CORRECTION: In my September 2003 column, I ran an article
titled “The Forever Field.” This article was written by Ed Rouisse, an
FSA volunteer in Clearwater, Florida.
In communication with Jim Schoonover of the Chester County Radio
Control Club from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, regarding the success
of his club acquiring a flying site, I asked him to write about the club’s
success.
Jim acknowledged with a well-written, detailed story titled “Flying
Field Acquisition Process, Chester County Radio Control Club 2002,”
that exemplifies the value of the AMA Flying Site Assistance
Program. I believe his documentary is a useful and a welcome
reference in the planning and search for flying sites, the heartbeat of
model aviation.
Following is part of the story. Jim’s article and examples of the
club’s agreement, advertisement, solicitation letter, and contract can
be seen on the Model Aviation Web site at
http://modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm.
Background: The Chester County Radio Control Club has been an
official AMA club for roughly 35 years. Although the club flew at
three other fields in its early years, most club members only remember
the current Embreeville site in Chester County where the club
members have flown for more than 25 years.
This site was excellent. It was situated on public land owned by the
state and controlled by the local township. It offered easy access off a
minor state road, an east and west runway, ample overflight in all
directions, and close proximity to most members.
As time passed, a Penn Dot building was placed at the east end of
the field and soccer fields were established to the west. So buildings
and other activities now restricted the once-perfect site. Even so, the
membership learned to cope with the burgeoning restrictions and had
no great desire to move.
In 1999, the controlling government bodies—state, county, and
township—decided to use the flying-field land for a much-needed
septic-treatment system to service the surrounding residential area.
Our beautiful Embreeville flying field was to become septic lagoons.
Even the gallows humor about converting to floatplanes did not
deflect the fact that we were very unhappy campers.
But with the talk of the new septic lagoons came a very
provocative offer made by the County Parks and Recreation Director:
the county would provide provisional use of some nearby county land
which provided good access, proper orientation, and great overflight
space. The club was relieved and excited. Members were told to be
patient and a final agreement would be reached well ahead of the start
of construction of the septic lagoons at Embreeville.
With such a “sure thing,” other field-search activities got little to
no attention. Then the bubble burst. The county parks director moved
on to another job, neighbors around the county land heard about the
club’s provisional use and raised strong objections, and the final
master plan for the county designated the land as a working
environmental park.
After two years of hopeful waiting, the provisional use was
withdrawn and the club was back to ground zero. Lawsuits had
fortunately delayed the construction of the septic lagoons at
Embreeville, so the club had six to nine months to find a new field.
Our pursuit of the nearby county land for a new field was the
proper thing to do; however, we had naively wasted two years hoping
that this one prospect would be our savior. As the club formed a new
group to pursue field acquisition, it was clear that we had to take a
different approach to the field acquisition task.
New Acquisition Approach Summary: A committee was formed to
pursue field acquisition. Although there were a number of volunteers
for the task, the working committee ended up being four members out
of a 60-member club. At our first committee meeting, besides coming
up with a list of quick-hit prospects, we discussed our overall
managing process and knowledge acquisition.
The lesson that we had learned from the past was that we needed
1) a multiple-pronged approach to generate more prospective
locations, 2) more knowledge from AMA about successful fieldacquisition
approaches, and 3) an actionable plan and process to get
the results within our six- to nine-month time horizon.
Within two months we had done our homework with AMA, had
run through the quick-hit list (which helped us test some of our
approaches), and had presented and gotten approval for the overall
field acquisition plan from the membership. Three months later we
had generated more than 150 prospects, and through our managing
process ended up with two excellent final candidates.
We chose the best and within three weeks we had a signed
agreement for a new field. We have already flown from our new field
and are near to finishing its development (although the new grass is
currently baking in the East Coast drought).
Acquisition Plan Details: The information from AMA staff was
critical to our success. We would not have had the clarity of focus
without the staff members’ help, more specifically from the AMA
write up by the Levittown Aerobugs, our desire to take a “corporate”
marketing approach to our acquisition strategy was solidified. Our
acquisition plan included the following elements.
Sector Marketing Plan: The sector-marketing plan identified the
target market segments that had the highest probability of success and
that required different approaches to reach the ultimate decision
maker. The segments included public lands (county and township),
landfills, and large private parcels. The areas of coverage were limited
to nine townships in Chester County. This area was selected as to not
interfere with any other AMA club territory and stay within a 45-
minute driving range of most members.
• Public Land: This required making a couple of carefully planned
presentations to the Director of Parks and Recreation for Chester
County and soliciting township managers in those townships that
owned large tracts of land (more than 100 acres). This sector gave us
two qualified prospects; however, the prospects for success are very
low, due to competing use by other constituents and a slow-moving
decision process.
• Landfill: With guidance from contacts at BWI, Waste
Management, and the Chester County Health Department, we were
able to understand the landfill system and develop contacts. We
probably got the most positive response from this segment. Both
existing county landfill managers would grant us possible flying
fields; however, the landfills did not meet all of our criteria, so we
used these prospects as potential backups.
• Large Private Parcels: This is the segment where we did the bulk
of our work. A two-pronged approach was taken. First we identified
the preferred newspaper or journal to advertise to farmers in Chester
County and then submitted an advertisement. This reached
approximately 2,200 farmers in Chester County. Copies were also
posted in local feed stores.
Second, through a computer search at the county assessment
office, we identified all private properties that were more than 80 acres
in the nine townships.
Armed with this list, we made a drive-around inspection of more
than 160 properties; culled the list down to 140; and then sent out a
144
Flying Site Assistance
Joe Beshar, Coordinator,
Eastern Region,
Districts I - VI
198 Merritt Dr., Oradell NJ 07649
Tel.: (201) 261-1281; Fax: (201) 261-0223
E-mail: [email protected]
Wes De Cou, Coordinator
Western Region, Districts VII - XI
202 W. Desert Flower Ln., Phoenix AZ 85045
Voice: (480) 460-9466; Cell: (480) 296-9515; Fax: (480) 460-9434
E-mail: [email protected]
Finding—Preserving—Maintaining
November 2003 145
solicitation letter to the owners. We had a
10% response, which we thought was
unusually high considering that the vast
majority of these landowners were quite
wealthy and had little incentive to help us out.
Admittedly, most of the responses were
negative, but we did get five qualified
prospects from this search. The advertisement
and the computer search yielded our final two
candidates. We chose the one from the
advertisement and thanked the other, banking
this contact for the future.
Process Steps and Goals: The description of
the process steps helped the committee
organize member resources and develop its
marketing information (flyers, solicitation
letters, field layouts, draft contract). This step
was key to informing the club membership of
the magnitude of the task and where they
could help.
• Prospecting: This step starts at ground
zero with only a sector of interest identified
and requires the development of a plan to
figure out how to reach prospects in that
sector and to get the names and location of
those prospects so that they can be qualified.
• Qualifying: After location size and
topography has been determined, this step
requires a meeting with a prospect to
determine if there is a “fit.” For
the club, a “fit” means the
prospective land fits the AMA
requirements; for the prospect, it
means that our initial proposal is
worth further consideration.
• Formal Proposal: This
proposal is given to qualifying
landowners to formally propose
details such as price, availability
of flight times, noise limits, etc.
This may require multiple
iterations. Proposals include
cover letter, plot plan,
specification sheet, and draft
agreement.
• Closing: This is the final
step and ends with a signed
agreement or letter of intent. This
step finalizes the details of the
new field.
Our goal is to get one to two
fields. To achieve this goal the
activities will look like a funnel:
100 considered sites; 20 good
prospects; 10 qualified sites; 5
proposals; 1-2 fields.
Organization and “RACI”
(responsible, accountable,
counsel, and inform): The
organization consisted of a
chairman, one or two members
assigned to each sector, plus two
members to handle the tasks of
1) AMA information retrieval
and 2) land ownership
identification and map acquisition. Obviously
we doubled up to get the work done.
RACI was used to develop roles, ending
up in the following club communication:
“Sector leaders carry the prospect until a
formal proposal is needed, then involvement
of the Field Acquisition Chairman is required
at a minimum.
“The sector leaders keep Field
Acquisition Chairman informed of all
progress. All activities will be brought to the
club for information sharing, either by E-mail
or club meeting. When a formal
agreement/closing is eminent, then club
members must approve.”
Other Tasks: These included agreement on
new noise standards and a decision on
maximum rental fee.
Lessons Learned: This is a big task. All of
our committee members were retirees. For
some on the committee, this became a fulltime
job for three to four months. Club
reputation, noise control, and club size were
issues that had to be addressed in our
communications to prospects. We pushed
our tenure and good standing in the
community.
From much background testing at our old
sight, we promised noise control that would
give noise no louder than ambient conditions
at the overflight perimeter. We informed
prospects that the actual number of fliers who
routinely showed up at the field to fly was
significantly less (four to eight) than the total
membership (60).
The multiprong approach was a must. We
live in a suburban county that has very few
large tracts of land and is undergoing rapid
residential home development. Even with an
annual fee offering exceeding $1,000, RC
flying clubs have very little clout with public
land officials and have low appeal to private
owners.
Acknowledgements: The club thanks Jay
Mealy, Joe Beshar, and Carl Maroney at
AMA; Frank Farmer (local lawyer); Gil
Weiss from the Levittown Aerobugs; and the
other local club presidents for their help in
our successful acquisition effort.
The dimensions of the Chester County Radio Control
Club’s new field is 470 x 100 feet.
Here is a view of the club’s new pavilion. It’s a modest
start!
M i s s i o n S t a t e m e n t
The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a world-class association of modelers organized for the purpose of promotion, development,
education, and advancement of modeling activities.
The Academy provides leadership, organization, competition, communication, protection, representation, recognition, education, and
scientific/technical development to its members.
V i s i o n S t a t e m e n t
We, the members of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, are the pathway to the future of aeromodeling and are committed to making
modeling the foremost sport/hobby in the world.
This vision is accomplished through
• Partnerships with its valued associates, the modeling industry, and governments;
• A process of continuous improvement;
• A commitment to leadership, quality, education, and scientific/technical development; and
• A safe, enjoyable modeling environment.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/11
Page Numbers: 144,145
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/11
Page Numbers: 144,145
CORRECTION: In my September 2003 column, I ran an article
titled “The Forever Field.” This article was written by Ed Rouisse, an
FSA volunteer in Clearwater, Florida.
In communication with Jim Schoonover of the Chester County Radio
Control Club from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, regarding the success
of his club acquiring a flying site, I asked him to write about the club’s
success.
Jim acknowledged with a well-written, detailed story titled “Flying
Field Acquisition Process, Chester County Radio Control Club 2002,”
that exemplifies the value of the AMA Flying Site Assistance
Program. I believe his documentary is a useful and a welcome
reference in the planning and search for flying sites, the heartbeat of
model aviation.
Following is part of the story. Jim’s article and examples of the
club’s agreement, advertisement, solicitation letter, and contract can
be seen on the Model Aviation Web site at
http://modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm.
Background: The Chester County Radio Control Club has been an
official AMA club for roughly 35 years. Although the club flew at
three other fields in its early years, most club members only remember
the current Embreeville site in Chester County where the club
members have flown for more than 25 years.
This site was excellent. It was situated on public land owned by the
state and controlled by the local township. It offered easy access off a
minor state road, an east and west runway, ample overflight in all
directions, and close proximity to most members.
As time passed, a Penn Dot building was placed at the east end of
the field and soccer fields were established to the west. So buildings
and other activities now restricted the once-perfect site. Even so, the
membership learned to cope with the burgeoning restrictions and had
no great desire to move.
In 1999, the controlling government bodies—state, county, and
township—decided to use the flying-field land for a much-needed
septic-treatment system to service the surrounding residential area.
Our beautiful Embreeville flying field was to become septic lagoons.
Even the gallows humor about converting to floatplanes did not
deflect the fact that we were very unhappy campers.
But with the talk of the new septic lagoons came a very
provocative offer made by the County Parks and Recreation Director:
the county would provide provisional use of some nearby county land
which provided good access, proper orientation, and great overflight
space. The club was relieved and excited. Members were told to be
patient and a final agreement would be reached well ahead of the start
of construction of the septic lagoons at Embreeville.
With such a “sure thing,” other field-search activities got little to
no attention. Then the bubble burst. The county parks director moved
on to another job, neighbors around the county land heard about the
club’s provisional use and raised strong objections, and the final
master plan for the county designated the land as a working
environmental park.
After two years of hopeful waiting, the provisional use was
withdrawn and the club was back to ground zero. Lawsuits had
fortunately delayed the construction of the septic lagoons at
Embreeville, so the club had six to nine months to find a new field.
Our pursuit of the nearby county land for a new field was the
proper thing to do; however, we had naively wasted two years hoping
that this one prospect would be our savior. As the club formed a new
group to pursue field acquisition, it was clear that we had to take a
different approach to the field acquisition task.
New Acquisition Approach Summary: A committee was formed to
pursue field acquisition. Although there were a number of volunteers
for the task, the working committee ended up being four members out
of a 60-member club. At our first committee meeting, besides coming
up with a list of quick-hit prospects, we discussed our overall
managing process and knowledge acquisition.
The lesson that we had learned from the past was that we needed
1) a multiple-pronged approach to generate more prospective
locations, 2) more knowledge from AMA about successful fieldacquisition
approaches, and 3) an actionable plan and process to get
the results within our six- to nine-month time horizon.
Within two months we had done our homework with AMA, had
run through the quick-hit list (which helped us test some of our
approaches), and had presented and gotten approval for the overall
field acquisition plan from the membership. Three months later we
had generated more than 150 prospects, and through our managing
process ended up with two excellent final candidates.
We chose the best and within three weeks we had a signed
agreement for a new field. We have already flown from our new field
and are near to finishing its development (although the new grass is
currently baking in the East Coast drought).
Acquisition Plan Details: The information from AMA staff was
critical to our success. We would not have had the clarity of focus
without the staff members’ help, more specifically from the AMA
write up by the Levittown Aerobugs, our desire to take a “corporate”
marketing approach to our acquisition strategy was solidified. Our
acquisition plan included the following elements.
Sector Marketing Plan: The sector-marketing plan identified the
target market segments that had the highest probability of success and
that required different approaches to reach the ultimate decision
maker. The segments included public lands (county and township),
landfills, and large private parcels. The areas of coverage were limited
to nine townships in Chester County. This area was selected as to not
interfere with any other AMA club territory and stay within a 45-
minute driving range of most members.
• Public Land: This required making a couple of carefully planned
presentations to the Director of Parks and Recreation for Chester
County and soliciting township managers in those townships that
owned large tracts of land (more than 100 acres). This sector gave us
two qualified prospects; however, the prospects for success are very
low, due to competing use by other constituents and a slow-moving
decision process.
• Landfill: With guidance from contacts at BWI, Waste
Management, and the Chester County Health Department, we were
able to understand the landfill system and develop contacts. We
probably got the most positive response from this segment. Both
existing county landfill managers would grant us possible flying
fields; however, the landfills did not meet all of our criteria, so we
used these prospects as potential backups.
• Large Private Parcels: This is the segment where we did the bulk
of our work. A two-pronged approach was taken. First we identified
the preferred newspaper or journal to advertise to farmers in Chester
County and then submitted an advertisement. This reached
approximately 2,200 farmers in Chester County. Copies were also
posted in local feed stores.
Second, through a computer search at the county assessment
office, we identified all private properties that were more than 80 acres
in the nine townships.
Armed with this list, we made a drive-around inspection of more
than 160 properties; culled the list down to 140; and then sent out a
144
Flying Site Assistance
Joe Beshar, Coordinator,
Eastern Region,
Districts I - VI
198 Merritt Dr., Oradell NJ 07649
Tel.: (201) 261-1281; Fax: (201) 261-0223
E-mail: [email protected]
Wes De Cou, Coordinator
Western Region, Districts VII - XI
202 W. Desert Flower Ln., Phoenix AZ 85045
Voice: (480) 460-9466; Cell: (480) 296-9515; Fax: (480) 460-9434
E-mail: [email protected]
Finding—Preserving—Maintaining
November 2003 145
solicitation letter to the owners. We had a
10% response, which we thought was
unusually high considering that the vast
majority of these landowners were quite
wealthy and had little incentive to help us out.
Admittedly, most of the responses were
negative, but we did get five qualified
prospects from this search. The advertisement
and the computer search yielded our final two
candidates. We chose the one from the
advertisement and thanked the other, banking
this contact for the future.
Process Steps and Goals: The description of
the process steps helped the committee
organize member resources and develop its
marketing information (flyers, solicitation
letters, field layouts, draft contract). This step
was key to informing the club membership of
the magnitude of the task and where they
could help.
• Prospecting: This step starts at ground
zero with only a sector of interest identified
and requires the development of a plan to
figure out how to reach prospects in that
sector and to get the names and location of
those prospects so that they can be qualified.
• Qualifying: After location size and
topography has been determined, this step
requires a meeting with a prospect to
determine if there is a “fit.” For
the club, a “fit” means the
prospective land fits the AMA
requirements; for the prospect, it
means that our initial proposal is
worth further consideration.
• Formal Proposal: This
proposal is given to qualifying
landowners to formally propose
details such as price, availability
of flight times, noise limits, etc.
This may require multiple
iterations. Proposals include
cover letter, plot plan,
specification sheet, and draft
agreement.
• Closing: This is the final
step and ends with a signed
agreement or letter of intent. This
step finalizes the details of the
new field.
Our goal is to get one to two
fields. To achieve this goal the
activities will look like a funnel:
100 considered sites; 20 good
prospects; 10 qualified sites; 5
proposals; 1-2 fields.
Organization and “RACI”
(responsible, accountable,
counsel, and inform): The
organization consisted of a
chairman, one or two members
assigned to each sector, plus two
members to handle the tasks of
1) AMA information retrieval
and 2) land ownership
identification and map acquisition. Obviously
we doubled up to get the work done.
RACI was used to develop roles, ending
up in the following club communication:
“Sector leaders carry the prospect until a
formal proposal is needed, then involvement
of the Field Acquisition Chairman is required
at a minimum.
“The sector leaders keep Field
Acquisition Chairman informed of all
progress. All activities will be brought to the
club for information sharing, either by E-mail
or club meeting. When a formal
agreement/closing is eminent, then club
members must approve.”
Other Tasks: These included agreement on
new noise standards and a decision on
maximum rental fee.
Lessons Learned: This is a big task. All of
our committee members were retirees. For
some on the committee, this became a fulltime
job for three to four months. Club
reputation, noise control, and club size were
issues that had to be addressed in our
communications to prospects. We pushed
our tenure and good standing in the
community.
From much background testing at our old
sight, we promised noise control that would
give noise no louder than ambient conditions
at the overflight perimeter. We informed
prospects that the actual number of fliers who
routinely showed up at the field to fly was
significantly less (four to eight) than the total
membership (60).
The multiprong approach was a must. We
live in a suburban county that has very few
large tracts of land and is undergoing rapid
residential home development. Even with an
annual fee offering exceeding $1,000, RC
flying clubs have very little clout with public
land officials and have low appeal to private
owners.
Acknowledgements: The club thanks Jay
Mealy, Joe Beshar, and Carl Maroney at
AMA; Frank Farmer (local lawyer); Gil
Weiss from the Levittown Aerobugs; and the
other local club presidents for their help in
our successful acquisition effort.
The dimensions of the Chester County Radio Control
Club’s new field is 470 x 100 feet.
Here is a view of the club’s new pavilion. It’s a modest
start!
M i s s i o n S t a t e m e n t
The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a world-class association of modelers organized for the purpose of promotion, development,
education, and advancement of modeling activities.
The Academy provides leadership, organization, competition, communication, protection, representation, recognition, education, and
scientific/technical development to its members.
V i s i o n S t a t e m e n t
We, the members of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, are the pathway to the future of aeromodeling and are committed to making
modeling the foremost sport/hobby in the world.
This vision is accomplished through
• Partnerships with its valued associates, the modeling industry, and governments;
• A process of continuous improvement;
• A commitment to leadership, quality, education, and scientific/technical development; and
• A safe, enjoyable modeling environment.