aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

This poll is directed to pilots who primarily fly fuel planes of some kind.

Are you a member of a club or are you flying on your own?

If you are flying on your own, not a member of a club, how long have you been flying? Where do you fly?


If you are a member of a club, how long have you been flying? Where is your club?

Please feel free to post anything you like about your flying experience whether part of a club or not.

This survey is not here to convince anyone that they should or should not be part of a club. I am just looking for a feel about what percentage of the forum members are members of clubs, whether they are AMA or any other kind of club.

In the context of this survey, club means an organized flying group, typically with rights to use a flying field of some kind. If you have a bunch of guys/gals, a set of rules, a group name as well as a place where you are allowd to fly, then you are in a club, in my opinion.

grimmy55

I,ve never heard of some of the places mentioned in this forum it would be nice to explain where the heck you are ,,my self well I,m in Nth Canterbury NZ about 35kms nth of Christchurch (Rangiora) Google it,, not very big but its home 11 acres is just fine

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

I am a member of the Skyblazers of Atlantic County, NJ. We have two fields, both on public property. One is our main field, Strawberry, which is a landing strip owned by the NJ Parks and Recreation and used primarilly by the NJ Forestry Department. They keep a flying water tanker there to fight forest fires... yeah, I said forest.. yeah, in NJ. We are in the middle of the NJ Pine Barrens which is in Atlantic, Camden, Burlington, and Ocean counties. Google Earth 39 29 17.43 N, 74 43 30.35 W. It's 3700 long x 125 wide (the runway). The field itself is 3700 x 900 feet.

The other field is Riverbend, which is also owned by the Parks and Recreation folks. It is an abandoned baseball field that they turned over to us for RC flying. It is mostly used by the Helicoper pilots. Google Earth 39 22 24.88 N, 74 42 24.70 W. It's hard to measure this field because it's odd shaped.

CGr

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks guy, keep it coming.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

I forgot.. I've been flying RC for about 11 years now.

CGr.

bingo field

I am an AMA member, but I have my own field, you can see it under my profile. I have before and and after pictures of the build, and it is still "under the blade" so to speak, but coming along nicely. It is 675 feet long, 80 feet wide, and rolled religiously so it is very smooth. I began in 2001, so, I am not just a member, I own the club.

It is appropriately named Bingo Field, home of the Angry Angels.
There are about 10 people that show up to fly here, but I have never had more than 5 fliers at once.

SushiSeeker

I just like going out and flying by myself so I have not joined a club since getting back into the hobby.

I fly on an area on the east coast of Florida known as "The Compound" (Google "The Compound Palm Bay" it is in Wikipedia and Google Earth as "The Compound") It's one of the strangest places I have ever seen. The Compound started out as a huge housing development that went bankrupt after building nothing but zillions of miles of roads. The property is all deeded, but no one ever built there and the city still mows the grass for now. It's a fairly popular spot for folks who don't want to join a club and has its own sections (unofficially of course, you can go anywhere) for R/C fixed wing, helos, a free flight area (very popular) and model rocketry. The narrow roads make for nice paved runways but you need to have good rudder control.

BountyHunter51

I've been flying for four years with the Tri-County Sky Sharks in Corbin, KY. http://tcss.zoomshare.com/0.html

Cheers! BH

aeajr, Cool thread

armody

My Feedback: (10)

I'm a member of this flying club, It's brand new club and I enjoy flying the plane at our field. I've been flying for more than 5 years. Anyone who lives in Magnolia, TX may come to fly at this club.

http://magnolia********.com/

Mody

hulio516

I'm a club member. Club dues are $50 a year and AMA is $58 per year. I fly there 50 times a year and gasoline is $3.30 to get there each time.

The above total expenses for dues and gas comes to $5.46 just to get in the door at the flying field each time I go.

I'd much rather have my own flying field in my back yard rather than have to pack everything up, unpack it, pack it back up and unpack it when I get back home and save $273 per year rather than fly at the club field. But, it is fun being around others, shooting the bull, and watching planes crash (other than my own) so I guess being a member or not has it's advantages and disadvantages.

hulio

Flyin Beagle

My Feedback: (1)

Sushi,
I checked that place out on google maps. Holy cow thats impressive. I cant beleive a development that large was built and nothing was ever done with it. It looks like a place that you could easily get lost in. I dont think I would want to stick around after dark as I bet that it attracts some of the less upstanding citizens of the area.

Anyway, I am a memeber of a club that has a very nice field with paved and grass runways as well as a nice shelter with power. http://www.lmacky.org/

I think it would be nice to be able to fly at home, but I would always remain a member of a club as well for two reasons. One because I enjoy hanging out and B.S.ing with all of the other members, and two I want to promote the sport. Without clubs I think our hobby would suffer.

carrellh

About 9 years at http://www.greenvillerc.com
Still a beginner
It's 45 miles each way from my house to the field. There are two clubs closer but I like the group in Greenville so much I'll continue going there.
Closest is in Rowlett, 9 miles away, but I'm not a good enough pilot to fly there. The field is fairly small. Neighbors who want it shut down try very hard to catch people flying out of bounds so there's no way I'd go there and possibly give them extra ammo to use against the club.
The other is in Rockwall. Several of their members also fly in Greenville. If I ever did change clubs, Rockwall would be my choice.

Carrell

bhady

I'm not a a member of a club, the nearest club field is about an hour away. My friends and I fly at the farm of a friend (retired) who has a full scale runway on his fam a few miles out of town. He regularly mows a section of the strip nice and short for us. He's now out of the hobby, but does take the sticks occasionally. He's a fanatastic guy, a friend like that is priceless.

We used to fly at the soccer field complex here in town, but the area has been built up with lots of new homes, and also now has two buildings on the parking area we used for our runway.

bhady

rambler53

My Feedback: (494)

I fly only fuel.
I have never been an club member, only AMA for 2 years out of 35, and regret the wasted money.
I fly at a open 1000 acre field formerly a bankrupt developer from the 80s which the city took back. Dave Platt co-owns the lot and welcomes everyone to enjoy parking their vehicles on his lot. Free flighters show up twice a year I think.
It's great to take off on the residential road and work off the tail gate of my truck. We use common sense and are incident free for the last 10 years I've enjoy the spot. Before that, my backyard, or school yard in the day it was an accepted practice.

I enjoy the renegade field because there are no political issues to bicker about. I can fly low, loud, and repeatedly until my batteries are dead. Everyone there is anti-club, and we see eye to eye on that. We help new people showing up faster than IRKS ever did without being snobby, superior, or childish with our time and resources. I fly as early or late as I like, and usually find at least 2 people there. We're safe, free of charge, and have a nice asphalt road for a landing strip.
I see Dave Platt fly about once a year, and club members elsewhere show up and think we have no rules, so we correct them immediately.
We don't allow paintball guns shooting down planes like the AMA does.

Weekends we could be considered a crowd, about 20-30 show up. This clean field is 8 miles from my house, Sebastian or IRKS (placed on a dump site with garbage odors and garbage eating birds) are both about 25-30 miles away.

rgm762

My Feedback: (4)

member of F.A.E. (Fundation for Areonautical Education) and AMA. we're a small club here in town, about 25 members but usualy less than 5 people flying at a time

http://www.angelfire.com/ks3/fae/

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

When I was living in Calif. I was a member of two clubs. When I moved here to NV I checked out the two local clubs here in my area of Vegas and there was no reason to bother joining them. Compared to the clubs in Calif. these clubs aren't very active and only one has there own field. I discovered the El Dorado dry lake bed has the people I enjoy flying with, it's the people that make a club anyway and I have been very happy out there now for a couple of years. If you don't have the fun people then flyng is something I can do on the computer.

millertym2000

My Feedback: (4)

I've been flying for almost 4 yrs now. I've never flown at a club or been a member of one. I've never joined the AMA either. I fly with my dad and my son in some farm land near my house. We use a runway that the local cropduster uses. Its not the smoothes but it works. Theres hundreds of acres of flat land.

bookmaker

My Feedback: (24)

I have been flying R/C for most of the period from 1973 to present. I have been a member of one or more clubs for substantially the entire time that I was active in R/C. At one point I was a member of 3 clubs at one time.

I am currently a member, and President of the Chipola R/C Aviators in Marianna, Fl and a member of the Ocala Flying Model Club. In addition, I am a member of the AMA, IMAA, GSWA, WMWA and USSMA.

Dale

RCER88

My Feedback: (25)

Over 20 years of flying. AMA and different clubs for all of them. Currently the Alger Air Raiders, Ogemaw County Michigan.

25 miles from home one way. Looking to buy a parcel to set up my own field sick of politics.

ArcticCatRider

My Feedback: (6)

I've been flying RC for about 11 years, and I have been a member at some point or another to 4 or 5 different clubs. Currently I am not a member.

I fly at all public Forest Preserve fields....so you don't need to be a member, but it is advantageous....no doubt about it.

There is absolutely no downsides to being in a club....memberships are typically cheap.... alot cheaper than crashing planes, burning up motors, etc....things you can avoid if someone's around to keep an eye on you.

landeck

My Feedback: (1)

I have been flying RC for 37 years and before that control line for 20 years. When I started in RC I joined the Mid Hudson RC Club. That is where I learned to fly in 1973. A year later we moved to Roswell, GA where I helped found the Roswell Air Force (RAF). In 1978/1979 we lived Boca Raton and I flew with the Gold Coast Radio Controllers while maintaining my membership in the RAF. We moved back to the Atlanta area (Sandy Springs) and I picked up flying with the RAF again. In 1988 I helped found the Georgia Model Aviators (GMA). In 1994 the RAF lost its field and disbanded. At that time I started flying at the GMA field all of the time and still do today. The field is 39.5 miles from my house but is not a bad drive. I was out this morning practicing landings using flaps on a GP Piper Cherokee. There were 10 other guys out flying also. It is a great bunch of guys with a great field. I have always enjoyed the clubs I have belonged to. I like having others around when I fly (for saftey reasons I will not fly alone) and I like a well maintained field.

Bruce

orangehat44

My Feedback: (1)

I guess Im a member of Bingo field's Angry angels. He taught me to fly and his field is where I first soloed. Im a Engineering student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, We have a school club that is dedicated to designing and building a plane from scratch, For either the SAE or AIAA Competition. About half the members are RC pilots themselves. It is a school club/ team based out of the engineering department, But we have a place on campus that we fly our own personal planes as well as test and fly the competition prototypes and planes. We have a fundraiser fly in event in the school's field house. Where a lot of members from the local AMA clubs come to fly their indoor planes.

I have become the "event coordinator" for the team and am looking to expand our fly in event. I have been in contact with the AMA for some help and will probably contact the local clubs, and look to expand our venue to maybe hold a completion for indoor pattern or 3d.

jeffie8696

I am a member of 2 clubs, Muscatine and Iowa City.

joeheren

My Feedback: (11)

flying about 5 years. i belong to svrc (sangamon vally rc flyers) central illinois. just south of Springfield.15 minutes from home also am a current ama member. i love the ppl at the club, but sometimes i fly just 5 mins away at a sod field. love that to

TedMo

I have been flying RC almost from it's inception, single ch. rudder only. Have always been a member of a club. I'm now 84 and can still fly a reasonable pattern but no longer compete. Presently have 25 planes of various types, electric, glow and gas all with radios and RTF. Who could have ever guessed that we would now have such things as Spectrum. A bit of an improvement since way back when, HA. A great hobby without a doubt.