Want to Keep Your Site? Keep it in Sight!
Wes De Cou | [email protected]
Approximately a year ago, I wrote a column concerning the potential economic impact of a model airplane field on its surrounding community. I mentioned the potential impact on local restaurants, hotels and motels, gas stations—the gamut of commercial establishments that could benefit from a well-used model air park.
Making a pitch for these potential impacts is important when you meet with local officials in your quest for a flying site. A great way to bring these potential benefits into clear focus in the minds of the people you are trying to impress is to get them to attend one of the larger RC events in your area.
I have attended two major events in the past month and, as I write this, I’m looking forward to EFExpo in Glendale, Arizona, later this week. Images I’ve captured at the two past events, as well as those I’ll get at EFExpo, will help tell my story—whether I’m talking to administrators about saving an existing field or about planning a new flying site.
The pictures will show crowds of people, full parking lots, and flight lines covered with aircraft. They will depict potential economic impacts on the community.
Although a picture might be worth 1,000 words, actually experiencing a major event will bring the educational, recreational, and economic potentials of model aviation into sharp, indelible focus in the minds of the key people you want to impress. Those people include:
- Local elected officials
- Executives in the local Chamber of Commerce
- Parks and recreation officials
- School administrators
One strategy you might consider if you have a field with an impending lease or rental agreement renewal coming up, or if you are going to meet with someone and propose a new flying site, is to try to schedule the meeting close to the time of a flying event in your area.
Of course, the bigger the event the better, because during the meeting you’ll offer to host a visit to the event so local officials can see firsthand what model aviation is all about. If there are no events of consequence in your area, fall back to “Plan B” and come to the meeting armed with photographs showing the large crowds gathered at one of our major events, such as an electric festival, a Scale qualifier, or a jet rally.
Here are some pictures showing what we want our landlords or potential landlords to see when they visit a large RC event. (Don’t forget to mention that smaller, more frequent club events also generate an impact.)
Large crowds translate to dollars in the local economy for the Chamber of Commerce folks. For parks and recreation department administrators, that’s more person/day usage of local park facilities: a key measurement of their success.
For school administrators, the potential educational benefits should be apparent, but feel free to remind them that young model airplane pilots are introduced to the same laws of physics, aerodynamics, and meteorology that apply to full-scale aircraft, and must apply them in their modeling activities in order to have a successful experience (or understand why the experience wasn’t so successful).
As always, I urge you to keep your events, your charitable donations, mall shows, or your Scouting or school activities in the public eye through your local media. Get a mention in the local newspaper, or try for a spot on the local TV news, particularly in the “what to do this weekend” segments. A club public-relations person, who likes to chat up the hobby, would be a natural for this job and an asset to any club.
Understand, and make sure other people in your area understand, the positive impact your club and its field have on the community. Don’t shy away from positive publicity—seek it!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
