Sport_Pilot

If you are flying over someones property, then they could get a court to issue an injunction against you. There may be no laws in your area against it, but the owner (not the renter) could claim air rights and bring a civil suit.

thailazer

How about having a few of your more diplomatic club members take a care package of fruits and foods over to his place and express an interest in being friends? The worst that could happen is that he would refuse, but it might be just the thing to kick it back on the friendly side of the field. You would have to be careful to not argue with him but rather try to listen to his point of view, and be clear that you want to be friends.

DISCUS54

My Feedback: (211)

Let's see...miserable, homeless guy staying with his daughter...and it has been suggested that he won't go away so all the flyers should stop enjoying themselves and thus be miserable like him....and therefore everyone is miserable. The logic escapes me.

chuckk2

Generally, the way things go - - -
An airport or flying field starts out away from everything.
Some sort of development takes place. Those involved in the development
want the flying field or airport to preferably just go away so that more money can be made.

Often, it's just a matter of profit, political influence, and zoning law.

Ozelot

About ten years ago we had a similar situation at our field. This happened in rural Sweden. We had moved to a new field which was part of a privately owned airstrip. The first thing we did before anything else was to visit all neighbours and tell them about who we were and what we were doing. Without exception, all of them explained how nice it would be with people and movement in the area as it had been so quiet before. We had a good 4-5 years with excellent relations with the neighbours.

Then disaster struck in two ways. We started to get calls about someone flying with extremely loud planes. It was not possible until later to identify the individual as he only flew when nobody else was where. When we finally caught him in the act one day and made him understand that he was undermining our position, the damage was done already. There was also a new neighbour and he had filed a complaint with the Health & Environment department of the city council. These guys are like badgers. Once they have dug their teeth into you, they won't let go...

All of a sudden, we had severe restrictions for flying time, we had to submit sound measurements paid by us and so on. At this point, most members got tired of it all and moved to other clubs. A year later we decided to close down.

This neighbour I can't stand to this day. I hate the air he breaths..... One day I flew my glider of Gentle Lady type completely alone. During this time the neighbour used his chainsaw continuosly and after he had finished the ars***le comes over and complains! I calmly pointed out that he had been using his chainsaw all day and his response was "That is a natural sound in rural areas..."

Soon after we had closed down the ars***le and his wife moved away.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Why drag politics into this....amazing to see any discussion be brought around to the current president. Your comments about the guy are completely presumptious as well. You have no idea what he does. Off topic much?

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

The logic of presuming the guy is homeless, miserable, and wants people to stop enjoying themselves escapes me too. Guess you missed the part where big gassers are flying over his house and he is worried about them hitting power lines.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

I didn't see where you said earlier, or "all along", that you have flown over his house. Earlier it was 1,000 feet, now it's seldom if ever. That leads me to believe there might have been a situation where a plane flew over his house. I'm sorry, that would be unacceptable to me as well, even more so if I'm in a trailer that doesn't afford the same protections as a full sized home.

I think you should take a look at some of the other suggestions, and perhaps mine as well, and the story from the member in Sweden. There is a chance he will go away and nothing more will come of it, but I doubt it. If someone flew over his house, that is the cause of his concern and it's completely legit. Folks can make all kinds of comments about his purported mental issues, the President, funny signs etc etc.....but it's unlikely this guy would have had an issue unless someone messed up at the field. Make it right, or at least try.

Lineman8888

My Feedback: (3)

We hold fly ins to combat people who believe current government propaganda saying ban rc flying. We show the public how uninvasive this is give food and even a few planes along with ayr field pass and AMA membership to the winners to set them up for success. My point we go our own propaganda campaign leave the cops out of it. It's their job to find civil problems to solve the more you call them the more of a problem you have. Just hold a party (fly in). If I were in your position I would send an invitation to all your neighbors and do a bit of a meet and greet with foods and kindness and education on the sport allow them to touch your planes and see for themselves how fragile they really are. Learnings from our fly ins have shown the public believes these planes fly as fast as full scale can blow up and burn like full scale and can take our the world trade towers like full scale can when in reality our planes simply bounce off of their plywood houses. Once people have the fear taken from them they will move on and find something other than your little balsa plane to worry about.

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

several years ago I had a house in Cle Elum, Washington. Cle Elum was the place that they filmed the TV series."Northern Exposure".
One day they started filming about 1000' from my house. They had a full scale helicopter that they flew about every 5 minutes.By the end of that day I was sick of hearing that helicopter.
A large model airplane is not as noisy as a helicopter, but it could get anoying if you hear it every day.
If I would you I would get a DB meter and make sure you are within AMA or your state requirements

Bolshoi

My Feedback: (2)

We don't hold any rights over the airspace above our houses. It should be obvious at this point that the FAA has essentially eminent domain over the airspace above all of our properties. How would you explain the fact that many airports large and small have flight paths over residential areas. No one in their right mind would allow this IF we had any rights to the airspace over our houses.

bmfer

WRONG. U own up to 400 ft above your grass line. U have a say what happens in that spot. If it were me I would catch him on the field and just beat his azz. Call the cops and say he was threatening to blow us all up. He will get the message. We had a guy that would not stop hanging around out shop and *****ing about the noise. So 1 day he come in the door and we shut it behind him and he drug himself back out the door. Never heard from him again. Sometimes showing some power is better than trying to be all mister nice guy about it. BUT if u are getting close to his house with a big airplane I don't see how u can even argue against him???

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

I have a couple of comments, AMA is a National respected association, now the FAA recognizes AMA as a CBA. It would help if you guys were still associated.
I live and fly in Orlando, FL. As you can imagine it is a big city with thousands of daily visitors every day. I fly out of 2 fields, one of them has a toll highway to the north, people complaine if you fly over the road.
The other one has a house(just one, not a neighborhood) to the west, although we don't fly over the house the guy is always complaining, it got to the point that he threatened us to shoot down our planes, we try to reason with him, and invite him and his children to fly with us at no avail ,finally we told him we all have cameras and usually tape our flights. We told him we will be filing charges if he shoots down our planes.
Both fields are in pretty remote areas but still ,,,,,,, there is no peace for us flying RC.

DISCUS54

My Feedback: (211)

No presuming...the guy recently became a guest in some elses home and in someone elses enviornment. I don't know what you consider miserable, but calling out the authorities because he couldn't get his way and repeatedly acting out on his bitterness sounds miserable to me. Maybe he moved down there from somewhere up in New England where it is cold, damp, and bitter. It's quite possible he is on public assistance but then again maybe he is just miserable because of the increase cost of goods...hard to say without knowing the fellow and getting his story.

Bozarth

My Feedback: (15)

Where did you ever come up with this?...
Kurt

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

I never heard of owning 400 feet of airspace above my grass-or beating someone up keep you from being shot. Which then rc flying would not really matter.

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

According to the letter the FAA sent us dated Aug. 13 this year, all of the air in the US is NAS, National Air Space, owned and controlled by the US government. We own nothing.

Free Bird

Just stop flying over this guy's (rather his daughter's) home and shouldn't the problem pretty much go away? Haven't heard this mentioned in any of above text. Just saying!

FB

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

I doubt it. I don't believe we ARE flying over his house. The man has a cause now and we are not bending to his will. I'm guessing that is just adding fuel to his fire. He ain't going away.

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

We plan to get a better handle on just where we are flying tomorrow. We are going to have a couple guys fly their big gassers in a normal manner and land from the north end (his end) of the field while a couple of us are going to be sitting in a truck in his trailer park just to see what the normal flight path really is. I believe his house is substantially east of any approach from the north end of the field, but we will have a better idea tomorrow.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Are you doubling down on the assumption and presumption, or missing the irony of your post? You said "not presuming", but then the rest of your post is exactly that, right down to the comment about New England. Clearly, you've never visited. (P.S....it was 93 degrees yesterday...brrrr)

"..hard to say without knowing the fellow and getting his story..."...... but then you went right ahead and continued to guess about it. LoL.....

blhollo2

My Feedback: (278)

Sounds like he is off his rocker... meaning he's got mental health issues. Meaning your field will be just fine!

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Gee, that seems the rather obvious answer, right? And you are correct, it hasn't been discussed. I don't think there is a realzation yet that this is the cause of the problem, rather it's easier to blame someone else, then try the character assassination route.

Well, you just said before you "seldom, if ever" did that. What will add fuel to the fire is you planting people over in the parking lot to continue some type of investigation. What are the chances they are going to say yup...we're screwing up? Little, slim, and none. And what is they come back and say nope, we're not doing what he complained about. So what? His complaint is about something in the PAST..not something that might continue forward.

The toothpaste is out of the tube, no anecdotal investigation is going to put it back in. Stop trying to prove something that you cannot, just deal with the facts in front of you. Change your approach (literally, and figuratively). Apologize for what he feels has happened (even if neither can confirm it did, clearly he feels it did). Note that you've looked into it further, and note that you're changing your landing approach. Put it in writing and mail it to the guy, at his address. Send it certified. Ask him to come out to the field and fly the approach himself. MAKE THE EFFORT TO COMPROMISE....you might be surprised to see how far that will work in your favor if things continue forward.

Also..check your sound levels. Are you within town/muiciple regs on noise pollution? If not, he'll not be able to complain about potential safety and quality of life issues.

I know it's hard to look at it from the perspective of compromise, but I'm tellin ya I've seen similar situations like this for the past 20 years occupationally, and both sides usually end up feeling a little chafed when the dust settles, but it does settle and things move on. (FYI your land owner will bail on you guys in a heartbeat if the town comes down on him, and his business might be affected by this issue). Yes, a complete guess on my part, but I think a correct one.

DISCUS54

My Feedback: (211)

Your comments remind me of why I was so happy to move out of East Windsor. Thanks!

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

On behalf of East Windsor....thank you!