I'm a little concerned about this sport i love it but i beginning to notice a lot of population demand around my area and it's growing fast. One time the fild talked about moving farther away and that wont be good for me as it is only 20min away but the damn residents are taking up all the land and i really dont want to give this joyment up!!! anybody else here having this crisis going on??

thats why we fly ou in the boonys

That's why electrics are gaining in popularity. Smaller fields/ less noise/ somewhat safer.

People in any givin area will alter their hobby to correspond to local conditions if it satisfies their convenience factor. (there is NO way anyone will understand what I just said, cause I don't)

What I mean is.
Where I live and fly I can fly anything. 100s of acres of nothin.
If it suddenly was developed and I had houses all around I'd just switch to small electrics/ helis etc before I'd drive 30 minutes just to fly.

I envy you guys who have hundreds of acres to fly on i might be a little bit daring with my plane if i only had more open space to fly besides if you guys lose one, your most likely can see were it went down we have to get a ladder to get them out of trees
no but i dont mind driving 30 min to our site ive been flying out of a private landing strip with some freinds and the owner owns a ultra lite. i had the plesure to see him take off with it,we also saw a couple of piper cubs who where out for a sunday drive and decided to land and take off. its a real treat heres some picks of last weekend....this should work thats me with my fisrt low wing an extra what a plane........... o and thats my cub but i wasnt flying it (no realy)

click me www.midmad.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=7148

I have one southwest of me aboout 15 or so miles and guess what ?,this is there last weekend and raining,as i went by there yesterday not a soul was there,what a shame.There is another just west of me in another city that's been there a lont time,but it's going also due to "urban",next it will be all houses,yesterday i overheard another guy saying his field is being shut down to another "urban housing developement".I'm lucky so far but just how long will it last ?,i have no idea and that's sad. []

Our club had been at several sites also over the yrs . About 10 yrs ago the club bought some land and had it zoned as a airport.. This way anyone buying or building near there will just have to put up with the noise !! Today we have 40 acres and how knows maybe more some day ! our club rents out part of it for farming and sells hay off it also ! so there is a anual income ! our club could maintain its self even if it was to get down to only 1 member with this arangment !!

Here is our field !! and web site ! http://www.minotaircraftmodelers.com/ sure glad the snow is gone now LOL

We've got it in a Wildlife place.

Here is a link to a satilite photo of our field. We rent the light colored square of ground. One half is the pits, landing area and other things, and the other half is just tall weeds, small trees, and MANY peices of balsa

[link=http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=1743&y=23665&z=17&w=2]Photo[/link]

It is fairly close to houes, but we are in a state owned park, and so they can't do much more than make us not fly before 10:00.

I drive over an hour to get to my club's field. If you in enjoy flying enough (wich I do), ya just have to deal with it.

20 mins, lol, that would be awsome!

If i had to drive an hour or so then that's what i would do,ride the bike,pull the trailer and camp out on weekends.

Yeah, I know.....but it's only $$$$ (for gas that is)....I have about a 35 minute drive (Interstate 95% of the way) to our club field. If it wasn't such a great bunch of guys there, I'd be looking a lot closer!

Jerry

Ya, gas is getting really expensive. Its rediculous.

Wings, I am with ya man!

I have to go ages also to a club and the worst part is I have to rely on my dad for transport!

I can't wait until I have a car so I can drive myself

But living next door to a field would be awesome!!!

Only having a 30 minute drive to the field is great! When I was doing High Power Rocketry the two closest launch areas were 2 hours and 3 hours away. Now that I'm getting back into this hobby, I've found that there are three clubs all within 30 minutes of me.

Wow, I feel soo lucky now. Thanks guys. I have two fields 15 minutes away and another one about 20 minutes away. Its funny, I live in Hamilton Ohio and all these fields are near by, but they are all concentrated in one little area. No more down in the Cincinnati area, considering it has grown up soo much, and the growth is starting to move up this way too [:'(].

Sorry to hear about the commutes some of you have, but its always worth it once u get there .

Jamie

ps. I l also have Dave Brown living about 5 minutes away too..

I drive only 13 miles to our field, but we can see the housing develpments creeping our way. We developed a noise policy last year to pre-empt and complaints as people move in. We based it on the towns decible level. We all know in the back of our minds that eventually we may have to move. It's just part of the hobby. I will drive pretty far to be able to fly, and even have a club that is closer. It's the facility that keeps me coming back as well as the other club members.

I am sooo happy with my situation right now. I live 10 min. away from (Scobee) field with a huge concrete runway, covered facilities, club house, cold drinking water for those HOT days we sometimes experience down here. BUT...I'm house shopping...hopefully we wont move too far away. Doesn't matter though...I will still make the drive. It's totally worth it.

Here's my club. Runway is surrounded by alfalfa which is right in the middle of a corn (or soybean depending on the year) field.

[link=http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=1443&y=22663&z=16&w=1]http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=1443&y=22663&z=16&w=1[/link]

Kerry

The modeling hobby is alive and well. Those who really want to build and fly WILL find a place to fly. They will either revise the scale of what they build to fit the readilly available flying sites... or they will drive the distance required to get to a site appropriate for the model.

The micro RC arena has finally become viable with planes under 8 oz having 4 channel operation being possible without having a degree in EE to design your own RC system. You hear of more and more people gaining permission to fly these in HS gyms. The micro RC stuff is small enough now that a common 2 car garage is becomming a viable flying site. (along with some large living rooms...)

There are more 30% and larger scale models being flown than ever before. The 30% to 45% ARF models were essentially unheard of just a few years ago. Now they are starting to show up at the smaller club flying sites. You either built the large model yourself or hired a professional builder to get this size aircraft 10 years ago.

The hobby is headed in 2 directions... very large and very small.
AND the ever popular .40 to .60 size stuff is still going strong.

Me again,

I may have asked this before( and I am sorry for changing the direction of this thread) but what would you guys say about setting up a club?

Ashburton(where I live) has only about 15k people living here and no club to speak off, there are a few people who once flew at a club here but it as pretty much disbanded.

Now, I know I am not an experienced flyer buy any means but I am eager. What would you think?

Zimbo

Go for it.. but be ready to take on the majority of the work of running the club for at least the first 3 years.

The requirements for setting up a club are fairly simple.

Develop the purpose of the club. (We just want to fly and have fun is an OK purpose)
Develop the clubs initial bylaws. (you can be a dictator for the forst couple of months here... but eventually you need a set that the members vote on as being acceptable)
Locate a flying site.
Locate a meeting place. (can be the flying site on the first clear weather Sunday each month if you want...)
Gather some members.

Do that and you have a club.

Then you have to do the monthly meeting paperwork... taking notes of what was done at the meeting is usually the least desired job. The newsletter editor's job is also not very popular.

If you want... after you have 5 or more members you can apply for an AMA charter to gain the club insurance and to gain the flying site insurance.

The AMA website has an EXAMPLE set of bylaws. Yours don't have to be the same as that... but those do give you an idea of stuff you should cover.

************

The problem is keeping the club running for more than a couple of years. The guys who keep getting voted into the club offices get tired of doing all the work.