District II - 2011/05

May 2011 141
RICHARD GREEN, president of the
Babylon RC Flyers, sent an interesting
article about the process he used to find a
new flying field on Long Island, New York.
He wrote:
“It’s not as difficult as many people think
it is. It takes a little time and nosing around
your local city, village, or town hall.
Remember to ask a lot of questions and get
to the right officials.
“I went to my local town hall and started
asking questions about town ordinances
pertaining to RC model flying. Which
department would oversee the control or
enforcement, if there where such rules on
the books?”
Richard researched all of the parks in the
town, choosing the ones that would be best
for flying models. He then downloaded a
wealth of information that is already
available on AMA’s Web site, and put a
proposal together.
It took several months and much
persistence, but Richard’s efforts paid off
handsomely with two outdoor flying sites
and an indoor site as well. As he put it,
“All of this for nothing and I even
convinced them that charging us for permits
to fly at these locations was out of the
question. They couldn’t wait for us to start
right away at the West Babylon Community
Youth Center because of the opportunity for
the kids to have something else besides
street hockey and softball. They even put us
on their Web site, www.wbcyc.org.
“The second field is Overlook Beach
parking lot which is entirely paved so there
is no need to spend money for a runway
installation. At this location we can fly
electric and fuel. So it does pay to go after
your local governments.”
For the complete journey that Richard
and the Babylon RC Flyers took, check out
his article on the District II Web site.
Photos are courtesy of Ed Coppa.
Babylon indoor flying site.
Marcelo Ibarra flying his foamie.
Babylon RC Flyers’ grass flying site.
Babylon member Butch Wellmaker, 2010 US
national champion in Open Class Scale
Helicopter, with his Sikorsky S76.
The Overlook Beach paved flying site.
District II has many sanctioned events each
year. The RC Contest Coordinator for the
district is Jim Goodemote and he would like
to remind the CDs of RC events to forward
all applications except International
Miniature Aircraft Association events
directly to him.
Jim is also an accomplished pilot, not
just an administrator. His interests include
scale and aerobatic aircraft.
Gary Baker and Jim Goodemote with Gary’s
Sback with DLE 111cc. It’s an outstanding
flyer.
Bob Noll e-mailed me that Ralph Jackson,
Vintage Radio Control Society member
#103, passed away this past February.
Ralph was a modeling icon in the
Binghamton, New York region, and was a
founding member of the Aeroguidance
Society. He traveled to many contests in the
1960s, flying in Aerobatics, Pylon, and Scale
events and he won Nats trophies in
Aerobatics and Scale. His main interest was
Scale and he had several designs published.
Ralph was a member of the 1974 and
1980 USA Scale Teams. He traveled
hundreds of miles attending Scale events in
several states. Our condolences to his wife
Olga and their family.
Until next month, help secure our future
and take a youngster flying.
District II
Gary Fitch, District II Vice President; [email protected]
New Jersey, New York, Europe
Gary Fitch
1298 Slab City Rd.,
Franklinville NY 14737;
Tel.: (716) 341-2813
www.amadistrictii.org
Associate Vice
Presidents
Tom Bickford, Tupper
Lake NY; (518) 359-2218;
[email protected]
Sal Calvagna, Holbrook NY;
(631) 737-6327; ncalvagn@
suffolk.lib.ny.us
Gene Gavin, Staten Island NY;
(718) 967-0598;
[email protected]
Bill Hauth, Hamburg NY;
(716)649-8582;
[email protected]
Ray Juschkus, St. James NY;
(631) 862-5589;
[email protected]
Joe Sarbello, Woolrich Township
NJ; (856) 491-8481;
[email protected]
Alexander Szemere, Kendall
Park NJ; (732) 821-5641;
[email protected]
RC Contest Coordinator:
Jim Goodemote, Allegany NY;
(716) 372-1137
Safety Coordinator: Al Kanser,
New Lisbon NY; (607) 293-7974;
[email protected]
For a complete listing of
district officers and volunteers,
please visit the District I1 Web site
or see a previous issue of MA.
District II Volunteers
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