40 MODEL AVIATION
The Town of Culpeper is located in northern
Virginia. The history of RC flying sites in this area
is one of relative turmoil, with facilities being lost
to commercial development. The high cost of land
in the Washington DC metro area makes finding,
obtaining, and maintaining model aviation fields a
challenge.
Two clubs near Culpeper are operating on
private land: the Skyline Fliers and the Fauquier
Aero Recreation Modelers (FARM). There are
several other clubs in the vicinity, and all try to
work closely to support one another’s efforts in
maintaining flying fields.
This was recently exemplified when the
Northern Virginia Radio Control club (NVRC)
lost its site of more than 30 years. For two
subsequent years the Prince William County Radio
Control Flyers (PWCRCF) allowed NVRC
members to use its field while they searched for a
new location. The various club members keep out
a close watch for availability of land in the area
that is suitable for flying models.
Near Culpeper, the Lenn brothers had farmed
their land for many years. In addition to several
large tracts of farmland, they owned 85 acres on
which part of the Battle of Brandy Station took
Flying& Fields
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
by Douglas Cash and John Hunton
Top: Bill Hadden stands over the plush grass as he brings in his Halifax on approach.
Above: Boy Scout Troop 550 was given the honor to present the colors during
opening-day ceremonies for the new facility.
The Culpeper Model Barnstormers
celebrate their new field
12sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 10/21/10 10:40 AM Page 40
place during the Civil War. That was the largest cavalry skirmish
of the war and the opening engagement of the Gettysburg
Campaign. The area is known locally as “Lenn’s Bottom.”
The Lenn brothers decided to donate that piece of land to
Culpeper County to use as a park, and the Culpeper County
Parks & Recreation gladly accepted it.
While the road frontage part of the Lenn tract was suitable
for developing ball fields, which are always in demand here, a
back part of the property was narrow and located in a floodplain.
The county did not know how to use that part of the land.
The Right Connection: Mike Dale recently settled in Culpeper
County after retiring as CEO of Jaguar North America. Not only
is he an active full-scale pilot who regularly flies his restored
Percival Provost—which he learned to operate for the Royal Air
Force before moving on to the de Havilland
Vampire—but he is also an active and
enthusiastic aeromodeler.
Mike and the county administrator,
Frank Bossio, worked together on the
Culpeper County Airport Committee. When
Frank mentioned the Lenn park tract and
asked Mike if he could think of any use for
the back section, Mike immediately saw a
potentially great RC flying site. He
assembled a small number of fliers to tour
the spot, to see if it would be a good fit.
Mike and his group created a new RC
club to promote and develop the Lenn area
as a flying site. RC pilots were drawn from
the local Skyline and FARM clubs to form
this organization, which was named the
“Culpeper Model Barnstormers” (CMB).
The CMB drafted a charter and
incorporation documents, and then it met
with Parks & Recreation officials to refine
the paperwork and make it acceptable to the
County. An important point that was heavily
discussed was that the County did not want
to administer the flying site; it wanted the
CMB to manage it for the County.
Taking Charge: Plans for site development
were presented to the Culpeper County
Board of Supervisors (BOS), which
supported and accepted the concept of the
flying site. The Lenn brothers, who were
also aviators, also affirmed the proposed
use.
It looked like things were moving along.
And the Lenn brothers liked the idea so
much that they added a deed restriction to
the adjoining property, guaranteeing the
club overflight privileges.
The County let the CMB know up front
that it had no funding to help us develop the
facility. This presented a dilemma; with less
than a dozen charter members, we could not
afford significant development costs.
However, in addition to multiple club
workdays, Nicholas Burhan, a retired US
Navy captain, led several dedicated
members in spending a great deal of time
clearing, mowing, and rolling the flying
field to make it suitable for use.
Nic was dedicated to getting the ground
in shape, mowing and rolling it once a
week. With his leadership, it wasn’t long
before the 100 x 600-foot runway began its
transformation from farmland to smooth
grass.
Access to the flying field was a nearlymile-
long dirt road adjacent to Mountain
Run Creek that was washed out in several
places. We worked with the county’s
environmental engineer to devise a way to
repair the washouts; we simply filled them
with coarse gravel, to allow for drainage and
passage.
By members using the road to get to and
from the flying field for a period of time, it
was learned that the dirt roadway was stable
except for where the washouts were. And
even those places remained fairly stable
during rains.
So we had usable access to the land and
the hope that we could gather enough
members to afford to lay gravel on the road.
Then a miracle happened.
CMB member Bill McMullen worked
for Dominion Power Company, and it
needed a place to dispose of a large quantity
of coarse gravel that it had used in
temporary equipment lay-down areas. He
arranged for the gravel to be delivered to the
facility as it became available, to create a
better road.
The Celebration: With the field taking
shape, club members decided to have a
grand opening so we could thank all the
people who helped us obtain and develop
the site. The event was held on June 5,
2010.
In coordination with Culpeper Parks &
Recreation, invitations were sent to
Culpeper County BOS members, the county
administrator, local politicians, and all RC
clubs within 100 miles. We ran
advertisements in local newspapers and
posted announcements on several Internet
forums.
The results were great! Between 100 and
120 people attended our open house,
including four BOS members, a Parks &
Recreation committee member, the county
administrator, and aeromodelers from
nearby clubs who showed up to lend us
support and put on a great show.
A BOS member flew his full-scale
Robinson Model R22 helicopter in, put on a
nice center-stage performance, and landed at
the field. Then the grand opening began with
open flying for all AMA members who
showed up with their models.
Activity was temporarily halted at 11 a.m.
for an air show and opening ceremonies. The
demonstration began with a full-scale flyover
that Mike Dale led in his rare Percival P.56
Provost T.1, followed by a WACO ZPF-7, a
de Havilland Chipmunk, a rare Taylorcraft
20 Sedan, and a Cessna 172. They gave us a
low flyby to start things off, and then the
model show began.
Duane Beck piloted an electric-powered
ParkZone Radian glider that ended up
soaring above the rest of the show for more
than an hour. Then simple RTFs went up,
with Pete Carpenter and his small ParkZone
Cub.
After that we watched the Scale models.
Bill Hadden flew a 10-foot-span electricpowered
Halifax bomber and an 8-foot
Handley Page H.P.42, both of which a team
that Mike Dale led constructed. Marsh
Dehart flew his fully detailed Vario Bell 47
helicopter in the M*A*S*H scheme,
complete with two wounded soldiers and
“Hot Lips” Houlihan.
Gene Albrecht got his turbine-powered
Composite-ARF Rookie II off of the grass
and gave us a great show with high-speed
passes, vertical rolls, etc. Then trouble
struck. The jet’s retracting gear would not
extend fully. So Gene decided to bring it
down with the gear retracted.
He made a landing pass, which he aborted
because it might have gone long. The Rookie
was low on fuel after the performance, so
Gene had to bring it down on the next
attempt.
He took it around but the approach was a
bit high. That forced a steep angle to the
runway, so Gene bled off a bit of speed. The
model touched down smoothly but became
airborne again because of its speed.
As the Rookie touched down the second
time, its right wing dipped ever so slightly
and that’s all it took. It caught the wingtip,
flipped over, and nosed in upside-down.
The model suffered some damage but has
since been fully repaired. Gene took the
mishap in stride. He liked the field so much
that he joined the club before leaving at the
end of the day, as did many others.
Duane Beck handed off the Radian to
Douglas Cash and then went to perform an
RC Aerobatics routine with an electricpowered
Sebart Angel 50S.
Flying demonstrations were halted at
noon, to conduct the opening ceremonies.
Local Boy Scout Troop 550 performed the
flag ceremony, and Wayne Payne led the
crowd in singing the national anthem.
John Barrett of Parks & Recreation had
provided a public-address system and a
nice tent. We thanked the Lenn brothers,
Parks & Recreation, the BOS, and all of
the modelers who came to support this
endeavor.
Supervisor Bill Chase led the noon
ribbon-cutting ceremony. He thanked the
Lenn brothers again and spoke about what
a great example of volunteerism the field
represented.
“Everything in the world doesn’t have to
cost a lot of money,” said Bill.
Other guests included supervisors Steve
Nixon, Steve Walker, and Sue Hansohn, and
County Administrator Frank Bossio.
The CMB provided lunch for everyone at
the conclusion of the ceremony, and the
model air show resumed with Andrew
Benjamin’s superb gravity-defying, highalpha
flight demonstration. Then Vince
Tabacco, Bill Hadden, and Mike Dale zipped
their small electric-powered ducted-fan
models around the field in mock combat.
That performance was a big hit with the
crowd. Not only was Vince’s F9F Panther
foamie “shot down” and made to look like a
Styrofoam cooler after impact with a semi,
but Bill’s F9F forced down Mike’s Vampire,
to be the last model flying.
Bill said that it was exceptional for Mike
to overfly the new site in his Provost and
then come back to the field and fly his
electric-powered Vampire.
The grand opening was superb. Nate
Delesline wrote an article covering the event,
which was published in the Culpeper Star
Exponent newspaper. The piece is available
on the Internet; see “Sources” for the Web site
address.
Late-Breaking News: The access road into
the site is almost a mile long. It had been
improved with gravel only in areas that
needed it badly, so the field was still difficult
to get to after heavy rains.
As I mentioned, club member Bill
McMullen works for Dominion Power
Company. This summer the company
upgraded many miles of its transmission
lines, and that process involved trucking in
gravel to stabilize many worksites so new
power poles could be erected.
The company had agreed to restore the
worksites to their original condition after
completing the work and needed a place to
move the used gravel. Bill was there to
suggest that it be transported to our flying site.
Now we have a gravel access roadway
and parking area, thanks to Bill and
Dominion Power. Hooray! MA
(Editor’s note: If you would like
additional information regarding the process
that club members went through to form the
CMB, please contact one of the authors.)
John Hunton
[email protected]
Douglas Cash
[email protected]
Sources:
Culpeper Model Barnstormers
18063 Stevensburg Rd. (County Road RT-
663)
Culpeper VA 22701
www.cmbclubrc.com
Star Exponent article:
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/12
Page Numbers: 40,41,42,44
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/12
Page Numbers: 40,41,42,44
40 MODEL AVIATION
The Town of Culpeper is located in northern
Virginia. The history of RC flying sites in this area
is one of relative turmoil, with facilities being lost
to commercial development. The high cost of land
in the Washington DC metro area makes finding,
obtaining, and maintaining model aviation fields a
challenge.
Two clubs near Culpeper are operating on
private land: the Skyline Fliers and the Fauquier
Aero Recreation Modelers (FARM). There are
several other clubs in the vicinity, and all try to
work closely to support one another’s efforts in
maintaining flying fields.
This was recently exemplified when the
Northern Virginia Radio Control club (NVRC)
lost its site of more than 30 years. For two
subsequent years the Prince William County Radio
Control Flyers (PWCRCF) allowed NVRC
members to use its field while they searched for a
new location. The various club members keep out
a close watch for availability of land in the area
that is suitable for flying models.
Near Culpeper, the Lenn brothers had farmed
their land for many years. In addition to several
large tracts of farmland, they owned 85 acres on
which part of the Battle of Brandy Station took
Flying& Fields
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
by Douglas Cash and John Hunton
Top: Bill Hadden stands over the plush grass as he brings in his Halifax on approach.
Above: Boy Scout Troop 550 was given the honor to present the colors during
opening-day ceremonies for the new facility.
The Culpeper Model Barnstormers
celebrate their new field
12sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 10/21/10 10:40 AM Page 40
place during the Civil War. That was the largest cavalry skirmish
of the war and the opening engagement of the Gettysburg
Campaign. The area is known locally as “Lenn’s Bottom.”
The Lenn brothers decided to donate that piece of land to
Culpeper County to use as a park, and the Culpeper County
Parks & Recreation gladly accepted it.
While the road frontage part of the Lenn tract was suitable
for developing ball fields, which are always in demand here, a
back part of the property was narrow and located in a floodplain.
The county did not know how to use that part of the land.
The Right Connection: Mike Dale recently settled in Culpeper
County after retiring as CEO of Jaguar North America. Not only
is he an active full-scale pilot who regularly flies his restored
Percival Provost—which he learned to operate for the Royal Air
Force before moving on to the de Havilland
Vampire—but he is also an active and
enthusiastic aeromodeler.
Mike and the county administrator,
Frank Bossio, worked together on the
Culpeper County Airport Committee. When
Frank mentioned the Lenn park tract and
asked Mike if he could think of any use for
the back section, Mike immediately saw a
potentially great RC flying site. He
assembled a small number of fliers to tour
the spot, to see if it would be a good fit.
Mike and his group created a new RC
club to promote and develop the Lenn area
as a flying site. RC pilots were drawn from
the local Skyline and FARM clubs to form
this organization, which was named the
“Culpeper Model Barnstormers” (CMB).
The CMB drafted a charter and
incorporation documents, and then it met
with Parks & Recreation officials to refine
the paperwork and make it acceptable to the
County. An important point that was heavily
discussed was that the County did not want
to administer the flying site; it wanted the
CMB to manage it for the County.
Taking Charge: Plans for site development
were presented to the Culpeper County
Board of Supervisors (BOS), which
supported and accepted the concept of the
flying site. The Lenn brothers, who were
also aviators, also affirmed the proposed
use.
It looked like things were moving along.
And the Lenn brothers liked the idea so
much that they added a deed restriction to
the adjoining property, guaranteeing the
club overflight privileges.
The County let the CMB know up front
that it had no funding to help us develop the
facility. This presented a dilemma; with less
than a dozen charter members, we could not
afford significant development costs.
However, in addition to multiple club
workdays, Nicholas Burhan, a retired US
Navy captain, led several dedicated
members in spending a great deal of time
clearing, mowing, and rolling the flying
field to make it suitable for use.
Nic was dedicated to getting the ground
in shape, mowing and rolling it once a
week. With his leadership, it wasn’t long
before the 100 x 600-foot runway began its
transformation from farmland to smooth
grass.
Access to the flying field was a nearlymile-
long dirt road adjacent to Mountain
Run Creek that was washed out in several
places. We worked with the county’s
environmental engineer to devise a way to
repair the washouts; we simply filled them
with coarse gravel, to allow for drainage and
passage.
By members using the road to get to and
from the flying field for a period of time, it
was learned that the dirt roadway was stable
except for where the washouts were. And
even those places remained fairly stable
during rains.
So we had usable access to the land and
the hope that we could gather enough
members to afford to lay gravel on the road.
Then a miracle happened.
CMB member Bill McMullen worked
for Dominion Power Company, and it
needed a place to dispose of a large quantity
of coarse gravel that it had used in
temporary equipment lay-down areas. He
arranged for the gravel to be delivered to the
facility as it became available, to create a
better road.
The Celebration: With the field taking
shape, club members decided to have a
grand opening so we could thank all the
people who helped us obtain and develop
the site. The event was held on June 5,
2010.
In coordination with Culpeper Parks &
Recreation, invitations were sent to
Culpeper County BOS members, the county
administrator, local politicians, and all RC
clubs within 100 miles. We ran
advertisements in local newspapers and
posted announcements on several Internet
forums.
The results were great! Between 100 and
120 people attended our open house,
including four BOS members, a Parks &
Recreation committee member, the county
administrator, and aeromodelers from
nearby clubs who showed up to lend us
support and put on a great show.
A BOS member flew his full-scale
Robinson Model R22 helicopter in, put on a
nice center-stage performance, and landed at
the field. Then the grand opening began with
open flying for all AMA members who
showed up with their models.
Activity was temporarily halted at 11 a.m.
for an air show and opening ceremonies. The
demonstration began with a full-scale flyover
that Mike Dale led in his rare Percival P.56
Provost T.1, followed by a WACO ZPF-7, a
de Havilland Chipmunk, a rare Taylorcraft
20 Sedan, and a Cessna 172. They gave us a
low flyby to start things off, and then the
model show began.
Duane Beck piloted an electric-powered
ParkZone Radian glider that ended up
soaring above the rest of the show for more
than an hour. Then simple RTFs went up,
with Pete Carpenter and his small ParkZone
Cub.
After that we watched the Scale models.
Bill Hadden flew a 10-foot-span electricpowered
Halifax bomber and an 8-foot
Handley Page H.P.42, both of which a team
that Mike Dale led constructed. Marsh
Dehart flew his fully detailed Vario Bell 47
helicopter in the M*A*S*H scheme,
complete with two wounded soldiers and
“Hot Lips” Houlihan.
Gene Albrecht got his turbine-powered
Composite-ARF Rookie II off of the grass
and gave us a great show with high-speed
passes, vertical rolls, etc. Then trouble
struck. The jet’s retracting gear would not
extend fully. So Gene decided to bring it
down with the gear retracted.
He made a landing pass, which he aborted
because it might have gone long. The Rookie
was low on fuel after the performance, so
Gene had to bring it down on the next
attempt.
He took it around but the approach was a
bit high. That forced a steep angle to the
runway, so Gene bled off a bit of speed. The
model touched down smoothly but became
airborne again because of its speed.
As the Rookie touched down the second
time, its right wing dipped ever so slightly
and that’s all it took. It caught the wingtip,
flipped over, and nosed in upside-down.
The model suffered some damage but has
since been fully repaired. Gene took the
mishap in stride. He liked the field so much
that he joined the club before leaving at the
end of the day, as did many others.
Duane Beck handed off the Radian to
Douglas Cash and then went to perform an
RC Aerobatics routine with an electricpowered
Sebart Angel 50S.
Flying demonstrations were halted at
noon, to conduct the opening ceremonies.
Local Boy Scout Troop 550 performed the
flag ceremony, and Wayne Payne led the
crowd in singing the national anthem.
John Barrett of Parks & Recreation had
provided a public-address system and a
nice tent. We thanked the Lenn brothers,
Parks & Recreation, the BOS, and all of
the modelers who came to support this
endeavor.
Supervisor Bill Chase led the noon
ribbon-cutting ceremony. He thanked the
Lenn brothers again and spoke about what
a great example of volunteerism the field
represented.
“Everything in the world doesn’t have to
cost a lot of money,” said Bill.
Other guests included supervisors Steve
Nixon, Steve Walker, and Sue Hansohn, and
County Administrator Frank Bossio.
The CMB provided lunch for everyone at
the conclusion of the ceremony, and the
model air show resumed with Andrew
Benjamin’s superb gravity-defying, highalpha
flight demonstration. Then Vince
Tabacco, Bill Hadden, and Mike Dale zipped
their small electric-powered ducted-fan
models around the field in mock combat.
That performance was a big hit with the
crowd. Not only was Vince’s F9F Panther
foamie “shot down” and made to look like a
Styrofoam cooler after impact with a semi,
but Bill’s F9F forced down Mike’s Vampire,
to be the last model flying.
Bill said that it was exceptional for Mike
to overfly the new site in his Provost and
then come back to the field and fly his
electric-powered Vampire.
The grand opening was superb. Nate
Delesline wrote an article covering the event,
which was published in the Culpeper Star
Exponent newspaper. The piece is available
on the Internet; see “Sources” for the Web site
address.
Late-Breaking News: The access road into
the site is almost a mile long. It had been
improved with gravel only in areas that
needed it badly, so the field was still difficult
to get to after heavy rains.
As I mentioned, club member Bill
McMullen works for Dominion Power
Company. This summer the company
upgraded many miles of its transmission
lines, and that process involved trucking in
gravel to stabilize many worksites so new
power poles could be erected.
The company had agreed to restore the
worksites to their original condition after
completing the work and needed a place to
move the used gravel. Bill was there to
suggest that it be transported to our flying site.
Now we have a gravel access roadway
and parking area, thanks to Bill and
Dominion Power. Hooray! MA
(Editor’s note: If you would like
additional information regarding the process
that club members went through to form the
CMB, please contact one of the authors.)
John Hunton
[email protected]
Douglas Cash
[email protected]
Sources:
Culpeper Model Barnstormers
18063 Stevensburg Rd. (County Road RT-
663)
Culpeper VA 22701
www.cmbclubrc.com
Star Exponent article:
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/12
Page Numbers: 40,41,42,44
40 MODEL AVIATION
The Town of Culpeper is located in northern
Virginia. The history of RC flying sites in this area
is one of relative turmoil, with facilities being lost
to commercial development. The high cost of land
in the Washington DC metro area makes finding,
obtaining, and maintaining model aviation fields a
challenge.
Two clubs near Culpeper are operating on
private land: the Skyline Fliers and the Fauquier
Aero Recreation Modelers (FARM). There are
several other clubs in the vicinity, and all try to
work closely to support one another’s efforts in
maintaining flying fields.
This was recently exemplified when the
Northern Virginia Radio Control club (NVRC)
lost its site of more than 30 years. For two
subsequent years the Prince William County Radio
Control Flyers (PWCRCF) allowed NVRC
members to use its field while they searched for a
new location. The various club members keep out
a close watch for availability of land in the area
that is suitable for flying models.
Near Culpeper, the Lenn brothers had farmed
their land for many years. In addition to several
large tracts of farmland, they owned 85 acres on
which part of the Battle of Brandy Station took
Flying& Fields
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
by Douglas Cash and John Hunton
Top: Bill Hadden stands over the plush grass as he brings in his Halifax on approach.
Above: Boy Scout Troop 550 was given the honor to present the colors during
opening-day ceremonies for the new facility.
The Culpeper Model Barnstormers
celebrate their new field
12sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 10/21/10 10:40 AM Page 40
place during the Civil War. That was the largest cavalry skirmish
of the war and the opening engagement of the Gettysburg
Campaign. The area is known locally as “Lenn’s Bottom.”
The Lenn brothers decided to donate that piece of land to
Culpeper County to use as a park, and the Culpeper County
Parks & Recreation gladly accepted it.
While the road frontage part of the Lenn tract was suitable
for developing ball fields, which are always in demand here, a
back part of the property was narrow and located in a floodplain.
The county did not know how to use that part of the land.
The Right Connection: Mike Dale recently settled in Culpeper
County after retiring as CEO of Jaguar North America. Not only
is he an active full-scale pilot who regularly flies his restored
Percival Provost—which he learned to operate for the Royal Air
Force before moving on to the de Havilland
Vampire—but he is also an active and
enthusiastic aeromodeler.
Mike and the county administrator,
Frank Bossio, worked together on the
Culpeper County Airport Committee. When
Frank mentioned the Lenn park tract and
asked Mike if he could think of any use for
the back section, Mike immediately saw a
potentially great RC flying site. He
assembled a small number of fliers to tour
the spot, to see if it would be a good fit.
Mike and his group created a new RC
club to promote and develop the Lenn area
as a flying site. RC pilots were drawn from
the local Skyline and FARM clubs to form
this organization, which was named the
“Culpeper Model Barnstormers” (CMB).
The CMB drafted a charter and
incorporation documents, and then it met
with Parks & Recreation officials to refine
the paperwork and make it acceptable to the
County. An important point that was heavily
discussed was that the County did not want
to administer the flying site; it wanted the
CMB to manage it for the County.
Taking Charge: Plans for site development
were presented to the Culpeper County
Board of Supervisors (BOS), which
supported and accepted the concept of the
flying site. The Lenn brothers, who were
also aviators, also affirmed the proposed
use.
It looked like things were moving along.
And the Lenn brothers liked the idea so
much that they added a deed restriction to
the adjoining property, guaranteeing the
club overflight privileges.
The County let the CMB know up front
that it had no funding to help us develop the
facility. This presented a dilemma; with less
than a dozen charter members, we could not
afford significant development costs.
However, in addition to multiple club
workdays, Nicholas Burhan, a retired US
Navy captain, led several dedicated
members in spending a great deal of time
clearing, mowing, and rolling the flying
field to make it suitable for use.
Nic was dedicated to getting the ground
in shape, mowing and rolling it once a
week. With his leadership, it wasn’t long
before the 100 x 600-foot runway began its
transformation from farmland to smooth
grass.
Access to the flying field was a nearlymile-
long dirt road adjacent to Mountain
Run Creek that was washed out in several
places. We worked with the county’s
environmental engineer to devise a way to
repair the washouts; we simply filled them
with coarse gravel, to allow for drainage and
passage.
By members using the road to get to and
from the flying field for a period of time, it
was learned that the dirt roadway was stable
except for where the washouts were. And
even those places remained fairly stable
during rains.
So we had usable access to the land and
the hope that we could gather enough
members to afford to lay gravel on the road.
Then a miracle happened.
CMB member Bill McMullen worked
for Dominion Power Company, and it
needed a place to dispose of a large quantity
of coarse gravel that it had used in
temporary equipment lay-down areas. He
arranged for the gravel to be delivered to the
facility as it became available, to create a
better road.
The Celebration: With the field taking
shape, club members decided to have a
grand opening so we could thank all the
people who helped us obtain and develop
the site. The event was held on June 5,
2010.
In coordination with Culpeper Parks &
Recreation, invitations were sent to
Culpeper County BOS members, the county
administrator, local politicians, and all RC
clubs within 100 miles. We ran
advertisements in local newspapers and
posted announcements on several Internet
forums.
The results were great! Between 100 and
120 people attended our open house,
including four BOS members, a Parks &
Recreation committee member, the county
administrator, and aeromodelers from
nearby clubs who showed up to lend us
support and put on a great show.
A BOS member flew his full-scale
Robinson Model R22 helicopter in, put on a
nice center-stage performance, and landed at
the field. Then the grand opening began with
open flying for all AMA members who
showed up with their models.
Activity was temporarily halted at 11 a.m.
for an air show and opening ceremonies. The
demonstration began with a full-scale flyover
that Mike Dale led in his rare Percival P.56
Provost T.1, followed by a WACO ZPF-7, a
de Havilland Chipmunk, a rare Taylorcraft
20 Sedan, and a Cessna 172. They gave us a
low flyby to start things off, and then the
model show began.
Duane Beck piloted an electric-powered
ParkZone Radian glider that ended up
soaring above the rest of the show for more
than an hour. Then simple RTFs went up,
with Pete Carpenter and his small ParkZone
Cub.
After that we watched the Scale models.
Bill Hadden flew a 10-foot-span electricpowered
Halifax bomber and an 8-foot
Handley Page H.P.42, both of which a team
that Mike Dale led constructed. Marsh
Dehart flew his fully detailed Vario Bell 47
helicopter in the M*A*S*H scheme,
complete with two wounded soldiers and
“Hot Lips” Houlihan.
Gene Albrecht got his turbine-powered
Composite-ARF Rookie II off of the grass
and gave us a great show with high-speed
passes, vertical rolls, etc. Then trouble
struck. The jet’s retracting gear would not
extend fully. So Gene decided to bring it
down with the gear retracted.
He made a landing pass, which he aborted
because it might have gone long. The Rookie
was low on fuel after the performance, so
Gene had to bring it down on the next
attempt.
He took it around but the approach was a
bit high. That forced a steep angle to the
runway, so Gene bled off a bit of speed. The
model touched down smoothly but became
airborne again because of its speed.
As the Rookie touched down the second
time, its right wing dipped ever so slightly
and that’s all it took. It caught the wingtip,
flipped over, and nosed in upside-down.
The model suffered some damage but has
since been fully repaired. Gene took the
mishap in stride. He liked the field so much
that he joined the club before leaving at the
end of the day, as did many others.
Duane Beck handed off the Radian to
Douglas Cash and then went to perform an
RC Aerobatics routine with an electricpowered
Sebart Angel 50S.
Flying demonstrations were halted at
noon, to conduct the opening ceremonies.
Local Boy Scout Troop 550 performed the
flag ceremony, and Wayne Payne led the
crowd in singing the national anthem.
John Barrett of Parks & Recreation had
provided a public-address system and a
nice tent. We thanked the Lenn brothers,
Parks & Recreation, the BOS, and all of
the modelers who came to support this
endeavor.
Supervisor Bill Chase led the noon
ribbon-cutting ceremony. He thanked the
Lenn brothers again and spoke about what
a great example of volunteerism the field
represented.
“Everything in the world doesn’t have to
cost a lot of money,” said Bill.
Other guests included supervisors Steve
Nixon, Steve Walker, and Sue Hansohn, and
County Administrator Frank Bossio.
The CMB provided lunch for everyone at
the conclusion of the ceremony, and the
model air show resumed with Andrew
Benjamin’s superb gravity-defying, highalpha
flight demonstration. Then Vince
Tabacco, Bill Hadden, and Mike Dale zipped
their small electric-powered ducted-fan
models around the field in mock combat.
That performance was a big hit with the
crowd. Not only was Vince’s F9F Panther
foamie “shot down” and made to look like a
Styrofoam cooler after impact with a semi,
but Bill’s F9F forced down Mike’s Vampire,
to be the last model flying.
Bill said that it was exceptional for Mike
to overfly the new site in his Provost and
then come back to the field and fly his
electric-powered Vampire.
The grand opening was superb. Nate
Delesline wrote an article covering the event,
which was published in the Culpeper Star
Exponent newspaper. The piece is available
on the Internet; see “Sources” for the Web site
address.
Late-Breaking News: The access road into
the site is almost a mile long. It had been
improved with gravel only in areas that
needed it badly, so the field was still difficult
to get to after heavy rains.
As I mentioned, club member Bill
McMullen works for Dominion Power
Company. This summer the company
upgraded many miles of its transmission
lines, and that process involved trucking in
gravel to stabilize many worksites so new
power poles could be erected.
The company had agreed to restore the
worksites to their original condition after
completing the work and needed a place to
move the used gravel. Bill was there to
suggest that it be transported to our flying site.
Now we have a gravel access roadway
and parking area, thanks to Bill and
Dominion Power. Hooray! MA
(Editor’s note: If you would like
additional information regarding the process
that club members went through to form the
CMB, please contact one of the authors.)
John Hunton
[email protected]
Douglas Cash
[email protected]
Sources:
Culpeper Model Barnstormers
18063 Stevensburg Rd. (County Road RT-
663)
Culpeper VA 22701
www.cmbclubrc.com
Star Exponent article:
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/12
Page Numbers: 40,41,42,44
40 MODEL AVIATION
The Town of Culpeper is located in northern
Virginia. The history of RC flying sites in this area
is one of relative turmoil, with facilities being lost
to commercial development. The high cost of land
in the Washington DC metro area makes finding,
obtaining, and maintaining model aviation fields a
challenge.
Two clubs near Culpeper are operating on
private land: the Skyline Fliers and the Fauquier
Aero Recreation Modelers (FARM). There are
several other clubs in the vicinity, and all try to
work closely to support one another’s efforts in
maintaining flying fields.
This was recently exemplified when the
Northern Virginia Radio Control club (NVRC)
lost its site of more than 30 years. For two
subsequent years the Prince William County Radio
Control Flyers (PWCRCF) allowed NVRC
members to use its field while they searched for a
new location. The various club members keep out
a close watch for availability of land in the area
that is suitable for flying models.
Near Culpeper, the Lenn brothers had farmed
their land for many years. In addition to several
large tracts of farmland, they owned 85 acres on
which part of the Battle of Brandy Station took
Flying& Fields
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
by Douglas Cash and John Hunton
Top: Bill Hadden stands over the plush grass as he brings in his Halifax on approach.
Above: Boy Scout Troop 550 was given the honor to present the colors during
opening-day ceremonies for the new facility.
The Culpeper Model Barnstormers
celebrate their new field
12sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 10/21/10 10:40 AM Page 40
place during the Civil War. That was the largest cavalry skirmish
of the war and the opening engagement of the Gettysburg
Campaign. The area is known locally as “Lenn’s Bottom.”
The Lenn brothers decided to donate that piece of land to
Culpeper County to use as a park, and the Culpeper County
Parks & Recreation gladly accepted it.
While the road frontage part of the Lenn tract was suitable
for developing ball fields, which are always in demand here, a
back part of the property was narrow and located in a floodplain.
The county did not know how to use that part of the land.
The Right Connection: Mike Dale recently settled in Culpeper
County after retiring as CEO of Jaguar North America. Not only
is he an active full-scale pilot who regularly flies his restored
Percival Provost—which he learned to operate for the Royal Air
Force before moving on to the de Havilland
Vampire—but he is also an active and
enthusiastic aeromodeler.
Mike and the county administrator,
Frank Bossio, worked together on the
Culpeper County Airport Committee. When
Frank mentioned the Lenn park tract and
asked Mike if he could think of any use for
the back section, Mike immediately saw a
potentially great RC flying site. He
assembled a small number of fliers to tour
the spot, to see if it would be a good fit.
Mike and his group created a new RC
club to promote and develop the Lenn area
as a flying site. RC pilots were drawn from
the local Skyline and FARM clubs to form
this organization, which was named the
“Culpeper Model Barnstormers” (CMB).
The CMB drafted a charter and
incorporation documents, and then it met
with Parks & Recreation officials to refine
the paperwork and make it acceptable to the
County. An important point that was heavily
discussed was that the County did not want
to administer the flying site; it wanted the
CMB to manage it for the County.
Taking Charge: Plans for site development
were presented to the Culpeper County
Board of Supervisors (BOS), which
supported and accepted the concept of the
flying site. The Lenn brothers, who were
also aviators, also affirmed the proposed
use.
It looked like things were moving along.
And the Lenn brothers liked the idea so
much that they added a deed restriction to
the adjoining property, guaranteeing the
club overflight privileges.
The County let the CMB know up front
that it had no funding to help us develop the
facility. This presented a dilemma; with less
than a dozen charter members, we could not
afford significant development costs.
However, in addition to multiple club
workdays, Nicholas Burhan, a retired US
Navy captain, led several dedicated
members in spending a great deal of time
clearing, mowing, and rolling the flying
field to make it suitable for use.
Nic was dedicated to getting the ground
in shape, mowing and rolling it once a
week. With his leadership, it wasn’t long
before the 100 x 600-foot runway began its
transformation from farmland to smooth
grass.
Access to the flying field was a nearlymile-
long dirt road adjacent to Mountain
Run Creek that was washed out in several
places. We worked with the county’s
environmental engineer to devise a way to
repair the washouts; we simply filled them
with coarse gravel, to allow for drainage and
passage.
By members using the road to get to and
from the flying field for a period of time, it
was learned that the dirt roadway was stable
except for where the washouts were. And
even those places remained fairly stable
during rains.
So we had usable access to the land and
the hope that we could gather enough
members to afford to lay gravel on the road.
Then a miracle happened.
CMB member Bill McMullen worked
for Dominion Power Company, and it
needed a place to dispose of a large quantity
of coarse gravel that it had used in
temporary equipment lay-down areas. He
arranged for the gravel to be delivered to the
facility as it became available, to create a
better road.
The Celebration: With the field taking
shape, club members decided to have a
grand opening so we could thank all the
people who helped us obtain and develop
the site. The event was held on June 5,
2010.
In coordination with Culpeper Parks &
Recreation, invitations were sent to
Culpeper County BOS members, the county
administrator, local politicians, and all RC
clubs within 100 miles. We ran
advertisements in local newspapers and
posted announcements on several Internet
forums.
The results were great! Between 100 and
120 people attended our open house,
including four BOS members, a Parks &
Recreation committee member, the county
administrator, and aeromodelers from
nearby clubs who showed up to lend us
support and put on a great show.
A BOS member flew his full-scale
Robinson Model R22 helicopter in, put on a
nice center-stage performance, and landed at
the field. Then the grand opening began with
open flying for all AMA members who
showed up with their models.
Activity was temporarily halted at 11 a.m.
for an air show and opening ceremonies. The
demonstration began with a full-scale flyover
that Mike Dale led in his rare Percival P.56
Provost T.1, followed by a WACO ZPF-7, a
de Havilland Chipmunk, a rare Taylorcraft
20 Sedan, and a Cessna 172. They gave us a
low flyby to start things off, and then the
model show began.
Duane Beck piloted an electric-powered
ParkZone Radian glider that ended up
soaring above the rest of the show for more
than an hour. Then simple RTFs went up,
with Pete Carpenter and his small ParkZone
Cub.
After that we watched the Scale models.
Bill Hadden flew a 10-foot-span electricpowered
Halifax bomber and an 8-foot
Handley Page H.P.42, both of which a team
that Mike Dale led constructed. Marsh
Dehart flew his fully detailed Vario Bell 47
helicopter in the M*A*S*H scheme,
complete with two wounded soldiers and
“Hot Lips” Houlihan.
Gene Albrecht got his turbine-powered
Composite-ARF Rookie II off of the grass
and gave us a great show with high-speed
passes, vertical rolls, etc. Then trouble
struck. The jet’s retracting gear would not
extend fully. So Gene decided to bring it
down with the gear retracted.
He made a landing pass, which he aborted
because it might have gone long. The Rookie
was low on fuel after the performance, so
Gene had to bring it down on the next
attempt.
He took it around but the approach was a
bit high. That forced a steep angle to the
runway, so Gene bled off a bit of speed. The
model touched down smoothly but became
airborne again because of its speed.
As the Rookie touched down the second
time, its right wing dipped ever so slightly
and that’s all it took. It caught the wingtip,
flipped over, and nosed in upside-down.
The model suffered some damage but has
since been fully repaired. Gene took the
mishap in stride. He liked the field so much
that he joined the club before leaving at the
end of the day, as did many others.
Duane Beck handed off the Radian to
Douglas Cash and then went to perform an
RC Aerobatics routine with an electricpowered
Sebart Angel 50S.
Flying demonstrations were halted at
noon, to conduct the opening ceremonies.
Local Boy Scout Troop 550 performed the
flag ceremony, and Wayne Payne led the
crowd in singing the national anthem.
John Barrett of Parks & Recreation had
provided a public-address system and a
nice tent. We thanked the Lenn brothers,
Parks & Recreation, the BOS, and all of
the modelers who came to support this
endeavor.
Supervisor Bill Chase led the noon
ribbon-cutting ceremony. He thanked the
Lenn brothers again and spoke about what
a great example of volunteerism the field
represented.
“Everything in the world doesn’t have to
cost a lot of money,” said Bill.
Other guests included supervisors Steve
Nixon, Steve Walker, and Sue Hansohn, and
County Administrator Frank Bossio.
The CMB provided lunch for everyone at
the conclusion of the ceremony, and the
model air show resumed with Andrew
Benjamin’s superb gravity-defying, highalpha
flight demonstration. Then Vince
Tabacco, Bill Hadden, and Mike Dale zipped
their small electric-powered ducted-fan
models around the field in mock combat.
That performance was a big hit with the
crowd. Not only was Vince’s F9F Panther
foamie “shot down” and made to look like a
Styrofoam cooler after impact with a semi,
but Bill’s F9F forced down Mike’s Vampire,
to be the last model flying.
Bill said that it was exceptional for Mike
to overfly the new site in his Provost and
then come back to the field and fly his
electric-powered Vampire.
The grand opening was superb. Nate
Delesline wrote an article covering the event,
which was published in the Culpeper Star
Exponent newspaper. The piece is available
on the Internet; see “Sources” for the Web site
address.
Late-Breaking News: The access road into
the site is almost a mile long. It had been
improved with gravel only in areas that
needed it badly, so the field was still difficult
to get to after heavy rains.
As I mentioned, club member Bill
McMullen works for Dominion Power
Company. This summer the company
upgraded many miles of its transmission
lines, and that process involved trucking in
gravel to stabilize many worksites so new
power poles could be erected.
The company had agreed to restore the
worksites to their original condition after
completing the work and needed a place to
move the used gravel. Bill was there to
suggest that it be transported to our flying site.
Now we have a gravel access roadway
and parking area, thanks to Bill and
Dominion Power. Hooray! MA
(Editor’s note: If you would like
additional information regarding the process
that club members went through to form the
CMB, please contact one of the authors.)
John Hunton
[email protected]
Douglas Cash
[email protected]
Sources:
Culpeper Model Barnstormers
18063 Stevensburg Rd. (County Road RT-
663)
Culpeper VA 22701
www.cmbclubrc.com
Star Exponent article:
