Flying Site Assistance
Start looking for your second site
Wes DeCou | [email protected]
Anyone who has heard me speak at the AMA Convention in California in the past few years or at club or association meetings throughout the country has heard me ask, "What is the first thing you should do after getting a new flying site?" The answer is: start looking for your second site. Even under ideal conditions such as club ownership of the field, there is a possibility of zoning change, residential encroachment, or any number of unforeseen circumstances that might upset the apple cart. The following recap of a letter I received from Bob Richardson, president of the Central Arkansas Model Aviators Association (CAMAA), describes just such a situation.
Bob Richardson writes:
Thanks for the phone call to check on the status of our club flying fields. I say fields because we now have two flying fields to use. Our original field is in Bauxite, Arkansas (near Little Rock).
Earlier this year I asked and received permission from the mayor of Benton to use the now-closed airport in Benton as a second field. The county airport closed in April (I worked for a flying service there until that time) and moved to a new airport in another area of the county. The runway is in excellent condition as it was resurfaced four years ago and only had private airplane traffic on it.
The airport property was sold at auction to the adjacent church. The church sold the south half to the City of Benton and retained the north half for its own use. Since the north half contained the ramp area that would accommodate parking for more spectator cars, I first tried to obtain permission from the church to use it for our club events. Church officials advised me that since no use plan has been drawn up yet by the church, they preferred that no one use it until that was done.
I then went to the mayor of Benton to see about using the south half for our events and I was surprised how enthusiastic he was about us wanting to use it. I presented him with my written proposal for use that I had made out for the church board officials (I changed the words to the "city" officials).
Included in that proposal was a request that the grass in the area we would be using be mowed. I was surprised when I passed the area the next day and saw that the mayor had several big bush-hog mowers out clearing the half of the airport — in the rain! He even offered to bring his personal tractor out and mow a pit and spectator area for us!
I made up a flyer to post around town for the CAMAA RC air show to be held June 16 and gave one to the mayor. He had copies made and posted them on doors at City Hall. We invited several clubs in the area to fly with us at a real airport. No contest—just an opportunity to enjoy our hobby.
We provided some entertainment for spectators, including a couple of buddy-box training airplanes with which we provided airtime to the mayor and his 11-year-old son. I presented both of them with certificates of accomplishment when they were finished flying with our club instructors.
We had some pilots from out of town come in to fly and demonstrate their turbine jet aircraft. The airport runway was perfect for that. Some of the turbine pilots have since joined our club.
We had a bigger crowd of spectators and more pilots than we had expected at the event, and have scheduled another CAMAA RC air show for October 20 at the airport. We recently received AMA approval for the airport site to be designated as our club’s alternate flying site and it is insured as such.
Eventually the airport property will be used for commercial development, but the mayor advised me that until that happens, it is ours to use anytime we want. We also have a built-in audience since the city park’s ball fields are adjacent to the airport.
Our club’s main flying field is a grass field about 10 miles from the airport. It sits on an old bauxite pit that was filled in as a landfill and capped off many years ago. Over the years the runway has sunk slightly in several places and we made plans to bring in a bulldozer, level it, and put a geotextile mat over it.
Our landlord, the McGeorge Company (a heavy-equipment, dirt-moving company) from whom we lease the field, has said the state requires a construction bond that would increase at the rate of 3% a year. We find the bond requirements onerous, so for the time being our runway improvement project is on hold.
We have been fortunate to have a boss to do the dozer work for us at no charge, but that has been put on hold also.
The McGeorge Company representative has said the construction bond was to comply with state regulations on landfills; however, a club member checked with the state department that has jurisdiction over landfills, and was told the landfill is so old that they don’t regulate it anymore. So until we can clarify all this and coordinate this with our landlord, our runway work is on hold.
It is nice to have an alternate site so when we can start our runway work we will still have a place to fly until it is completed. The Hot Springs, Arkansas, RC club is in the process of resurfacing its runway and we have offered the members the use of our airport site during this process.
Pictures of our club, field, members, and the CAMAA RC air show held at the airport site in June are on www.camaa.org on a dropdown menu. Click on the pictures and maximize the screen for the best quality.
This is a textbook example of the wisdom of always having a second flying site available. If they can work out the details, these members will have a choice of two great flying fields. If one field is lost, the club will have one left and can retain its membership while searching for a second flying site!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
