A club in Pennsy is losing it's field because a non-member's plane crashed into a prison yard a half-mile away. Cops shut it down saying model planes are too dangerous and the town council will decide whether to terminate the lease. They want to make room for a dog park.

The link: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/loca...lane-club.html


Congestion forces police chief to ground airplane club
TEXT SIZE By: CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
The Intelligencer
The members of the Warminster-Glenside R/C Airplane Club have flown their planes at Turk Park 3 in Doylestown Township for nine years. No longer. The group's planes were recently grounded by the Doylestown Township police chief.

"I know a lot of these guys really look forward to being able to do this," Chief Stephen White said. "But (the area) is too congested. They need to find an area that isn't congested and fly there."

White said he decided to prohibit club members from flying their planes in the park after a couple of people, only one of whom can be linked to the club, crashed their model airplanes on the grounds of Bucks County Prison facilities.

Club president Joe Hudak said his club has very strict safety guidelines that all of the members follow, and he and the other members are trying to decide whether to fight the chief's decision. The club is also searching for a new place to fly.

But, Hudak said, "Fields are hard to come by. As you know, development is taking over and a lot of the open ground is being lost."

The county owns Turk Park 3, and leases it to Doylestown Township. The township has an agreement with the club, allowing the club to fly its planes at the park rent-free; and only the supervisors or the club can cancel the agreement. So the supervisors will vote on May 4 whether to make the chief's prohibition permanent.

The Warminster-Glenside R/C Airplane Club was founded in 1943, and members flew their planes at different fields in Montgomery and Bucks counties through the latter part of the 20th century. Hudak said the club flew at Moyer's Farm for years, until it was asked to leave.

The club found Turk Park 3 with help from the Bucks County Parks and Recreation Department, which also helped work out the rent-free lease for the club.

The club has about 80 members at peak flying season. All of them are men, and they range in age from 10 to the late 80s and include several father-son teams. They come from all over Bucks and Eastern Montgomery counties.

Some of the members fly model airplanes because they can't fly real ones. Others fly model planes because they enjoy building them or watching them do things real planes can't do.

"You can go up, you can fly, you can do loop-de-loops, all kinds of aerobatics," Hudak said.

The model airplanes have wing spans ranging from 20 inches to 6 feet. Some of the planes are gas-powered; others have electric motors.

"In nine years, we have never had an injury or loss of property," Hudak said. "There's been nothing. We've had basically a perfect record - so we thought."

On Nov. 29, a new member of the club lost control of his plane and it crashed on the driveway to the Bucks County Men's Community Corrections Center, which is across from Turk Park 3. The member cleaned up the parts of the airplane and left without incident.

Police responded to the rehabilitation facility. And upon investigation of the crash, police learned that there had been two other model airplane crashes.

Though no one was hurt and nothing but the plane was damaged, Hudak said, the club tightened its safety guidelines and presented them to the township.

Then, on April 7, a man who was not a member of the club was flying his plane at Turk Park 3 and lost control of it. The plane crashed in the backyard of the Bucks County Prison, more than half a mile from the park.

"What should have been a very innocent afternoon of flying a plane at Turk Park 3 turned into a rather difficult situation because we had to request the support of the correctional personnel to search the prison," White said, noting that prisoners could have picked up pieces of the plane and used them as weapons. "The department of corrections was doing something and being derailed to a job that they should not have had to do."

The only part of the plane prison guards found was the tail section.

White said the April 7 crash made it obvious to him that flying model airplanes in the area was "dangerous." He said any of the planes that crashed "could have easily injured or killed somebody."

That day, he had signs posted at the park, announcing that it was closed to anyone who wanted to fly model planes.

Hudak said the club members have always been careful and no one has been hurt by their planes. The thing that hurt the most about the Nov. 29 crash, he said, "was that the guy who crashed his airplane was out about $600 when it was over."

The club members have trouble understanding why they're being penalized for problems they didn't cause.

And they hope the supervisors will vote in May to allow them to stay at Turk Park 3.

The supervisors and the township's parks and recreation committee have talked about converting the flying field into a community dog park, if they can get permission from the county and raise enough money.

So the model airplane club might not get its wish.

If they are forced to leave Turk Park 3 for good, club members don't know where they'll go. Hudak said he intends to contact the county parks and recreation department again to see if someone in the department can help the club find a new flying field.

Hudak said: "We're sorely going to miss this one because it was the main location for most of our members. It was kind of centralized."

Christina Kristofic can be reached at 215-345-3079 or [email protected]

April 19, 2010 02:36 AM