Flying Site Assistance
Joe Beshar | [email protected]
When we completed the tour they said, "Pick any field you want."
Communicating with Ken Becker, I found him informative and enthusiastic about the Carolina Fun Flyers club’s replacement flying site story and its Grand Opening on September 12, 2006. Ken chronicled the club’s experiences, which I will share. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
We've Lost the Field
Your wife called and said the car has a flat and she’s double-parked and your reaction is “no problem, just get it fixed.” Junior gets three Fs on his report card and your reaction is “no problem.”
Then you get the call. The owner of the flying field says, “I’m sorry but I can’t renew the lease.” Your reaction is No! Why? What? When? Panic sets in as your head starts spinning. You get queasy and you wonder how you’re going to break this life-altering news to the club.
We started getting organized and the plan was to ask anyone and everyone if they knew of property we could use. We went to the various county governments and asked about landfills, future landfills, and abandoned airfields. After the telephone calls, letters, meetings, and lobbying, the results were all the same: “We’d like to help but …” It seems liability has become the catchphrase. We heard many times that “if we allow one group we would have to allow everyone to use the land.”
Here in South Carolina there are many farmers and large property owners who have become speculators for future building projects. Unless you are connected, you realize that it’s time to search for property the old-fashioned way—door to door. Yikes! What a thought! When you ask the members to please, please, please dig into this project, the groans and moans (including your own) permeate this gathering of capable but clipped-wing pilots. But dig in and dig in hard is what we did. We all realized this wasn’t just another flying club; this group was formed because we were friends first. It just happened that we were pilots (using the term loosely for some of us) wanting a friendly, organized club we could be proud to be a part of with an incredible place to fly!
Field searching today is a challenge and not for the faint of heart. Part of our plan included bringing the prospective decision makers to the field to let them see how well we maintained the property, showcase our safety features, and explain in depth how the AMA insurance programs work. We gave those who were excited enough to try a trip on the buddy box. Nothing like hands-on! Above all we were honest—no sugar coating. Every question was answered concisely and accurately.
We drafted a letter with the answers to a compilation of all the questions we had been asked to hand to the next prospective landlords. This helped them better understand the details after the initial approach. I advise you to write down everything you want to tell the new landlords. Make sure it’s organized. Show them existing lease agreements, insurance papers, and pictures of your fly-ins. If you have a DVD, it’ll be worth its weight in fuel! If you and your present landlord are parting ways on a positive note, ask for a letter of recommendation. Show any awards your club has received; this is not a time to be bashful. Contact other clubs around the country and at least consider what made their searches successful.
We started our search in March 2005 and received a promising lead in June. After several meetings and a few follow-up calls, we struck a deal in December. One afternoon we went to the prospective landlords’ house for a meeting. The club secretary and I talked with the future landlords for more than two hours about everything but the flying field. Oh, it was sort of mentioned occasionally, but we had more enjoyment actually meeting these people.
They let us know that they were both crazy about airplanes! Can you believe it? We had something in common. We were with two of the most honest, straightforward people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
They are farmers who have endured the rigors of that occupation and had several fields that had been used for growing hay, corn, and various other crops. We got in the pickup and went around each field. When we completed the tour they said, “Pick any field you want.” In stunned disbelief I said, “Any of them?”
Then they gave us the pros and cons of each field. They recommended the highest one because it had the best drainage. When you are looking at several fields, each roughly a mile long and four hundred feet wide, and the previous day you would almost consider a tennis court with minimum flyover, we were speechless.
Within our club we vote on nearly every decision that has to be made because, as mentioned before, we are all friends and the club is based on what’s best for all of us. On a cold, brisk Saturday morning in January, standing in this huge field, all the club members gathered looking over the area in disbelief. How could we have come upon such a fantastic location after so many searches were disappointing dead ends?
The answer is: don’t ever give up your search. With each possibility that went negative we learned more about how to approach people and to read between the lines.
Some of the local and state agencies in our part of the country were the most difficult to deal with because of the layers of bureaucracy. The second most difficult were larger companies that owned thousands of acres of land, some of it being held for development 12 years down the road. We could never figure out why several positive meetings were held and when we were led to believe we were ready to sign a lease—gone.
The bottom line is to keep following leads no matter how odd they may seem because none of us is a mind reader. You never know what a prospective landlord is thinking and as the old saying goes: it’s not over till the fat pilot screams dead stick!
We will soon be into our second year at this fabulous location. We have done everything we told the landlords we would do and they have done more than anyone could have ever expected to help us. They disc-harrowed the field and made the soil ready for grass seed. They prepared the rest of the property by dragging the entrance road and helping to take down and dispose of trees. They used their heavy equipment and never asked for a dime. They were out in the field with us getting cold and dirty. Now that’s good people.
As you may have guessed by now, we managed to keep the club together but we were practically broke. We agreed to raise the dues. We laid out our construction plan and we all did our parts. Rejuvenated with the thought of having an opportunity to build a true premier flying site, we worked nonstop until it was done.
We know we were lucky but we also know that by never giving up our search and by working our tail feathers off until they showed hangar rash, we have a flying field anyone would be proud of. It doesn’t get any better than this. It seems that we no longer have landlords; we have friends who are club members, love airplanes, and just happen to have the perfect property for an RC flying field with a cost-effective lease arrangement.
We now have a full membership and in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, we enjoy year-round flying. Best of all, through all the adversity, we still have all our friends plus 15 new members who want the same things—a place to hang out and fly when the urge hits.
—Ken Becker
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
