Modeling Spoken Here - 2006/12

Aero Mail continued on page 166
o matter what type of models you
enjoy flying, the first need you
have to fulfill is someplace at
which to fly them. This is fundamental.
Without a field, circle, or strip we cannot
effectively practice and enjoy our
hobby/sport.
Belonging to a club that already has a
field is usually the solution to the preceding
problem. Many clubs have fields with longterm
leases or situations that ensure their
stability in the long haul.
Many other clubs are facing the loss of
their fields and are in the process of looking
for new ones. Still others have already lost
their fields and are disbanding because the
club cannot sustain itself without a field on
which to fly.
This is not a new problem by a long shot,
but the solutions have become more difficult
to find because of the ever-diminishing
amount of available land. Certainly some of
the new and quieter forms of propulsion have
opened a few new fields that were not options
for the noisier modeling disciplines, but really
the problem is across the board: there is less
land available and many are competing for its
use.
This issue contains an article outlining one
of the first success stories stemming from the
EPA-AMA Partnership Superfund Program,
which is the brainchild of AMA Flying Site
Assistant Coordinator Joe Beshar. Joe sought
potential flying sites through governmental
involvement. He envisioned a partnership for
the use of idle properties and began searching
for advice from various governmental
agencies about how to make this happen.
This search led Joe to the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington DC
and to the attention of the director of that
agency: Michael Cook. Joe visited
Washington and convinced Mr. Cook of the
value of model aviation in recycling idle
Superfund sites.
Melissa Friedland, the National Manager
for Superfund Development, was asked to
establish and direct a program to utilize the
aforementioned idle properties, coordinating
and communicating with Joe. The procedure
that was established is as follows:
1) Visit the EPA Web site at www.epa.
gov/superfund/sites/npl/index.htm. In the
menu on the left, click on “Locate NPL
Sites,” click “Construction Completions at
National Priorities List (NPL) Sites—by
State,” and then click your state.
2) Choose a site of interest. Write down its
CERCLIS ID number. Visit and inspect the
site to make sure it is suitable for a flying
field.
3) If you want to pursue the Superfund
site as a possible flying field, E-mail Joe
Beshar at [email protected] or contact
him via mail at 198 Merritt Dr., Oradell NJ
07649, and include the site ID number from
Aeromodeling Editor Bob Hunt
N
the EPA Web site; the Superfund site’s state
and city location; and your club’s name and
contact person’s name, phone number, and
address. You can also contact Joe by
telephone at (201) 261-1281.
4) Joe will follow up with the EPA for
possible acceptance.
Does this process really work? Turn to
page 55 and read the story by Jeff Welliver
about the Minneapolis Piston Poppers’
experiences in obtaining a new field. Jeff had
been reading about this new program in the
pages of MA, and with his club’s blessing he
contacted Joe and began to follow the
preceding procedure.
The message here is clear: unless your
club takes the initiative by going to the EPA
Web site and doing the initial search, this
process won’t work. But if you do follow the
procedure, the chances are very good that the
EPA and AMA can help in ways that were not
options for us before.
Joe wanted me to be sure to pass on his
personal thanks to Jeff Welliver for not only
getting involved with the EPA-AMA
Partnership Superfund Program process, but
also for writing about his club’s success story
so that all of us can see that it really works.
I would like to personally acknowledge
the work that Joe Beshar has done, first in
coming up with a great idea and then having
the fortitude to follow through by doing the
significant legwork of finding the proper
governmental agency to work with and
establishing a workable procedure. We all
owe him thanks for his work on our behalf.
We are well aware of the fact that the Internet
is fast becoming the resource of choice for
those who have adapted keystroking and
mouse hunting into their daily routine. So you
Modeling Spoken Here
6 MODEL AVIATION
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Red Scholefield
Gene Smith
Ray Stacy
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Technical Editor Bob Aberle
There is less land
available and many are
competing for its use.
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