extended period of time.
Buy far more land than you think you will
actually need.
In the end the FVAC negotiated a 10-year
lease with the city of Saint Charles for the
9.5 acres that it currently occupies, with an
option for a second 10-year period. The club
pays a reasonable $805 per year.
3) Ask for help. Maintaining and
nurturing your club’s relationship with the
local community and government agencies is
critical to its survival.
Enlist the help of various government
agencies at the local, county, and state
levels. Identify people in the government
who can be your allies and who can get
things done on your behalf, such as the
mayor, city councilmen, city attorneys, and
local park-district officials. Even your
state senator or representative can
intercede on your behalf if needed. The
Illinois Department of Corrections was a
major player in our drama.
4) Give back to the community. Look for
ways your club can demonstrate its goodwill
and enhance its role as a “good neighbor”
with the local park district and other
community organizations.
Approach them with a “What can we do
for you?” attitude. Give back to the
community you live in. Car washes, fundraising
events, and charity drives are proven
ways of supporting other groups in the
community.
5) Get kids involved with your club.
Sponsor a “Kids’ Day” each year to train
kids how to fly. Work with your local Boy
Scout and Girl Scout organizations, Civil Air
Patrol groups, and church and fraternal
organizations to get kids involved in the
sport.
Every child has one or two parents,
which can be your greatest allies in fending
off hostile attacks from outside sources.
Remember those soccer moms? Parents are
always looking for new activities they can
enjoy with their kids. Joining the local RC
club is just one of the ways they can have
fun together!
6) Publicize your events. Get the word
out about who you are and what your club
has to offer people.
Get the local television stations and
newspapers to cover club-sponsored events.
Hold open houses and training classes for
newcomers to the sport. Work with other
clubs to sponsor swap meets and outings.
Educate the public about the joys of flying
RC models.
I hope your club will not have to cope with
the types of events the FVAC did in 2003
and 2004. Preparing now for that inevitable
day in the future when progress brushes your
club aside to make room for more soccer
fields or a new shopping center will make
your life much easier! MA
Darryl Hedges
1578 Hunting Hound Ln.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 33,34,35,36,38,40
New Life Fox Valley Aero Club
for
August 2006 33
& FLYING FIELDS
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
An aerial shot shows the layout of the FVAC’s new field in Illinois and its relationship to other sites in the area.
THE FOX VALLEY Aero Club (FVAC) is
located approximately 40 miles west of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois. Since it
was founded in 1929, the club has enjoyed
steady growth and amiable relations with the
community. Most people would consider it to
be a typical AMA club.
But in 2003 and 2004 the FVAC felt the
full force of a series of events that had been
building for a number of years. It resulted in
the club’s losing its flying field and being
forced to either finance and construct a new
field in a short period of time or simply fade
into the history books.
The FVAC’s experience is one that other
clubs across the country are facing more and
more often as local communities wrestle with
the need to enlarge their tax base through
new-home construction and expansion. In the
process, any available open land surrounding
these communities is being annexed for the
greater good of the public, which always
outweighs the needs of the few—such as RC
fliers.
Background: Founded in 1929 as the
Flying Fools, the club began its existence in
the days when model aviation consisted
primarily of hand-launching FF gliders and
rubber-band-powered airplanes. In those
days members flew their models at a variety
of informal field locations scattered
throughout the area. In 1979 the Flying
Fools changed its name to the Fox Valley
Aero Club.
Working in cooperation with the city of
Saint Charles and the Saint Charles Park
District, the FVAC was able to secure a 15-
acre “permanent” site for an RC flying
field—part of 365 acres of land that had
recently been acquired by the Park District
from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A local drive-in restaurant donated a steel
pavilion that served as the main gathering
area and provided shelter from inclement
weather.
As the years passed, the FVAC and the
surrounding communities continued to grow.
During that time several of the club’s key
members continued building relationships
with local government and Park District
leaders in the hopes of protecting the group
from the relentless expansion and growth
that was taking place. Those efforts would
eventually help the FVAC find a new
home—but it would be years later.
Soccer Is King: When the FVAC opened its
old field, it was surrounded on three sides by
farmland and sat adjacent to the Saint
Charles youth center: a state of Illinois
correctional facility that houses
approximately 500 wayward young men.
by Darryl Hedges
34 MODEL AVIATION
The perimeter of the new field was cut out of the cornfield
prior to full-scale construction operations.
Having dedicated club members perform most of the manual
labor saved the club thousands of dollars in construction costs.
Bob Walker stands next to the club’s monument that he
designed to honor FVAC members who have passed away.
Club members used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to
level the flying field and clear away debris.
An aerial shot shows the new airfield and the 1,550-foot access
road that was cut out of an existing cornfield.
Photos courtesy the author
August 2006 35
The completed state-of-the-art Fox
Valley Aero Club field is a testament to
what dedicated club members can do.
This steel pavilion was once part of Rex’s Drive-In. Now it
serves as command central for fliers and guests.
The construction operations are in full swing. A bulldozer and grader work together to
level the field prior to the delivery of asphalt.
A view from the air of the old FVAC site with new soccer fields being constructed on all sides.
The 50 x 800-foot runway base being laid. More than 4,200 tons of
gravel were used on runway, taxiways, parking lot, and access road.
But that didn’t last forever. As one member
put it:
“Over the years, housing started coming
out west with a vengeance. When you have
houses, you have kids. When you have kids,
you have soccer, and when you have soccer,
you have soccer moms.”
Take heed; soccer moms are a formidable
driving force for change within any
community today. Soccer’s growing
popularity required the Park District to build
more soccer fields. As more soccer fields
popped up throughout the area, the club was
faced with a couple of unique problems.
Imagine having an RC flying field
surrounded by soccer fields on three sides
and a state-run correctional facility on the
other. Not only were the kids often distracted
in the middle of a soccer game by the RC
models flying nearby, but the possibility of
an airplane going off-course and injuring a
child was an ever present danger.
On top of that, if a model traveled in the
other direction, over the barbed-wire fence
surrounding the youth center, and was lost, it
was an adventure trying to retrieve it. If the
right people were on duty at the time, things
usually went well. But more often than not,
there was considerable friction with the
administration of the facility.
One Wayward Airplane Changes
Everything: Then in 2003 the hammer finally
fell. A guest who was visiting the club
crashed his model on a soccer field during
half-time of a game. That’s all it took to set
things in motion.
Although the club worked feverishly with
the Park District to severely restrict the hours
when the field could be in operation by
limiting flying to between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.,
the Park District soon notified the club that it
would be closing the flying field to make
room for more soccer and football fields.
The clock began running. The club had
one year and a $5,000 donation from the
Park District to find and build a new field
elsewhere.
Dealing With Disaster: Where do you start
when you get the word that your current field
is about to be acquired by the local
community?
The Park District suggested that we begin
our search for a new home by talking with
the city of Saint Charles to determine
whether or not the city owned any open land
that would be suitable for a new field. After
many meetings with city and county
officials, a 10-acre site was identified. It was
located adjacent to a city waste-processing
facility and the Tri-County 911 Emergency
Dispatch Center.
The good news was that the site was
actually part of a larger piece of land that
was technically located in a floodplain, so no
new homes could be built on it. The Illinois
Department of Corrections owned the
property, and it was leased to a local farmer
for growing crops.
The bad news was that the site had no
direct access road and was being farmed. In
addition, the land was straddling the
boundaries between Saint Charles and its
neighboring community to the south: the city
of Geneva.
At the city’s suggestion, the club hired an
architect to draw plans based on the new
location. The club originally wanted to have
the field built facing north to minimize the
effects of the sun during early morning and
winter hours. That would have placed the
field on the Geneva side of the property.
When Geneva realized that an RC field
would be on its property, it nixed the idea
because of concerns about liability, even
though the club was going to be covered by
AMA’s liability insurance. So the field was
turned around and oriented on the Saint
Charles side of the property facing south.
That simple change in plans cost the club
$3,500 in wasted architectural drawings.
A Budget for a New Field: For a number of
years the FVAC had made it a practice to
take a portion of all revenue generated by
events or dues and deposit it in a fund for the
eventual construction of a new field.
When the time finally came, the club had
approximately $60,000 in the bank.
Everyone thought that was going to be more
than enough to construct the new field. Butreputable construction company in the area
to build the field. The bid was to include the
installation of a 50 x 800-foot asphalt
runway to accommodate jets and large-scale
aircraft and provide plenty of room for our
trainers; the removal of any existing trees;
the installation of a storm sewer to control
water runoff; the construction of a paved
access road to the property; and final grading
of the land and seeding.
The contractor’s price was an eyepopping
$255,137! The contractor estimated
that all work could be completed within a
six-week timeframe.
Faced with this staggering construction
estimate, the FVAC asked the architectural
firm that had drawn the plans for the new
field to submit an alternate budgetary
estimate. It came back with a figure of
$191,278: a savings of roughly $63,000, but
still well above what the club had
anticipated.
At this point the group was faced with a
decision to either find a way to raise a lot of
money quickly or find a way to cut costs, by
having club members do most of the manual
labor. The club chose the latter while
devoting major efforts to figuring out how to
do the former.
Members Are a Club’s Greatest Resource:
One of the FVAC members was a heavyequipment
operator by trade and volunteered
to head up the project. Through his efforts
and those of a core of dedicated club
members, the new-field construction project
moved forward.
The first thing that had to be done before
construction could begin was to have a
“Field Tile Survey” completed to locate
water-runoff subsystems. The existing
blueprints had to be revised and the field
tiles relocated as part of the construction
process.
July 14, 2004, at a preconstruction
meeting with the Saint Charles engineering
department, the club submitted its “Financial
Guarantee” and “Escrow Agreement.” The
city required these to ensure completion of
the project.
That afternoon club members began
cutting down weeds and removing brush at
the new field. A week later a professional
tree service began removing trees and
grinding stumps. Before any earth-moving
could be done, club members erected more
than 2,800 linear feet of silt fencing during
one of many regularly scheduled “work
parties.”
For construction to proceed at the
accelerated pace needed to finish the field
before the end of 2004, the club arranged to
have city inspections done on an almost
daily basis. July 30, 2004, full-scale grading
of the property began with donated and
rented bulldozers. To save money club
members were taught how to check the grade
38 MODEL AVIATION
for proper elevations.
In the next several months activity at the
new field reached a fever pitch. A host of
subprojects went on simultaneously:
construction of an asphalt runway and
taxiway; construction of a 1,550-foot access
road and parking lot; striping on the runway
and parking lot; construction of a concrete
pad for the steel pavilion brought from the
old field; and installation of a flag pole and
spectator bleachers. The field passed its final
inspection on October 31, 2004.
Additional amenities were installed in
the spring of 2005, such as a chain-link
fence separating the active field area from
the parking lot and spectator areas, eight
pilot stations along the flightline, tennis nets
donated by the local high school to act as
safety netting along the flightline, a number
of new wooden work tables, a monument
honoring past members who had passed
away, and electric power at the pavilion.
Creatively Financing The Future: While all
this activity was taking place, the FVAC’s
board members were trying to devise a way
to pay for everything without having to
mortgage their homes. Using the club’s
$60,000 new-field fund and the $5,000
donated by the Park District as a starting
point, the club was faced with the task of
having to raise roughly $125,000 in an
extremely short period of time. Following is
how it was done.
1) The board of directors approved the
levying of an “assessment” of $300 per club
member to be used for construction of the
new field. At that time the club had roughly
200 members. If all members had agreed to
pay the assessment, that would have raised
approximately $60,000. In actuality, 55
members chose to drop out of the club
without paying the assessment.
When the project was finally finished, it
was estimated that the assessment paid by
existing members and new-member
“initiation fees” contributed roughly
$73,000 to the fund.
2) Several long-standing club members
agreed to secure a four-year unsecured loan
from a local bank for the projected $50,000
shortfall. Shortly after the loan went into
effect, the adjustable interest rate on the loan
went up, and the loan holders were faced
with paying approximately $400 per month
in interest on the loan. A better solution was
needed immediately.
3) One of the club’s members came up
with the idea of a unique “lottery.” The club
purchased a large glass fishbowl and filled it
with 50 wooden golf balls numbered 1
through 50. Each ball was worth $1,000.
Members were encouraged to purchase one
or more balls at their discretion.
In effect they were loaning the club
$1,000 for each ball they purchased—
interest free. The intention was for the
FVAC to begin repaying the “loans” as
soon as it was back on its feet financially.
The board promised members that it
would begin drawing balls from the jar asquickly as possible.
As it turned out, all 50 balls were
purchased within days. Some members
bought one and others more than one. One
member purchased 34 balls. True to its word,
the club began drawing balls for repayment
in late 2005. As of February 2006, only 14
balls remained unpaid.
Lessons to Be Learned: What advice would
the FVAC have for your club?
1) Start saving for your future field now.
Begin setting aside monies now for that new
field in the future. Land prices continue to
skyrocket.
Figure that a new field will
conservatively cost a minimum of $100,000.
Depending on the amenities you provide and
the initial cost of the land, your final cost
could easily be two or three times that
amount. It would not be out of the question
to take your initial projected budget amount
and double it.
2) Start looking for a new field now.
Have members keep their eyes open for
potential flying-field locations. Work with
your local community’s planning and
building departments to determine where
future housing development and growth is
likely to occur. Identify unused or unwanted
land and determine if it could be converted
for use as a flying field.
Consider buying available farm property
immediately if possible. Finance the
purchase over an extended period of time.
Buy far more land than you think you will
actually need.
In the end the FVAC negotiated a 10-year
lease with the city of Saint Charles for the
9.5 acres that it currently occupies, with an
option for a second 10-year period. The club
pays a reasonable $805 per year.
3) Ask for help. Maintaining and
nurturing your club’s relationship with the
local community and government agencies is
critical to its survival.
Enlist the help of various government
agencies at the local, county, and state
levels. Identify people in the government
who can be your allies and who can get
things done on your behalf, such as the
mayor, city councilmen, city attorneys, and
local park-district officials. Even your
state senator or representative can
intercede on your behalf if needed. The
Illinois Department of Corrections was a
major player in our drama.
4) Give back to the community. Look for
ways your club can demonstrate its goodwill
and enhance its role as a “good neighbor”
with the local park district and other
community organizations.
Approach them with a “What can we do
for you?” attitude. Give back to the
community you live in. Car washes, fundraising
events, and charity drives are proven
ways of supporting other groups in the
community.
5) Get kids involved with your club.
Sponsor a “Kids’ Day” each year to train
kids how to fly. Work with your local Boy
Scout and Girl Scout organizations, Civil Air
Patrol groups, and church and fraternal
organizations to get kids involved in the
sport.
Every child has one or two parents,
which can be your greatest allies in fending
off hostile attacks from outside sources.
Remember those soccer moms? Parents are
always looking for new activities they can
enjoy with their kids. Joining the local RC
club is just one of the ways they can have
fun together!
6) Publicize your events. Get the word
out about who you are and what your club
has to offer people.
Get the local television stations and
newspapers to cover club-sponsored events.
Hold open houses and training classes for
newcomers to the sport. Work with other
clubs to sponsor swap meets and outings.
Educate the public about the joys of flying
RC models.
I hope your club will not have to cope with
the types of events the FVAC did in 2003
and 2004. Preparing now for that inevitable
day in the future when progress brushes your
club aside to make room for more soccer
fields or a new shopping center will make
your life much easier! MA
Darryl Hedges
1578 Hunting Hound Ln.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 33,34,35,36,38,40
New Life Fox Valley Aero Club
for
August 2006 33
& FLYING FIELDS
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
An aerial shot shows the layout of the FVAC’s new field in Illinois and its relationship to other sites in the area.
THE FOX VALLEY Aero Club (FVAC) is
located approximately 40 miles west of
Chicago in Saint Charles, Illinois. Since it
was founded in 1929, the club has enjoyed
steady growth and amiable relations with the
community. Most people would consider it to
be a typical AMA club.
But in 2003 and 2004 the FVAC felt the
full force of a series of events that had been
building for a number of years. It resulted in
the club’s losing its flying field and being
forced to either finance and construct a new
field in a short period of time or simply fade
into the history books.
The FVAC’s experience is one that other
clubs across the country are facing more and
more often as local communities wrestle with
the need to enlarge their tax base through
new-home construction and expansion. In the
process, any available open land surrounding
these communities is being annexed for the
greater good of the public, which always
outweighs the needs of the few—such as RC
fliers.
Background: Founded in 1929 as the
Flying Fools, the club began its existence in
the days when model aviation consisted
primarily of hand-launching FF gliders and
rubber-band-powered airplanes. In those
days members flew their models at a variety
of informal field locations scattered
throughout the area. In 1979 the Flying
Fools changed its name to the Fox Valley
Aero Club.
Working in cooperation with the city of
Saint Charles and the Saint Charles Park
District, the FVAC was able to secure a 15-
acre “permanent” site for an RC flying
field—part of 365 acres of land that had
recently been acquired by the Park District
from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A local drive-in restaurant donated a steel
pavilion that served as the main gathering
area and provided shelter from inclement
weather.
As the years passed, the FVAC and the
surrounding communities continued to grow.
During that time several of the club’s key
members continued building relationships
with local government and Park District
leaders in the hopes of protecting the group
from the relentless expansion and growth
that was taking place. Those efforts would
eventually help the FVAC find a new
home—but it would be years later.
Soccer Is King: When the FVAC opened its
old field, it was surrounded on three sides by
farmland and sat adjacent to the Saint
Charles youth center: a state of Illinois
correctional facility that houses
approximately 500 wayward young men.
by Darryl Hedges
34 MODEL AVIATION
The perimeter of the new field was cut out of the cornfield
prior to full-scale construction operations.
Having dedicated club members perform most of the manual
labor saved the club thousands of dollars in construction costs.
Bob Walker stands next to the club’s monument that he
designed to honor FVAC members who have passed away.
Club members used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to
level the flying field and clear away debris.
An aerial shot shows the new airfield and the 1,550-foot access
road that was cut out of an existing cornfield.
Photos courtesy the author
August 2006 35
The completed state-of-the-art Fox
Valley Aero Club field is a testament to
what dedicated club members can do.
This steel pavilion was once part of Rex’s Drive-In. Now it
serves as command central for fliers and guests.
The construction operations are in full swing. A bulldozer and grader work together to
level the field prior to the delivery of asphalt.
A view from the air of the old FVAC site with new soccer fields being constructed on all sides.
The 50 x 800-foot runway base being laid. More than 4,200 tons of
gravel were used on runway, taxiways, parking lot, and access road.
But that didn’t last forever. As one member
put it:
“Over the years, housing started coming
out west with a vengeance. When you have
houses, you have kids. When you have kids,
you have soccer, and when you have soccer,
you have soccer moms.”
Take heed; soccer moms are a formidable
driving force for change within any
community today. Soccer’s growing
popularity required the Park District to build
more soccer fields. As more soccer fields
popped up throughout the area, the club was
faced with a couple of unique problems.
Imagine having an RC flying field
surrounded by soccer fields on three sides
and a state-run correctional facility on the
other. Not only were the kids often distracted
in the middle of a soccer game by the RC
models flying nearby, but the possibility of
an airplane going off-course and injuring a
child was an ever present danger.
On top of that, if a model traveled in the
other direction, over the barbed-wire fence
surrounding the youth center, and was lost, it
was an adventure trying to retrieve it. If the
right people were on duty at the time, things
usually went well. But more often than not,
there was considerable friction with the
administration of the facility.
One Wayward Airplane Changes
Everything: Then in 2003 the hammer finally
fell. A guest who was visiting the club
crashed his model on a soccer field during
half-time of a game. That’s all it took to set
things in motion.
Although the club worked feverishly with
the Park District to severely restrict the hours
when the field could be in operation by
limiting flying to between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.,
the Park District soon notified the club that it
would be closing the flying field to make
room for more soccer and football fields.
The clock began running. The club had
one year and a $5,000 donation from the
Park District to find and build a new field
elsewhere.
Dealing With Disaster: Where do you start
when you get the word that your current field
is about to be acquired by the local
community?
The Park District suggested that we begin
our search for a new home by talking with
the city of Saint Charles to determine
whether or not the city owned any open land
that would be suitable for a new field. After
many meetings with city and county
officials, a 10-acre site was identified. It was
located adjacent to a city waste-processing
facility and the Tri-County 911 Emergency
Dispatch Center.
The good news was that the site was
actually part of a larger piece of land that
was technically located in a floodplain, so no
new homes could be built on it. The Illinois
Department of Corrections owned the
property, and it was leased to a local farmer
for growing crops.
The bad news was that the site had no
direct access road and was being farmed. In
addition, the land was straddling the
boundaries between Saint Charles and its
neighboring community to the south: the city
of Geneva.
At the city’s suggestion, the club hired an
architect to draw plans based on the new
location. The club originally wanted to have
the field built facing north to minimize the
effects of the sun during early morning and
winter hours. That would have placed the
field on the Geneva side of the property.
When Geneva realized that an RC field
would be on its property, it nixed the idea
because of concerns about liability, even
though the club was going to be covered by
AMA’s liability insurance. So the field was
turned around and oriented on the Saint
Charles side of the property facing south.
That simple change in plans cost the club
$3,500 in wasted architectural drawings.
A Budget for a New Field: For a number of
years the FVAC had made it a practice to
take a portion of all revenue generated by
events or dues and deposit it in a fund for the
eventual construction of a new field.
When the time finally came, the club had
approximately $60,000 in the bank.
Everyone thought that was going to be more
than enough to construct the new field. Butreputable construction company in the area
to build the field. The bid was to include the
installation of a 50 x 800-foot asphalt
runway to accommodate jets and large-scale
aircraft and provide plenty of room for our
trainers; the removal of any existing trees;
the installation of a storm sewer to control
water runoff; the construction of a paved
access road to the property; and final grading
of the land and seeding.
The contractor’s price was an eyepopping
$255,137! The contractor estimated
that all work could be completed within a
six-week timeframe.
Faced with this staggering construction
estimate, the FVAC asked the architectural
firm that had drawn the plans for the new
field to submit an alternate budgetary
estimate. It came back with a figure of
$191,278: a savings of roughly $63,000, but
still well above what the club had
anticipated.
At this point the group was faced with a
decision to either find a way to raise a lot of
money quickly or find a way to cut costs, by
having club members do most of the manual
labor. The club chose the latter while
devoting major efforts to figuring out how to
do the former.
Members Are a Club’s Greatest Resource:
One of the FVAC members was a heavyequipment
operator by trade and volunteered
to head up the project. Through his efforts
and those of a core of dedicated club
members, the new-field construction project
moved forward.
The first thing that had to be done before
construction could begin was to have a
“Field Tile Survey” completed to locate
water-runoff subsystems. The existing
blueprints had to be revised and the field
tiles relocated as part of the construction
process.
July 14, 2004, at a preconstruction
meeting with the Saint Charles engineering
department, the club submitted its “Financial
Guarantee” and “Escrow Agreement.” The
city required these to ensure completion of
the project.
That afternoon club members began
cutting down weeds and removing brush at
the new field. A week later a professional
tree service began removing trees and
grinding stumps. Before any earth-moving
could be done, club members erected more
than 2,800 linear feet of silt fencing during
one of many regularly scheduled “work
parties.”
For construction to proceed at the
accelerated pace needed to finish the field
before the end of 2004, the club arranged to
have city inspections done on an almost
daily basis. July 30, 2004, full-scale grading
of the property began with donated and
rented bulldozers. To save money club
members were taught how to check the grade
38 MODEL AVIATION
for proper elevations.
In the next several months activity at the
new field reached a fever pitch. A host of
subprojects went on simultaneously:
construction of an asphalt runway and
taxiway; construction of a 1,550-foot access
road and parking lot; striping on the runway
and parking lot; construction of a concrete
pad for the steel pavilion brought from the
old field; and installation of a flag pole and
spectator bleachers. The field passed its final
inspection on October 31, 2004.
Additional amenities were installed in
the spring of 2005, such as a chain-link
fence separating the active field area from
the parking lot and spectator areas, eight
pilot stations along the flightline, tennis nets
donated by the local high school to act as
safety netting along the flightline, a number
of new wooden work tables, a monument
honoring past members who had passed
away, and electric power at the pavilion.
Creatively Financing The Future: While all
this activity was taking place, the FVAC’s
board members were trying to devise a way
to pay for everything without having to
mortgage their homes. Using the club’s
$60,000 new-field fund and the $5,000
donated by the Park District as a starting
point, the club was faced with the task of
having to raise roughly $125,000 in an
extremely short period of time. Following is
how it was done.
1) The board of directors approved the
levying of an “assessment” of $300 per club
member to be used for construction of the
new field. At that time the club had roughly
200 members. If all members had agreed to
pay the assessment, that would have raised
approximately $60,000. In actuality, 55
members chose to drop out of the club
without paying the assessment.
When the project was finally finished, it
was estimated that the assessment paid by
existing members and new-member
“initiation fees” contributed roughly
$73,000 to the fund.
2) Several long-standing club members
agreed to secure a four-year unsecured loan
from a local bank for the projected $50,000
shortfall. Shortly after the loan went into
effect, the adjustable interest rate on the loan
went up, and the loan holders were faced
with paying approximately $400 per month
in interest on the loan. A better solution was
needed immediately.
3) One of the club’s members came up
with the idea of a unique “lottery.” The club
purchased a large glass fishbowl and filled it
with 50 wooden golf balls numbered 1
through 50. Each ball was worth $1,000.
Members were encouraged to purchase one
or more balls at their discretion.
In effect they were loaning the club
$1,000 for each ball they purchased—
interest free. The intention was for the
FVAC to begin repaying the “loans” as
soon as it was back on its feet financially.
The board promised members that it
would begin drawing balls from the jar asquickly as possible.
As it turned out, all 50 balls were
purchased within days. Some members
bought one and others more than one. One
member purchased 34 balls. True to its word,
the club began drawing balls for repayment
in late 2005. As of February 2006, only 14
balls remained unpaid.
Lessons to Be Learned: What advice would
the FVAC have for your club?
1) Start saving for your future field now.
Begin setting aside monies now for that new
field in the future. Land prices continue to
skyrocket.
Figure that a new field will
conservatively cost a minimum of $100,000.
Depending on the amenities you provide and
the initial cost of the land, your final cost
could easily be two or three times that
amount. It would not be out of the question
to take your initial projected budget amount
and double it.
2) Start looking for a new field now.
Have members keep their eyes open for
potential flying-field locations. Work with
your local community’s planning and
building departments to determine where
future housing development and growth is
likely to occur. Identify unused or unwanted
land and determine if it could be converted
for use as a flying field.
Consider buying available farm property
immediately if possible. Finance the
purchase over an extended period of time.
Buy far more land than you think you will
actually need.
In the end the FVAC negotiated a 10-year
lease with the city of Saint Charles for the
9.5 acres that it currently occupies, with an
option for a second 10-year period. The club
pays a reasonable $805 per year.
3) Ask for help. Maintaining and
nurturing your club’s relationship with the
local community and government agencies is
critical to its survival.
Enlist the help of various government
agencies at the local, county, and state
levels. Identify people in the government
who can be your allies and who can get
things done on your behalf, such as the
mayor, city councilmen, city attorneys, and
local park-district officials. Even your
state senator or representative can
intercede on your behalf if needed. The
Illinois Department of Corrections was a
major player in our drama.
4) Give back to the community. Look for
ways your club can demonstrate its goodwill
and enhance its role as a “good neighbor”
with the local park district and other
community organizations.
Approach them with a “What can we do
for you?” attitude. Give back to the
community you live in. Car washes, fundraising
events, and charity drives are proven
ways of supporting other groups in the
community.
5) Get kids involved with your club.
Sponsor a “Kids’ Day” each year to train
kids how to fly. Work with your local Boy
Scout and Girl Scout organizations, Civil Air
Patrol groups, and church and fraternal
organizations to get kids involved in the
sport.
Every child has one or two parents,
which can be your greatest allies in fending
off hostile attacks from outside sources.
Remember those soccer moms? Parents are
always looking for new activities they can
enjoy with their kids. Joining the local RC
club is just one of the ways they can have
fun together!
6) Publicize your events. Get the word
out about who you are and what your club
has to offer people.
Get the local television stations and
newspapers to cover club-sponsored events.
Hold open houses and training classes for
newcomers to the sport. Work with other
clubs to sponsor swap meets and outings.
Educate the public about the joys of flying
RC models.
I hope your club will not have to cope with
the types of events the FVAC did in 2003
and 2004. Preparing now for that inevitable
day in the future when progress brushes your
club aside to make room for more soccer
fields or a new shopping center will make
your life much easier! MA
Darryl Hedges
1578 Hunting Hound Ln.