Clubhouse under construction. The
temporary runway is on the left; the
permanent runway is on the right. Paul
Hotinger photo.
All the big construction jobs are essentially complete. Isn’t it beautiful? Photo by Brett
Horton (www.copterviews.com).
IT WAS EARLY November 2003 and I
was getting geared up for the promise of
another great holiday season, making lists
of gift suggestions (all RC) and leaving
them in conspicuous places for my spouse
to find and, I hoped, act on. And my (more
correctly, our) club—the Blacksheep Radio
Control Club (BSRCC) in South
Carolina—was finishing an active and
productive flying season.
We had accomplished much that year,
including:
• Rewriting our bylaws to bring them in
line with AMA requirements.
• Providing a static RC display for the July
Fourth celebrations in the town of Easley,
South Carolina.
• Conducting a family fun-fly (with great
food and super events) for the BSRCC
membership.
• Hosting a premier helicopter fly-in, which
people from across the country attended.
(Both NBC and CBS sent news choppers
out and put on an impressive show for us,
and we made the local TV evening news.)
• Holding a Warbirds Fly-In, which
brought tears to the eyes of anyone who
remembered the rumbling exhaust of a big
radial aching for altitude.
It had been a good year, and we all had
Tom Van Norstrand (foreground) and Bob Huff prepare to aviate.
Notice the sturdy starting benches. Safety first! Scott photo.
Club P-51 gurus (L-R) Stan Scott, Nelson Swords, and Ronnie
Gossett show off their Mustangs. Scott photo.
Henry Caldwell, the BSRCC’s ace helicopter pilot, strolls down the tent line at the
club’s helicopter fly-in and appears to be wondering how that fixed-wing guy got in
there! James photo.
The first helicopter fly-in was a great success! This is but a small portion of the tents
that were erected at the picturesque site. James photo.
Thanks for the
New Field!
The BSRCC owes a debt of
gratitude to the following club officials
and benefactors for their leadership in
finding, building, and managing a new
flying site in such a short amount of
time.
The NBC WYFF News 4 chopper pays a
visit during a club fly-in. Will James
photo.
Front to back: Charlie Davenport, Jim
Stewart, and Joe Fusco install a window
slider. Stan Scott photo.
• Joe Fusco, president
• Wayne Ellison, vice president
• Jim Stewart, treasurer
• Tom Van Norstrand, secretary
• Darrell Long, field marshall
• Nelson Swords, safety officer
• Mike Snyder, safety officer
• Lloyd Moore, safety officer
• Charlie Davenport, landowner
Our club has a wonderful bunch of
people, both members and nonmembers,
who know what the word “volunteer”
means. They gave richly of their time,
their purses, and their materials.
We are also grateful for AMA, which
gave advice when needed, support when
requested, and was a great resource to help
us through the “tough bits.” MA
—David Thomas
Photos as noted
something for which to be thankful. Then I
received the letter. Blinking twice, I reread
its opening words. I was shocked!
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
yelled to my wife.
“What dear?” she replied.
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
repeated.
My mind was racing with questions, the
most important of which were what
happened and how the club would recover
from it. As I scanned the remainder of the
document it became clear that the owner
had other plans for the property and that no
negotiation would take place to permit us
to continue using our ideal site.
A successful and amicable long-term
relationship with the owner was going
down the proverbial tubes. We were out,
period.
The only crumb tossed our way was that
we would be able to use the field until the
end of December, which was less than 60
days away. At least we were given a little
time to remove our belongings while we
searched for a new location. The end of a
nearly perfect year turned far from perfect!
What follows is more than a chronicle
of events detailing our rescue from this
disaster; it is a blueprint for success that
shows how good people, operating with
honest intentions, can pull together for the
benefit of all.
It is a testament to the grit, fortitude,
and determination of the BSRCC members
and particularly to our elected officers.
Without their firm leadership and sound
judgment, this could have been the end of
the club.
It is important that I give special
recognition to one of our members: Charlie
Davenport. He is a prime mover who has
done as much as anyone to contribute to
this success story. You will see why as the
tale unfolds.
Try to imagine being an elected officer of
a flying club with roughly 90 members and
suddenly finding yourself without a field
from which to operate. Now try to think of
all the things that must be done (some of
them almost immediately) to secure a new
field and make it safely operational.
In addition, it is important to
accomplish all those things successfully to
preserve the club’s integrity. It is akin to
someone giving you a parking lot full of
avid shoppers and asking you to provide
the mall. That should give you an idea of
the problem’s enormity.
The BSRCC’s president, Joe Fusco,
knew that speedy actions based on
thoughtful decisions were called for, and he
wasted no time finding solutions. Joe is a
people person; he knows almost everyone
in the club on a first-name basis. He spends
a lot (I mean a lot) of time at the field.
Joe also uses his gift for gab to engage
anyone in friendly conversation on almost
any subject. He knew that Charlie
Davenport was a local farmer/landowner
and that he would be an excellent resource
for locating a new field. Joe had no idea
how great of a resource Charlie would be!
He called Charlie with the bad news,
and they set off to try to find a replacement
field. After looking at several questionable
locations, Charlie showed Joe a few acres
at a corner of his property and offered them
to the club.
“I was so excited with the potential for
this location that I sealed the deal with a
handshake right there!” said Joe.
It wasn’t a perfect location, but it was
reasonably level. It had no improvements
but was loaded with possibilities. There
were trees on three sides, but they were not
too close to the proposed runway location.
One end was wide open. It was time to let
the fun (read, work) begin!
A special meeting of the club membership
was called to ratify the new location. Joe
asked, and received permission, to create a
special budget and obtain decision
authority to proceed unilaterally to make
the field ready for use.
There was much discussion regarding
the details of how to proceed and trying to
identify what needed to be done, but in the
end we knew that this could not be a
“committee” operation if we were to be
successful. The onus was placed squarely
on our elected officers, and it was the
smartest thing we did during this entire
saga.
There was a great deal of work to be
done, with plenty of blisters and pinched
fingers to go around! After identifying and
staking out the important elements of the
field, based on AMA guidelines, Charlie
began to clear a runway for immediate—but
temporary—use so our members could get
flying as soon as possible.
As that was being completed,
arrangements were made to conduct
frequency testing to ensure that there would
be no interference between us and another,
smaller field within 3 miles.
A clubhouse/meeting building was laid
out. The structure ended up being
constructed as a 60 x 20-foot pole barn. One
end (20 x 20 feet) was enclosed to provide
for a small kitchen and meeting room, with
the remaining 40 x 20-foot space left opensided.
An addition on the rear of the meeting
room provided areas for bathrooms and
general storage.
A septic system was installed. Gravel
(more than 100 tons) was hauled in and
spread for the road and parking. Fences
were erected and signs were installed.
A radio-impound building was
constructed along with a new frequency
board. New safety benches were built to
augment those removed from the pits at the
old field. Trees were removed from near the
end of the runway. Whew!
Have you ever seen an ant farm? You
can spend hours watching the ants scurry
about in what seems to be random motion,
and then you see the structure of tunnels and
chambers take shape. Welcome to the
BSRCC ant farm!
Cars, trucks, vans, trailers, and even
motorcycles came and went. In came
lumber, cement, roofing, sliding doors,
windows, electrical wire, pipe, toilet
fixtures, kitchen cabinets and appliances,
barbecues, picnic tables, fencing, posts,
tools, nails, screws, and bolts. People found
muscles that had been strangers to them for
too long. Out went a group of tired, aching
bodies, only to return the next day to do it
all over again.
And then, like the ant farm, the site
emerged. The permanent runway had been
harrowed, seeded, and rolled smooth several
times. The grass had filled in and was cut to
a usable length. Its 100 x 600-foot
manicured space announced to the world
that the BSRCC was back! In style! Just as
it had been planned.
After all major construction was
finished, the field’s safety boundaries were
fenced, the parking lot was well defined, the
clubhouse/meeting room was done, the pit
benches and several shade tents were
installed, and all the requirements for safe
flying were in place. We were back, better
than ever!
How long did it take to finish the field? The
real answer is that it is never finished. Even
today we are tweaking, changing, and finetuning
our installation.
However, the time that had elapsed from
that terrible-letter day in 2003 to when the
first flights took place on the temporary
runway was less than a week. The honors
for those flights go to Mike Snyder and Jim
Stewart with their airplanes and John Garst
with his helicopter. The chunks of dirt didn’t
bother the helicopter nearly as bad as they
did the airplanes!
The honors for even having a temporary
field go to Joe and Charlie. The big
construction jobs were finished by the late
spring/early summer of 2004. We began
using the permanent runway then, but it took
until this year to get it in great condition.
We have been conducting our monthly
meetings at the field for more than a year,
and having the enclosed room with its little
potbellied stove is a shiver stopper when the
north wind blows in January. (Yes, Virginia,
it does get cold here in sunny South
Carolina!)
The BSRCC has returned to its
scheduled fly-ins, and they are as successful
as ever. A huge benefit of these events is
that the guests and visitors have given our
club members many good ideas and
suggestions for both the field and activities,
for which we are grateful.
We intend to capitalize on this input, and
we expect to expand our fly-in activities.
Watch MA’s “Contest Calendar” for
announcements!
I want to bring attention to all the people
who gave so much of themselves and their
bank accounts. Mentioning each person by
name would encompass the entire club
roster and a bunch of nonmember family
and friends.
You all know who you are, and you have
not been ignored in this article. I reserve the
highest compliments for each of these
people; none of this would have been
possible without each of them. I am proud to
call them my friends and fellow club
members!
Many others helped out in a variety of
ways. The late Jim McNeill (AMA District
V vice president) was a source of
information, inspiration, and
encouragement. Eric Meyers of Hangar 9
helped us sort out the frequency issue. The
Lowe’s store in Easley gave us a break on
prices and a lot of good advice. The Hobby
Connection store in Easley donated
materials for the site. Bless you all!
You are all invited to come to the
BSRCC field and see for yourself what we
all are so proud of. Bring your gear and fly
awhile. Directions are on the Web site. And
if you see somebody strutting around with
his chest thrown out and swollen thumbs,
say “Hey!” to one of our volunteers! MA
David L. Thomas
105 Moselle Dr.
Seneca SC 29672
Sources:
BSRCC
(864) 859-0192
www.bsrcc.com
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/12
Page Numbers: 53,54,56,58
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/12
Page Numbers: 53,54,56,58
Clubhouse under construction. The
temporary runway is on the left; the
permanent runway is on the right. Paul
Hotinger photo.
All the big construction jobs are essentially complete. Isn’t it beautiful? Photo by Brett
Horton (www.copterviews.com).
IT WAS EARLY November 2003 and I
was getting geared up for the promise of
another great holiday season, making lists
of gift suggestions (all RC) and leaving
them in conspicuous places for my spouse
to find and, I hoped, act on. And my (more
correctly, our) club—the Blacksheep Radio
Control Club (BSRCC) in South
Carolina—was finishing an active and
productive flying season.
We had accomplished much that year,
including:
• Rewriting our bylaws to bring them in
line with AMA requirements.
• Providing a static RC display for the July
Fourth celebrations in the town of Easley,
South Carolina.
• Conducting a family fun-fly (with great
food and super events) for the BSRCC
membership.
• Hosting a premier helicopter fly-in, which
people from across the country attended.
(Both NBC and CBS sent news choppers
out and put on an impressive show for us,
and we made the local TV evening news.)
• Holding a Warbirds Fly-In, which
brought tears to the eyes of anyone who
remembered the rumbling exhaust of a big
radial aching for altitude.
It had been a good year, and we all had
Tom Van Norstrand (foreground) and Bob Huff prepare to aviate.
Notice the sturdy starting benches. Safety first! Scott photo.
Club P-51 gurus (L-R) Stan Scott, Nelson Swords, and Ronnie
Gossett show off their Mustangs. Scott photo.
Henry Caldwell, the BSRCC’s ace helicopter pilot, strolls down the tent line at the
club’s helicopter fly-in and appears to be wondering how that fixed-wing guy got in
there! James photo.
The first helicopter fly-in was a great success! This is but a small portion of the tents
that were erected at the picturesque site. James photo.
Thanks for the
New Field!
The BSRCC owes a debt of
gratitude to the following club officials
and benefactors for their leadership in
finding, building, and managing a new
flying site in such a short amount of
time.
The NBC WYFF News 4 chopper pays a
visit during a club fly-in. Will James
photo.
Front to back: Charlie Davenport, Jim
Stewart, and Joe Fusco install a window
slider. Stan Scott photo.
• Joe Fusco, president
• Wayne Ellison, vice president
• Jim Stewart, treasurer
• Tom Van Norstrand, secretary
• Darrell Long, field marshall
• Nelson Swords, safety officer
• Mike Snyder, safety officer
• Lloyd Moore, safety officer
• Charlie Davenport, landowner
Our club has a wonderful bunch of
people, both members and nonmembers,
who know what the word “volunteer”
means. They gave richly of their time,
their purses, and their materials.
We are also grateful for AMA, which
gave advice when needed, support when
requested, and was a great resource to help
us through the “tough bits.” MA
—David Thomas
Photos as noted
something for which to be thankful. Then I
received the letter. Blinking twice, I reread
its opening words. I was shocked!
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
yelled to my wife.
“What dear?” she replied.
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
repeated.
My mind was racing with questions, the
most important of which were what
happened and how the club would recover
from it. As I scanned the remainder of the
document it became clear that the owner
had other plans for the property and that no
negotiation would take place to permit us
to continue using our ideal site.
A successful and amicable long-term
relationship with the owner was going
down the proverbial tubes. We were out,
period.
The only crumb tossed our way was that
we would be able to use the field until the
end of December, which was less than 60
days away. At least we were given a little
time to remove our belongings while we
searched for a new location. The end of a
nearly perfect year turned far from perfect!
What follows is more than a chronicle
of events detailing our rescue from this
disaster; it is a blueprint for success that
shows how good people, operating with
honest intentions, can pull together for the
benefit of all.
It is a testament to the grit, fortitude,
and determination of the BSRCC members
and particularly to our elected officers.
Without their firm leadership and sound
judgment, this could have been the end of
the club.
It is important that I give special
recognition to one of our members: Charlie
Davenport. He is a prime mover who has
done as much as anyone to contribute to
this success story. You will see why as the
tale unfolds.
Try to imagine being an elected officer of
a flying club with roughly 90 members and
suddenly finding yourself without a field
from which to operate. Now try to think of
all the things that must be done (some of
them almost immediately) to secure a new
field and make it safely operational.
In addition, it is important to
accomplish all those things successfully to
preserve the club’s integrity. It is akin to
someone giving you a parking lot full of
avid shoppers and asking you to provide
the mall. That should give you an idea of
the problem’s enormity.
The BSRCC’s president, Joe Fusco,
knew that speedy actions based on
thoughtful decisions were called for, and he
wasted no time finding solutions. Joe is a
people person; he knows almost everyone
in the club on a first-name basis. He spends
a lot (I mean a lot) of time at the field.
Joe also uses his gift for gab to engage
anyone in friendly conversation on almost
any subject. He knew that Charlie
Davenport was a local farmer/landowner
and that he would be an excellent resource
for locating a new field. Joe had no idea
how great of a resource Charlie would be!
He called Charlie with the bad news,
and they set off to try to find a replacement
field. After looking at several questionable
locations, Charlie showed Joe a few acres
at a corner of his property and offered them
to the club.
“I was so excited with the potential for
this location that I sealed the deal with a
handshake right there!” said Joe.
It wasn’t a perfect location, but it was
reasonably level. It had no improvements
but was loaded with possibilities. There
were trees on three sides, but they were not
too close to the proposed runway location.
One end was wide open. It was time to let
the fun (read, work) begin!
A special meeting of the club membership
was called to ratify the new location. Joe
asked, and received permission, to create a
special budget and obtain decision
authority to proceed unilaterally to make
the field ready for use.
There was much discussion regarding
the details of how to proceed and trying to
identify what needed to be done, but in the
end we knew that this could not be a
“committee” operation if we were to be
successful. The onus was placed squarely
on our elected officers, and it was the
smartest thing we did during this entire
saga.
There was a great deal of work to be
done, with plenty of blisters and pinched
fingers to go around! After identifying and
staking out the important elements of the
field, based on AMA guidelines, Charlie
began to clear a runway for immediate—but
temporary—use so our members could get
flying as soon as possible.
As that was being completed,
arrangements were made to conduct
frequency testing to ensure that there would
be no interference between us and another,
smaller field within 3 miles.
A clubhouse/meeting building was laid
out. The structure ended up being
constructed as a 60 x 20-foot pole barn. One
end (20 x 20 feet) was enclosed to provide
for a small kitchen and meeting room, with
the remaining 40 x 20-foot space left opensided.
An addition on the rear of the meeting
room provided areas for bathrooms and
general storage.
A septic system was installed. Gravel
(more than 100 tons) was hauled in and
spread for the road and parking. Fences
were erected and signs were installed.
A radio-impound building was
constructed along with a new frequency
board. New safety benches were built to
augment those removed from the pits at the
old field. Trees were removed from near the
end of the runway. Whew!
Have you ever seen an ant farm? You
can spend hours watching the ants scurry
about in what seems to be random motion,
and then you see the structure of tunnels and
chambers take shape. Welcome to the
BSRCC ant farm!
Cars, trucks, vans, trailers, and even
motorcycles came and went. In came
lumber, cement, roofing, sliding doors,
windows, electrical wire, pipe, toilet
fixtures, kitchen cabinets and appliances,
barbecues, picnic tables, fencing, posts,
tools, nails, screws, and bolts. People found
muscles that had been strangers to them for
too long. Out went a group of tired, aching
bodies, only to return the next day to do it
all over again.
And then, like the ant farm, the site
emerged. The permanent runway had been
harrowed, seeded, and rolled smooth several
times. The grass had filled in and was cut to
a usable length. Its 100 x 600-foot
manicured space announced to the world
that the BSRCC was back! In style! Just as
it had been planned.
After all major construction was
finished, the field’s safety boundaries were
fenced, the parking lot was well defined, the
clubhouse/meeting room was done, the pit
benches and several shade tents were
installed, and all the requirements for safe
flying were in place. We were back, better
than ever!
How long did it take to finish the field? The
real answer is that it is never finished. Even
today we are tweaking, changing, and finetuning
our installation.
However, the time that had elapsed from
that terrible-letter day in 2003 to when the
first flights took place on the temporary
runway was less than a week. The honors
for those flights go to Mike Snyder and Jim
Stewart with their airplanes and John Garst
with his helicopter. The chunks of dirt didn’t
bother the helicopter nearly as bad as they
did the airplanes!
The honors for even having a temporary
field go to Joe and Charlie. The big
construction jobs were finished by the late
spring/early summer of 2004. We began
using the permanent runway then, but it took
until this year to get it in great condition.
We have been conducting our monthly
meetings at the field for more than a year,
and having the enclosed room with its little
potbellied stove is a shiver stopper when the
north wind blows in January. (Yes, Virginia,
it does get cold here in sunny South
Carolina!)
The BSRCC has returned to its
scheduled fly-ins, and they are as successful
as ever. A huge benefit of these events is
that the guests and visitors have given our
club members many good ideas and
suggestions for both the field and activities,
for which we are grateful.
We intend to capitalize on this input, and
we expect to expand our fly-in activities.
Watch MA’s “Contest Calendar” for
announcements!
I want to bring attention to all the people
who gave so much of themselves and their
bank accounts. Mentioning each person by
name would encompass the entire club
roster and a bunch of nonmember family
and friends.
You all know who you are, and you have
not been ignored in this article. I reserve the
highest compliments for each of these
people; none of this would have been
possible without each of them. I am proud to
call them my friends and fellow club
members!
Many others helped out in a variety of
ways. The late Jim McNeill (AMA District
V vice president) was a source of
information, inspiration, and
encouragement. Eric Meyers of Hangar 9
helped us sort out the frequency issue. The
Lowe’s store in Easley gave us a break on
prices and a lot of good advice. The Hobby
Connection store in Easley donated
materials for the site. Bless you all!
You are all invited to come to the
BSRCC field and see for yourself what we
all are so proud of. Bring your gear and fly
awhile. Directions are on the Web site. And
if you see somebody strutting around with
his chest thrown out and swollen thumbs,
say “Hey!” to one of our volunteers! MA
David L. Thomas
105 Moselle Dr.
Seneca SC 29672
Sources:
BSRCC
(864) 859-0192
www.bsrcc.com
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/12
Page Numbers: 53,54,56,58
Clubhouse under construction. The
temporary runway is on the left; the
permanent runway is on the right. Paul
Hotinger photo.
All the big construction jobs are essentially complete. Isn’t it beautiful? Photo by Brett
Horton (www.copterviews.com).
IT WAS EARLY November 2003 and I
was getting geared up for the promise of
another great holiday season, making lists
of gift suggestions (all RC) and leaving
them in conspicuous places for my spouse
to find and, I hoped, act on. And my (more
correctly, our) club—the Blacksheep Radio
Control Club (BSRCC) in South
Carolina—was finishing an active and
productive flying season.
We had accomplished much that year,
including:
• Rewriting our bylaws to bring them in
line with AMA requirements.
• Providing a static RC display for the July
Fourth celebrations in the town of Easley,
South Carolina.
• Conducting a family fun-fly (with great
food and super events) for the BSRCC
membership.
• Hosting a premier helicopter fly-in, which
people from across the country attended.
(Both NBC and CBS sent news choppers
out and put on an impressive show for us,
and we made the local TV evening news.)
• Holding a Warbirds Fly-In, which
brought tears to the eyes of anyone who
remembered the rumbling exhaust of a big
radial aching for altitude.
It had been a good year, and we all had
Tom Van Norstrand (foreground) and Bob Huff prepare to aviate.
Notice the sturdy starting benches. Safety first! Scott photo.
Club P-51 gurus (L-R) Stan Scott, Nelson Swords, and Ronnie
Gossett show off their Mustangs. Scott photo.
Henry Caldwell, the BSRCC’s ace helicopter pilot, strolls down the tent line at the
club’s helicopter fly-in and appears to be wondering how that fixed-wing guy got in
there! James photo.
The first helicopter fly-in was a great success! This is but a small portion of the tents
that were erected at the picturesque site. James photo.
Thanks for the
New Field!
The BSRCC owes a debt of
gratitude to the following club officials
and benefactors for their leadership in
finding, building, and managing a new
flying site in such a short amount of
time.
The NBC WYFF News 4 chopper pays a
visit during a club fly-in. Will James
photo.
Front to back: Charlie Davenport, Jim
Stewart, and Joe Fusco install a window
slider. Stan Scott photo.
• Joe Fusco, president
• Wayne Ellison, vice president
• Jim Stewart, treasurer
• Tom Van Norstrand, secretary
• Darrell Long, field marshall
• Nelson Swords, safety officer
• Mike Snyder, safety officer
• Lloyd Moore, safety officer
• Charlie Davenport, landowner
Our club has a wonderful bunch of
people, both members and nonmembers,
who know what the word “volunteer”
means. They gave richly of their time,
their purses, and their materials.
We are also grateful for AMA, which
gave advice when needed, support when
requested, and was a great resource to help
us through the “tough bits.” MA
—David Thomas
Photos as noted
something for which to be thankful. Then I
received the letter. Blinking twice, I reread
its opening words. I was shocked!
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
yelled to my wife.
“What dear?” she replied.
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
repeated.
My mind was racing with questions, the
most important of which were what
happened and how the club would recover
from it. As I scanned the remainder of the
document it became clear that the owner
had other plans for the property and that no
negotiation would take place to permit us
to continue using our ideal site.
A successful and amicable long-term
relationship with the owner was going
down the proverbial tubes. We were out,
period.
The only crumb tossed our way was that
we would be able to use the field until the
end of December, which was less than 60
days away. At least we were given a little
time to remove our belongings while we
searched for a new location. The end of a
nearly perfect year turned far from perfect!
What follows is more than a chronicle
of events detailing our rescue from this
disaster; it is a blueprint for success that
shows how good people, operating with
honest intentions, can pull together for the
benefit of all.
It is a testament to the grit, fortitude,
and determination of the BSRCC members
and particularly to our elected officers.
Without their firm leadership and sound
judgment, this could have been the end of
the club.
It is important that I give special
recognition to one of our members: Charlie
Davenport. He is a prime mover who has
done as much as anyone to contribute to
this success story. You will see why as the
tale unfolds.
Try to imagine being an elected officer of
a flying club with roughly 90 members and
suddenly finding yourself without a field
from which to operate. Now try to think of
all the things that must be done (some of
them almost immediately) to secure a new
field and make it safely operational.
In addition, it is important to
accomplish all those things successfully to
preserve the club’s integrity. It is akin to
someone giving you a parking lot full of
avid shoppers and asking you to provide
the mall. That should give you an idea of
the problem’s enormity.
The BSRCC’s president, Joe Fusco,
knew that speedy actions based on
thoughtful decisions were called for, and he
wasted no time finding solutions. Joe is a
people person; he knows almost everyone
in the club on a first-name basis. He spends
a lot (I mean a lot) of time at the field.
Joe also uses his gift for gab to engage
anyone in friendly conversation on almost
any subject. He knew that Charlie
Davenport was a local farmer/landowner
and that he would be an excellent resource
for locating a new field. Joe had no idea
how great of a resource Charlie would be!
He called Charlie with the bad news,
and they set off to try to find a replacement
field. After looking at several questionable
locations, Charlie showed Joe a few acres
at a corner of his property and offered them
to the club.
“I was so excited with the potential for
this location that I sealed the deal with a
handshake right there!” said Joe.
It wasn’t a perfect location, but it was
reasonably level. It had no improvements
but was loaded with possibilities. There
were trees on three sides, but they were not
too close to the proposed runway location.
One end was wide open. It was time to let
the fun (read, work) begin!
A special meeting of the club membership
was called to ratify the new location. Joe
asked, and received permission, to create a
special budget and obtain decision
authority to proceed unilaterally to make
the field ready for use.
There was much discussion regarding
the details of how to proceed and trying to
identify what needed to be done, but in the
end we knew that this could not be a
“committee” operation if we were to be
successful. The onus was placed squarely
on our elected officers, and it was the
smartest thing we did during this entire
saga.
There was a great deal of work to be
done, with plenty of blisters and pinched
fingers to go around! After identifying and
staking out the important elements of the
field, based on AMA guidelines, Charlie
began to clear a runway for immediate—but
temporary—use so our members could get
flying as soon as possible.
As that was being completed,
arrangements were made to conduct
frequency testing to ensure that there would
be no interference between us and another,
smaller field within 3 miles.
A clubhouse/meeting building was laid
out. The structure ended up being
constructed as a 60 x 20-foot pole barn. One
end (20 x 20 feet) was enclosed to provide
for a small kitchen and meeting room, with
the remaining 40 x 20-foot space left opensided.
An addition on the rear of the meeting
room provided areas for bathrooms and
general storage.
A septic system was installed. Gravel
(more than 100 tons) was hauled in and
spread for the road and parking. Fences
were erected and signs were installed.
A radio-impound building was
constructed along with a new frequency
board. New safety benches were built to
augment those removed from the pits at the
old field. Trees were removed from near the
end of the runway. Whew!
Have you ever seen an ant farm? You
can spend hours watching the ants scurry
about in what seems to be random motion,
and then you see the structure of tunnels and
chambers take shape. Welcome to the
BSRCC ant farm!
Cars, trucks, vans, trailers, and even
motorcycles came and went. In came
lumber, cement, roofing, sliding doors,
windows, electrical wire, pipe, toilet
fixtures, kitchen cabinets and appliances,
barbecues, picnic tables, fencing, posts,
tools, nails, screws, and bolts. People found
muscles that had been strangers to them for
too long. Out went a group of tired, aching
bodies, only to return the next day to do it
all over again.
And then, like the ant farm, the site
emerged. The permanent runway had been
harrowed, seeded, and rolled smooth several
times. The grass had filled in and was cut to
a usable length. Its 100 x 600-foot
manicured space announced to the world
that the BSRCC was back! In style! Just as
it had been planned.
After all major construction was
finished, the field’s safety boundaries were
fenced, the parking lot was well defined, the
clubhouse/meeting room was done, the pit
benches and several shade tents were
installed, and all the requirements for safe
flying were in place. We were back, better
than ever!
How long did it take to finish the field? The
real answer is that it is never finished. Even
today we are tweaking, changing, and finetuning
our installation.
However, the time that had elapsed from
that terrible-letter day in 2003 to when the
first flights took place on the temporary
runway was less than a week. The honors
for those flights go to Mike Snyder and Jim
Stewart with their airplanes and John Garst
with his helicopter. The chunks of dirt didn’t
bother the helicopter nearly as bad as they
did the airplanes!
The honors for even having a temporary
field go to Joe and Charlie. The big
construction jobs were finished by the late
spring/early summer of 2004. We began
using the permanent runway then, but it took
until this year to get it in great condition.
We have been conducting our monthly
meetings at the field for more than a year,
and having the enclosed room with its little
potbellied stove is a shiver stopper when the
north wind blows in January. (Yes, Virginia,
it does get cold here in sunny South
Carolina!)
The BSRCC has returned to its
scheduled fly-ins, and they are as successful
as ever. A huge benefit of these events is
that the guests and visitors have given our
club members many good ideas and
suggestions for both the field and activities,
for which we are grateful.
We intend to capitalize on this input, and
we expect to expand our fly-in activities.
Watch MA’s “Contest Calendar” for
announcements!
I want to bring attention to all the people
who gave so much of themselves and their
bank accounts. Mentioning each person by
name would encompass the entire club
roster and a bunch of nonmember family
and friends.
You all know who you are, and you have
not been ignored in this article. I reserve the
highest compliments for each of these
people; none of this would have been
possible without each of them. I am proud to
call them my friends and fellow club
members!
Many others helped out in a variety of
ways. The late Jim McNeill (AMA District
V vice president) was a source of
information, inspiration, and
encouragement. Eric Meyers of Hangar 9
helped us sort out the frequency issue. The
Lowe’s store in Easley gave us a break on
prices and a lot of good advice. The Hobby
Connection store in Easley donated
materials for the site. Bless you all!
You are all invited to come to the
BSRCC field and see for yourself what we
all are so proud of. Bring your gear and fly
awhile. Directions are on the Web site. And
if you see somebody strutting around with
his chest thrown out and swollen thumbs,
say “Hey!” to one of our volunteers! MA
David L. Thomas
105 Moselle Dr.
Seneca SC 29672
Sources:
BSRCC
(864) 859-0192
www.bsrcc.com
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/12
Page Numbers: 53,54,56,58
Clubhouse under construction. The
temporary runway is on the left; the
permanent runway is on the right. Paul
Hotinger photo.
All the big construction jobs are essentially complete. Isn’t it beautiful? Photo by Brett
Horton (www.copterviews.com).
IT WAS EARLY November 2003 and I
was getting geared up for the promise of
another great holiday season, making lists
of gift suggestions (all RC) and leaving
them in conspicuous places for my spouse
to find and, I hoped, act on. And my (more
correctly, our) club—the Blacksheep Radio
Control Club (BSRCC) in South
Carolina—was finishing an active and
productive flying season.
We had accomplished much that year,
including:
• Rewriting our bylaws to bring them in
line with AMA requirements.
• Providing a static RC display for the July
Fourth celebrations in the town of Easley,
South Carolina.
• Conducting a family fun-fly (with great
food and super events) for the BSRCC
membership.
• Hosting a premier helicopter fly-in, which
people from across the country attended.
(Both NBC and CBS sent news choppers
out and put on an impressive show for us,
and we made the local TV evening news.)
• Holding a Warbirds Fly-In, which
brought tears to the eyes of anyone who
remembered the rumbling exhaust of a big
radial aching for altitude.
It had been a good year, and we all had
Tom Van Norstrand (foreground) and Bob Huff prepare to aviate.
Notice the sturdy starting benches. Safety first! Scott photo.
Club P-51 gurus (L-R) Stan Scott, Nelson Swords, and Ronnie
Gossett show off their Mustangs. Scott photo.
Henry Caldwell, the BSRCC’s ace helicopter pilot, strolls down the tent line at the
club’s helicopter fly-in and appears to be wondering how that fixed-wing guy got in
there! James photo.
The first helicopter fly-in was a great success! This is but a small portion of the tents
that were erected at the picturesque site. James photo.
Thanks for the
New Field!
The BSRCC owes a debt of
gratitude to the following club officials
and benefactors for their leadership in
finding, building, and managing a new
flying site in such a short amount of
time.
The NBC WYFF News 4 chopper pays a
visit during a club fly-in. Will James
photo.
Front to back: Charlie Davenport, Jim
Stewart, and Joe Fusco install a window
slider. Stan Scott photo.
• Joe Fusco, president
• Wayne Ellison, vice president
• Jim Stewart, treasurer
• Tom Van Norstrand, secretary
• Darrell Long, field marshall
• Nelson Swords, safety officer
• Mike Snyder, safety officer
• Lloyd Moore, safety officer
• Charlie Davenport, landowner
Our club has a wonderful bunch of
people, both members and nonmembers,
who know what the word “volunteer”
means. They gave richly of their time,
their purses, and their materials.
We are also grateful for AMA, which
gave advice when needed, support when
requested, and was a great resource to help
us through the “tough bits.” MA
—David Thomas
Photos as noted
something for which to be thankful. Then I
received the letter. Blinking twice, I reread
its opening words. I was shocked!
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
yelled to my wife.
“What dear?” she replied.
“We’ve lost the lease on the field!” I
repeated.
My mind was racing with questions, the
most important of which were what
happened and how the club would recover
from it. As I scanned the remainder of the
document it became clear that the owner
had other plans for the property and that no
negotiation would take place to permit us
to continue using our ideal site.
A successful and amicable long-term
relationship with the owner was going
down the proverbial tubes. We were out,
period.
The only crumb tossed our way was that
we would be able to use the field until the
end of December, which was less than 60
days away. At least we were given a little
time to remove our belongings while we
searched for a new location. The end of a
nearly perfect year turned far from perfect!
What follows is more than a chronicle
of events detailing our rescue from this
disaster; it is a blueprint for success that
shows how good people, operating with
honest intentions, can pull together for the
benefit of all.
It is a testament to the grit, fortitude,
and determination of the BSRCC members
and particularly to our elected officers.
Without their firm leadership and sound
judgment, this could have been the end of
the club.
It is important that I give special
recognition to one of our members: Charlie
Davenport. He is a prime mover who has
done as much as anyone to contribute to
this success story. You will see why as the
tale unfolds.
Try to imagine being an elected officer of
a flying club with roughly 90 members and
suddenly finding yourself without a field
from which to operate. Now try to think of
all the things that must be done (some of
them almost immediately) to secure a new
field and make it safely operational.
In addition, it is important to
accomplish all those things successfully to
preserve the club’s integrity. It is akin to
someone giving you a parking lot full of
avid shoppers and asking you to provide
the mall. That should give you an idea of
the problem’s enormity.
The BSRCC’s president, Joe Fusco,
knew that speedy actions based on
thoughtful decisions were called for, and he
wasted no time finding solutions. Joe is a
people person; he knows almost everyone
in the club on a first-name basis. He spends
a lot (I mean a lot) of time at the field.
Joe also uses his gift for gab to engage
anyone in friendly conversation on almost
any subject. He knew that Charlie
Davenport was a local farmer/landowner
and that he would be an excellent resource
for locating a new field. Joe had no idea
how great of a resource Charlie would be!
He called Charlie with the bad news,
and they set off to try to find a replacement
field. After looking at several questionable
locations, Charlie showed Joe a few acres
at a corner of his property and offered them
to the club.
“I was so excited with the potential for
this location that I sealed the deal with a
handshake right there!” said Joe.
It wasn’t a perfect location, but it was
reasonably level. It had no improvements
but was loaded with possibilities. There
were trees on three sides, but they were not
too close to the proposed runway location.
One end was wide open. It was time to let
the fun (read, work) begin!
A special meeting of the club membership
was called to ratify the new location. Joe
asked, and received permission, to create a
special budget and obtain decision
authority to proceed unilaterally to make
the field ready for use.
There was much discussion regarding
the details of how to proceed and trying to
identify what needed to be done, but in the
end we knew that this could not be a
“committee” operation if we were to be
successful. The onus was placed squarely
on our elected officers, and it was the
smartest thing we did during this entire
saga.
There was a great deal of work to be
done, with plenty of blisters and pinched
fingers to go around! After identifying and
staking out the important elements of the
field, based on AMA guidelines, Charlie
began to clear a runway for immediate—but
temporary—use so our members could get
flying as soon as possible.
As that was being completed,
arrangements were made to conduct
frequency testing to ensure that there would
be no interference between us and another,
smaller field within 3 miles.
A clubhouse/meeting building was laid
out. The structure ended up being
constructed as a 60 x 20-foot pole barn. One
end (20 x 20 feet) was enclosed to provide
for a small kitchen and meeting room, with
the remaining 40 x 20-foot space left opensided.
An addition on the rear of the meeting
room provided areas for bathrooms and
general storage.
A septic system was installed. Gravel
(more than 100 tons) was hauled in and
spread for the road and parking. Fences
were erected and signs were installed.
A radio-impound building was
constructed along with a new frequency
board. New safety benches were built to
augment those removed from the pits at the
old field. Trees were removed from near the
end of the runway. Whew!
Have you ever seen an ant farm? You
can spend hours watching the ants scurry
about in what seems to be random motion,
and then you see the structure of tunnels and
chambers take shape. Welcome to the
BSRCC ant farm!
Cars, trucks, vans, trailers, and even
motorcycles came and went. In came
lumber, cement, roofing, sliding doors,
windows, electrical wire, pipe, toilet
fixtures, kitchen cabinets and appliances,
barbecues, picnic tables, fencing, posts,
tools, nails, screws, and bolts. People found
muscles that had been strangers to them for
too long. Out went a group of tired, aching
bodies, only to return the next day to do it
all over again.
And then, like the ant farm, the site
emerged. The permanent runway had been
harrowed, seeded, and rolled smooth several
times. The grass had filled in and was cut to
a usable length. Its 100 x 600-foot
manicured space announced to the world
that the BSRCC was back! In style! Just as
it had been planned.
After all major construction was
finished, the field’s safety boundaries were
fenced, the parking lot was well defined, the
clubhouse/meeting room was done, the pit
benches and several shade tents were
installed, and all the requirements for safe
flying were in place. We were back, better
than ever!
How long did it take to finish the field? The
real answer is that it is never finished. Even
today we are tweaking, changing, and finetuning
our installation.
However, the time that had elapsed from
that terrible-letter day in 2003 to when the
first flights took place on the temporary
runway was less than a week. The honors
for those flights go to Mike Snyder and Jim
Stewart with their airplanes and John Garst
with his helicopter. The chunks of dirt didn’t
bother the helicopter nearly as bad as they
did the airplanes!
The honors for even having a temporary
field go to Joe and Charlie. The big
construction jobs were finished by the late
spring/early summer of 2004. We began
using the permanent runway then, but it took
until this year to get it in great condition.
We have been conducting our monthly
meetings at the field for more than a year,
and having the enclosed room with its little
potbellied stove is a shiver stopper when the
north wind blows in January. (Yes, Virginia,
it does get cold here in sunny South
Carolina!)
The BSRCC has returned to its
scheduled fly-ins, and they are as successful
as ever. A huge benefit of these events is
that the guests and visitors have given our
club members many good ideas and
suggestions for both the field and activities,
for which we are grateful.
We intend to capitalize on this input, and
we expect to expand our fly-in activities.
Watch MA’s “Contest Calendar” for
announcements!
I want to bring attention to all the people
who gave so much of themselves and their
bank accounts. Mentioning each person by
name would encompass the entire club
roster and a bunch of nonmember family
and friends.
You all know who you are, and you have
not been ignored in this article. I reserve the
highest compliments for each of these
people; none of this would have been
possible without each of them. I am proud to
call them my friends and fellow club
members!
Many others helped out in a variety of
ways. The late Jim McNeill (AMA District
V vice president) was a source of
information, inspiration, and
encouragement. Eric Meyers of Hangar 9
helped us sort out the frequency issue. The
Lowe’s store in Easley gave us a break on
prices and a lot of good advice. The Hobby
Connection store in Easley donated
materials for the site. Bless you all!
You are all invited to come to the
BSRCC field and see for yourself what we
all are so proud of. Bring your gear and fly
awhile. Directions are on the Web site. And
if you see somebody strutting around with
his chest thrown out and swollen thumbs,
say “Hey!” to one of our volunteers! MA
David L. Thomas
105 Moselle Dr.
Seneca SC 29672
Sources:
BSRCC
(864) 859-0192
www.bsrcc.com
