Our field is located adjacent to a popular city park. There are cross-country running trails as well as paved sidewalks nearby. In addition, a new housing development is schedule to be built nearby.

We've had some recent issues arise at my local field. Apparently, some formal complaints have been made stating that planes have "buzzed" people while they were running/walking along the sidewalk. I won't get too detailed, but the location of the complaints are practically impossible for planes to access because a large damn containing a pond would prevent the plane from being seen by the pilot. Regardless, the park's supervisor as well as the local police are involved.

Our field is open to anyone (ie. Local Club Members, AMA members, newbies, crack-heads, etc.).

Whether or not the complaints are true or false, there seems to be significant pressure building on the field. I worry that a couple of bad apples (either pilots or cranky people that don't like seeing or hearing RC aircraft) could do some real damage to the future of our field.

Anyone had their flying site shut down? Or successfully prevented a site from being shut down?

Foosball,
Sorry that you are having problems with your field. You're probably not going to want to hear this, but if you're having problems/complaints like the ones that you are describing you can pretty much kiss your field goodbye. Many a field in this country have been shut down by the public's complaints, whether they are actually true or not. The flying field usually comes out on the losing end of the deal. From the situation you described my best advice would be to start looking for a new place to fly.

Ken

You're experiencing a typical problem with urban flying sites. If somebody drives down the street on a motorcycle, it gets reported as airplane noise. Parents will drive by your flying field and will decide it would look better with soccer goals all over your runway. The local police and the city parks people don't care enough to mediate complaints in a fair and thorough manner, they're more likely to ban RC flying simply to end the complaining.

Your club needs to take a long-term proactive approach for defending your rights by working for positive publicity. Put on a charity fund-raising event for a local organization and make sure you publicize it as best you can. Organize "park clean-up" days with the city parks people where the club comes out and cleans up the park next to flying field and make sure the parks people know that you're putting in extra work. When you have events or meetings out at the field, invite city councilmen or whatever other local politicians are available out to speak to the crowd. Award these local politicians with plaques and certificates for supporting RC flying so they have something to hang on their office wall.

The only way to protect your flying site is to create the notion that your flying club is a good thing. Simply put, you need to kiss a lot of butt with regard to everyone who can infuence whether or not you're allowed to continue flying.

It sounds like your club is already being pressured to pack up and move out. You probably won't have time to build up the kind of public relations campaign that might save your field. Your club, assuming it is chartered, should contact the AMA and see what kind of help is available for improving your local club profile. You guys probably also need to start shopping around for a new field.

Good luck.

RCKen is right on. It's like when I used to fly full scale planes and a new home was built close to the airport where I hangared. Not long after they moved in they filed a noise complaint because, get this, airplanes are noisy! Any my personal favorite: people who build homes next to highways then complain about the noise. My tax dollars are spent building abatement walls to ease their suffering...

Since you are close to a city park it looks like you will need to find another field. Unfortunately those cranky people will win - squeaky wheel syndrome...

Been through this once by a noise complaint, and a land usage issue where the field was ordered closed better than 60 days. (note the field wasn't totally innocent)
You need to first thing form a club committe to find an alternate flying site.(just in case)
Make sure your ducks are all in a row. get a flyer over to where you say it's almost impossible to buzz people and try and buzz your flyer. if he says he got buzzed then get that flying site pronto.
If he says the airplanes were too high then you need to draft a letter to the city council, park supervisor, and police chief. Explain in the letter the insurance issue form the AMA, the AMA safety code. Invite these folks out to your field for a show and tell, demonstrate that it's impossible to buzz people. If Its possible to change the traffic pattern at your field to help in avoiding the site where the complaints came from then change it and have a letter and a sign posted before they visit your field.
you need to also go to a couple of city council meetings and meet some council people. invent them to your field for some show and tell. where you stress the safety issues..
Good Luck
.

We just lost our field but it had nothing to do with complaints. A couple of years ago we had one minor incident but no real complaint over that even. Our land owner simply decided to develop the land which we had leased for @31 years. During that time factories sprang up to the East side of our field and a housing development on the West side of our road. No complaints, even had residents come fly with us.

I hope you can save your site, it's getting harder to find suitable locations.

"Our field is open to anyone (ie. Local Club Members, AMA members, newbies, crack-heads, etc.). "

That's the problem...

If the field is truely open to anyone, then those non-club/non-AMA members can spoil it for everyone.

Our field has big signs stating that it can ONLY be used by AMA/Club Members, and there are several large signs stating usage rules.

In addition there is signage stipulating flying areas and prohibitions on non-club members entering anything other than designated viewing zones.

If you can get the club to put up similiar signage, and get before those who may be involved in trying to close the field down to express your intent, you may be able to save the field.

But you need to convince them that Club/AMA members would never behave that way, and that restriction and statement of usage, rules would eliminate the possibility of violations by non-club members.

Our club field has a gate that can only be opened by club members. Club members can and will ask people to observe the rules.
The police also makes rounds to check that there are no problems with unknown "guests".

I hate to see this kind of stuff happen. It is unfortunate that our hobby can be viewed in a bad light just cause a few people complain or a couple bad Pilots ruin it for everybody. As stated already alot of times it is easier to close the field to shut people up than acutally do something about it. Good luck man I hope you are able to keep your site.

Yep, been through the losing the field a couple of times and fighting city hall seem useless - heck, a lot of them even to do what the people don't want them to any way and get away with it.

We're very lucky with the 3 fields we fly at here. One is owned by the County Parks Department and they put in an asphalt runway. Another is owned by a major general aviation manufacture employee association and has and asphalt runway that our club is able to access. The third is where I fly most of the time at an old landfill. I'm going to a meeting this even about the development of landfill as a city park - there are people high up in the parks department who not only like our club there, but want to develop the field into a multi-use park with over 1/2 of it being devoted strictly to model aircraft flying and want our clubs help in developing a good site.

One thing we do as a club is maintain all these fields, so we have a good expense in the riding lawnmowers and other equipment at the fields but it’s worth it to have good fields and the corporate/city/county backing.

Hogflyer

Yep, was in a club in Louisiana that lost its field. Not so much from human activity as to a force of nature named Katrina. The person we leased the property from ( for almost 20 years ) ran a refuse company and was very friendly to the club. When he passed away, a relative took over the company. He couldn`t have cared less for us or our hobby. After Katrina, he basically simply commandeered the property and turned the field into a dump for storm debris. The lesson here is "If you LEASE it you can LOSE it. " Good luck. I think Ken and some others are correct. Start YESTERDAY looking for a new field.

I'm not sure but do the new laws concerning rc aircraft in Texas offer any protection for ya'll? That might be something to look into. The town I live in on the Texas coast you can't drive any direction more than 1000 yards without passing multiple baseball parks. Don't get me wrong I love baseball however it gets a heck of a lot louder than 5-6 airplane motors running at the same time. I dunno just throwing it out there if the state recognizes baseball & RC flying as recreational sports couldn't it be argued that they should be afforded the same rights? Noise being one of them.

the problem is some people just do not want other people to have fun.when I was a member of crrc in mass,we had a field at Callahan state park there was a new housing development behind a hill with trees on it that we were not to fly over and we had noise limits but the complaints still came.the club officers got together with some town and park officials and went to visit the conplainers while sailplanes were in the air and they were asked if all r/c planes were noisy ?when they answered yes they were directed skywards to see the sailplanes cicleling quietly above.we were able to keep the field until a dam/resivoir projject claimed it.I think the AMA has people that may help in keeping the field .Good Luck

Meet with these people offering their complaints. Get to know them and express real concern for their concerns. Find out all you can about them and determine the best way to use it against them[>:]

There was a park in Florissant, Mo that we flew gliders at until some old bat in an apartment complained that the gliders made too much nose, and the where 1/2 mile away. The city concil wouldn't listen to the fliers (many of whom where residents of Florissant) and not only was that park was closed to R/C models, but all except one was. The one that is open is not an ideal situation to fly at due the proximity of houses and roads and it is a bit small. The good sized park was closed off to models. Guess some politicians are just too ignorant to know their head head is burried so far up their A** H*** that they can see the backside of their teeth.

Hogflyer

I think if what the guys here didn’t help you better pack up and leave. Right now at our club there is a new home development and they are complaining too. We made are rules to never go over there house (it was very close) and I believe the problem is solved. I feel sorry for you but there isn’t a whole lot you can do.

Funny story I heard years ago - some fellow was flying a motorglider in a schoolyard in a suburban area near where I grew up. Got it up to altitude then shut the motor down. The cops rolled up to the pilot, walked up to him and said there were noise complaints about a model airplane.

Our hero at the controls said- "Officer, this is a glider...do you hear anything?" The cop just shook his head and drove away.

Of course, our hero didn't mention the motorized part of the flight. But it illustrates the hypersensitivity of folks to certain noise. Lawnmowers? Weedwhippers? Leaf blowers? Circular saws? No problem. Model plane? CALL THE COPS!

It also illustrates why electrics and 4 strokes are extremely popular - the noise isn't as much of a irritant to the anti-aviation crowd.

I was flying a stunt KITE off to the side of a baseball field one time and the coach came over and ask if I not fly as it was distracting the players. I have to admit that it probably did and they can get pretty loud at times. I just thought it was kind of funny, and I hadn't even thought about it at the time. I did stop!!! ENJOY !!! RED

We lost our control line field several years ago which was located on the grounds of a technical college. We had been there for about 10 years with no complaints. In fact most of the neighbors would come out to watch us and ask questions. Problems started when a NEW neighbor moved in.

They complained that we were flying OVER their house. [] We managed to survive for another 2 years since we had an excellent relationship to the school and all the adjacent neighbors except the problem couple. They also lodged complaints against the school about the noise from their autobody school, a local full scale airport and a fire department training site on campus. A sports car club would also hold races on the parking lot - and we'd get the complaints.

I think we have all seen flying feilds closed down by complaints before. But I have seen cities build flying fields also. Nice ones, with paved runways, and even an F84 on a pedistal. We all know that a complaint isn't worth a darn without a solution to offer. IF the town wants to shut you down, my advice is to go to a council meeting and state that solution is not acceptable, that they need to relocate you to your own field. We pay taxes for ball parks and running trails and lakes and ponds and every other type of park and rec center. Where is ours ? We have a right to have a park also. Demand one. State that you will gladly relocate to any field the town wishes to provide. Bring your flying buddies. Fill the room , if you can. And keep going to every meeting until you get your field.
We aren't second class citizens. I'm tired of being treated like one. We have just as much right to expect a field as anyone.

I agree, our club is the same way except without the gate, you cannot fly at our field without being a member of the ama. As said above that is probably part of your problem, you have non-ama non-club member showing up and flying, which could couse some trouble.
It's a shame to hear about this, but i guess poeple just don't like noise. Lucky for my club, we rent it from a farmer, so he is the only one who really hears the noise, and he is really cool about it.

But if your club does go under there is always electric's

I like this guy. Good advise.

Our field was lost in 1992. We had a great field, an decommissioned runway at Camp San Luis Obispo National Guard Camp. I never got to fly there, but I've seen photos of the Nationals held there and some of the other contest. We had quite a draw, including major manufactures and dealers. We were big time, then Blink, it was all a memory. There were a number of things leading up to our eviction, and at one point, one of the members decided the club officers weren’t working fast enough on something he wanted so he went to the National Guard headquarters and voiced his ideas and we were evicted within days. We went from Jan 1992 to June 1998 without a field. Our present field I great, but due to our being guest of Cal Poly, we play by their rules and they won't let up hold contest or any event. Our field is for members only and the Cal Poly Aerospace department and students.

One of the guys who was instrumental in getting our present field wrote an article, that was published in the July 2000 issue of Model Aviation, about our club history. I am afraid that some of the lessons of the past are about to be repeated. We are all holding our breaths, hoping we don't have to go on a search again.

I am in the process of getting that article on our web site but for now, you can find it in the AMA archives. Look for the July 2000 edition. It is worth reading.

Don

I also fly at this field here in Denton. The problem with people getting 'buzzed' is that just directly north of the landing/takeoff is a jogging/biking path, within less than 100' away. So if a plane is coming in on a long low landing pattern than someone can get the feeling they are being buzzed. I use the same path of running and biking and am very familar with the low flying planes. Unfortantely there are no warning signs for the path users saying to be mindful of the planes, even though it should be very obivilous.
As also stated the flying field is open to everyone and anyone. But I've seen a club member recently flying his heli at 8am on a Sun morning, when it's asked not to fly nitro or gas powered aircraft till 9am. So we have problems with clubmembers being stupid also.[:@]

If you're a beginner reading this forum looking for hints on how to enjoy your hobby more..................

Don't get to focused on this topic. Yet.

You really don't have to contribute heavily on the efforts to find your club it's next field before you learn to fly. Learn to fly and then figure to contribute in whatever way you can, if you can.

I fly at 3 different clubs. Two of them have had to find new fields in their history. One started out back in the 60s at a city park and have been there ever since. I actually helped get that park and had to come from another city to help. So know first hand about that situation. But the two that have had to find new fields had a time doing it. It's an ongoing process. And is usually taken up by the guys with the talent and drive to deal with matters such as that. If you have those kind of skills, you might wish to provide them, but for right now, put the issue in the back of your mind and don't let it bother you're enjoyable entrance into our hobby.

Losing fields and finding them really isn't a beginner's primary issue. Yeah, follow the rules of your present club and keep the issue in mind, but don't let this topic bother you.

bigedmustafa had some great advise.

If you want to keep your field, show the city counsel that your club is an asset to the community - FIRST by forming a club. Keep the non-AMA members out. Now I am not a big proponent of the AMA, but when you're dealing with politicians, showing them that you are responsible (By belonging to a nation-wide organization AND having insurance) goes a long way.

Aside from big Ed's suggestions, talk to your local schools about giving lectures on basic aerodynamics. The kids love it, the club members love it, and it's one more feather in your cap if and when you are confronted by the city.