Flying Site Assistance - 2008/09

September 2008 155
IN THE DARK, damp, cobweb-strewn
recesses of my aging memory I’m getting a
vision of an early 2006 column in which I
was able to report the successful acquisition
of a flying site lease by the Conejo Valley
Flyers (CVF) of Ventura, California ...
Open space advocate and Ventura
County Supervisor Linda Parks was
instrumental in steering CVF member Joe
Martin to the property owners, the Seventh
Day Adventist Conference in Burbank,
California. At that point, Joe had more than
six years invested in his quest for a new
flying site for his club.
As Joe related to me recently, the signing
of the lease merely put him at the trailhead
of a tortuous path to an actual flying field.
There would be many months and many
miles between the stroke of a pen in town
and the sound of a four-stroke on a runway.
The property specified in the lease was
open space, but was slated for eventual
development. Although it was private
property, the parcel was governed by myriad
regulations and code requirements.
It seemed that every attempt to design
and construct the eventual flying field was
stopped or altered as the plans fell victim to
one or more of these requirements. You can
slow Joe, but with Joe, it’s never a “no-go.”
He got together with the developer the
conference was employing,
David Fillips, and discussed the
requirements for the project as
well as the regulatory
impediments in detail. As “luck”
(read hard work) would have it,
Joe discovered that Dave had a
pre-cleared, unrestricted area on
the designated parcel that just
happened to coincide with the
field runway requirements. It was
approximately 75 feet wide and
400 feet long.
When the qualifying parcel
was designated, there was the
problem of grading. In the flyingsite
area, grading must be
accompanied by dust control, so
a water truck was needed.
Again Dave Fillips provided
Joe with a solution. It happened that Dave
had a grading specialist and a water truck in
the area on another of his projects. The
resources would be in the area for a limited
time, so if Joe wanted to take advantage of a
reduced rate because the equipment was in
the area, he had to act with his usual
alacrity. And he did!
With the expert help of club members
Marcel Gillette, who is a surveyor, and Wil
Trautmann, a stake pounder in this instance,
the short turn-around time and the cost of
this grading project were brought into an
acceptable range.
But what about the cost? With a short
lead time, how could a club with limited
resources because of a decline in
membership attendant to a field loss come
up with the required dollars?
Well, you can slow Joe, but … With a
few well-placed telephone calls, Joe enlisted
the willing financial support of two
members of another local club. The Channel
Island Condors’ president, John O’Brien,
and the club’s safety officer, Tony Brown,
provided the necessary funds on a short
turn-around loan, and the deed was done
within the required four-day window.
The Channel Island Condors members
supported the effort by reimbursing John
and Tony. The CVF will now retire a loan
from the Channel Island club. A great story
of one club helping another.
The CVF club is now looking for an
economical, environmentally friendly
runway surface. Believe it or not, an
industrial, molasses-based material is being
considered! (Let’s see, you want me to put
my twin turbine down on a strip of
molasses?) More on this at a later time.
For now, Joe says flying off of dirt has
its drawbacks, but at least the club is flying!
I’ll let you know when the ribbon is cut!
I continue to get calls from members who
fly or want to fly on full-scale airports or on
land contiguous with full-scale airports. In
some cases, the member just wants to know
if that is permitted. In other cases, members
tell me that “John Q Public said that the
FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)
doesn’t allow that.”
Here’s the real deal: The FAA issued an
Advisory Circular (AC 91-57) in 1981
dealing with the fact that model aviation and
full-scale aviation are indeed compatible. It
issued broad guidelines and suggestions for
the safe operation of models on or near fullscale
airports.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association’s Directory of Airports lists
more than 450 airports in the US where
model aviation is indicated as an ancillary
activity on or near the airport. For low-tomoderate-
use full-scale airports, model
aviation is a good fit, and usually includes
many of the same full-scale pilots who use
the field.
You can find a copy of the FAA
Advisory Circular online at the AMA Web
site: www.modelaircraft.org. Click on to
Member Services, then click on AMA
Documents (PDF) and scroll down to
document number 540-C.
Keep looking for your next flying site.
AMA News Announcements, news, and information from the
Academy of Model Aeronautics and the elected district representatives.
155 MODEL AVIATION
Flying Site Assistance
Conejo Valley Flyers: The Saga Continues
Wes De Cou
Coordinator
Western Region
AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, LA,
MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD,
TX, UT, WA, and WY
202 W. Desert Flower Ln.,
Phoenix AZ 85045
Voice: (480) 460-9466;
Cell: (480) 296-9515
Fax: (480) 460-9434
E-mail: [email protected]
Joe Beshar
Coordinator
Eastern Region
AL, CT, DC, DE, Europe, FL, GA, IA, IL,
IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS,
NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, PR, RI, SC,
VA, VI, VT, WI, and WV
198 Merritt Dr., Oradell NJ 07649
Tel.: (201) 261-1281;
Fax: (201) 261-0223
E-mail: [email protected]
Finding—Preserving—Maintaining
Left: Joe Martin gets to see
an eight-year dream
become reality.
Above right: (L-R) Channel
Island Condors’ president,
John O’Brien; Conejo Valley Flyers president, Rick
Esler; and Channel Island Condor board member, Tony
Brown. The men enjoyed the first flights from the
newly graded field.