Flying Site Assistance - 2011/06

138 MODEL AVIATION
HI, AGAIN! Here in the Southeast, it is warming up. As I write
this column, it is still early April, but the temperature is expected
to be in the 90s here today.
I know everyone is starting to fly, because I am getting more
and more calls and emails about club flying site issues.
I received the following information from Cecil Collum, an
avid AMA member.
Obtaining Federal Land for a New Flying Field
In 1995, a Base Realignment and Closure board selected a
World War II-era US Army post, Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, for
closure. Fort Chaffee is located about a dozen miles east-southeast
of Fort Smith, Arkansas, itself an old frontier Army fort, and on
the eastern border of Oklahoma.
Once the decision was approved to close the fort,
approximately 6,000 acres were placed in trust and a federal entity
was created to return the acreage to the local tax rolls. The
remaining 66,000 acres were placed in care of the Arkansas Army
National Guard and are used by thousands of active and reserve
soldiers annually for various training.
The federal entity created to return the land to civilian use is
known as The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (FCRA),
and the area itself is known as Chaffee Crossing.
Interstate 49 is currently under construction, beginning in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul area and continuing south through Missouri
and Arkansas into Louisiana where it will terminate in New Orleans.
Unfortunately for our RC club, the Flightmasters MAC,
Charter Club 742, the access ramps will be within a short distance
of our current field, so we began a search for a new field in June
2009.
We will not be forced to vacate the field until construction
crosses a line of low hills just to our north, but construction could
begin in possibly two to five years (2011-2014). It is now at those
low hills and we expect construction to start sometime in 2012.
At our July 2009 club meeting, it was proposed that we select a
new field committee to begin a search now before we lose our
current field. Three members—Ron Roberts, Tom Minton, and
Bill Womble—were asked by President Josh Price to serve on the
committee, and we were off to the races!
This shouldn’t take long, right? Dream on, Horatio!
The first task the committee set for itself was to learn what
property was available, who owned it, and did it have any
potential for acquisition by the club.
At this point, I must digress and back up a few years to lay out
a very large problem. Our club normally has 60-65 members;
therefore, we are not an affluent club.
Having lost a field in a county park several years previously,
some members pooled resources and created a New Field Fund
CD and appointed some folks as trustees with the stipulation that
the funds could be used only to purchase a field or to improve a
field purchased by the club. In other words, a leased field gets no
cash!
The trustees have informed us that they will abide by these
stipulations even though the members who set up the CD have
gone to that very large hangar in the sky.
The committee drove over the county and found little land that
satisfied our needs and priced low enough for our purchase, so the
search was expanded to include land in the Chaffee Crossing area.
A meeting was arranged with the executive director of the FCRA,
Ivy Owen, and Director of Chaffee Crossing Larry Evans, and we
pitched our case.
The FCRA folks suggested a 30-acre site that seemed suitable
and we began work to acquire it. Then we learned it was in a 100-
year flood plain.
That isn’t exactly self-explanatory. It does not mean that it
may flood once in 100 years, but that there is a 26% probability of
flooding in any 30-year period according to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
In April 2010, the area was subjected to heavy rains for several
days so Tom Minton took his four-wheeler and checked the
proposed location. It was a lake!
Needless to say, we shifted our focus, located another plot, and
furnished GPS coordinates of the second site to the FCRA. They
also looked and agreed the first site was unusable so we moved
forward on site two.
After furnishing multiple business plans, PowerPoint
presentations, and letters justifying our request, the matter came
before the Real Estate Review committee. The people on the
committee were friendly enough, but said they couldn’t donate
$300,000 worth of land for our purpose.
They asked our committee to present a counterproposal with
twelve acres to be deeded by donation and a long-term lease for
eighteen acres. All of the former documentation was discarded
and we began again.
Letters, PowerPoint presentations, etc., were once again
forwarded to the FCRA and we prepared a flying demonstration
for the FCRA board of directors and Barling, Arkansas, city
officials, on the former parade grounds to acquaint them with
model aviation. The demonstration was a rousing success, with
several guests flying trainers on the buddy box.
It seemed we hit a wall after the demonstration because there
was little activity and we began to think that we were forgotten.
However, the FCRA folks had been very busy bringing several new
industries into the area, along with upgrading the infrastructure so
we just hung on, hoping that one day the dam would break.
On March 17, 2011, the dam did break. In a board of directors
meeting that day members Ron Roberts, David Turley, and I
attended, our club was informed that there would be no donation
by deed. However, FCRA extended an offer of a five-year
renewable lease for 30 acres at “no fee,” which is a hard deal for a
poor club to beat.
We accepted the offer and are now awaiting the survey, legal
stuff, and tree removal so we can get our hands dirty!
Was it disappointing to get only a lease? Yes, but we learned at
the meeting that the FCRA sometimes uses this method to check
the fit of a new tenant and, if it works well, they will award that
tenant a portion of the property at the end to the first lease. This
was done for a Master Gardeners group at that meeting, so we are
very encouraged. We may get our own field yet!
Never give up! You could be on the verge of victory!
—Submitted by Cecil Collum,
Flightmasters MAC, Fort Smith, Arkansas
Tony Stillman
Flying Site Assistance
Coordinator
102 Cherrywood Ct., Brunswick GA 31525; (912) 242-2407;
[email protected]
Never give up! You could be on the verge of victory!
Flying Site Assistance
Tony Stillman | www.modelaircraft.org/membership/clubs/fsap.aspx
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