bayareajeff

What is a good size for a flying field?

Run way length??

How long does the entire field need to be? I know here in the Bay Area we are pretty limited for places to fly. but what is typically needed? 20 Acres? 40 acres?

I would Imagine it has a lot to do with what is flying there as the needs for Park Flyers is a lot different than say a 60 size warbird and up.

If this is listed some where can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

Jeff E

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

There's a large section on it in the AMA membership manual.

JustPlaneSweet

Our field is approximately 800' x 500' (11 acres) with soybean and corn fields all around. We have a flyover arrangement with the land owner. If we did not have a flyover arrangement we would probably need 3X the area.

The main runway is Petromat running north-south and is 120' x 450'. We mow a parallel grass runway about 60' wide next to the N-S runway. There is another nominally east-west Petromat 90' x 300' runway. You can see a photo on the website.

We fly everything from electrics and helicopters up to IMAA gassers.

Stan
www.bhrcp.org

bayareajeff

Cool.. Thank you very much.. I was able to find it right away.

THey say 2500 feet... Total distance.. on average. Ill have to see how that maps out in real flight..

thanks

Jeff

bayareajeff

Thank you Stan.. NIce site too!

RCPAUL

My Feedback: (1)

Several years ago I heard that the amount of land needed for RC was 1 acre for the pits and 10 acres for fly over.

Hope this helps.

Paul

rc34074

My Feedback: (5)

A total flyover area for a flying field should be at least 50 acres if you intend to fly anything with any speed in the air. 10 acres is way too small for planes flying very fast at all. But if you don't care to accommodate faster planes then a smaller area could be used.

Runway size should be 150 by 750 feet long to handle the faster planes. A cross runway would be good if possible. The pits and taxiway and of course parking would need to be maybe 3-4 times this area at the minimum.

The AMA field diagram is out of date and should be upgraded. Very few fields for clubs of any size have a field that small. In fact the pits area is so small that it is dangerous, in my opinion. For that matter if you go to Muncie the AMA fields are set up much differently than is shown on the diagram on the AMA site. You can see that in the threads that show pictures of events held there.

So - if you can't get the field this large or even larger then be aware that you will be reducing the variety of planes that can reasonably fly there and thus you will restrict the number of people who will want to fly there/be a member of your club.

Ed

bayareajeff

Thanks for the input Ed and Paul

bayareajeff

So what about the length of the flying area? At the last field I was flying at they boundaries were pretty close. AMA says 2500 feet.. Thats almost a half mile right?

Is more needed?

Ken Erickson

A few years ago, I was a member of a 100 member club which had two (2) acres and flyover rights. We did fine. Had several IMAA fliers and guests from other clubs came to fly there.

We lost it when the owner's son decided it was the best place on which to build his new house.

Ken Erickson

hugger-4641

My Feedback: (6)

Our club field runway is about 600' x 200' and our total clear flying area is probably 600 x 1500. No problem for 1/3 scale or smaller prop planes, but its tight for some of the jets when we have a fly in.

JustPlaneSweet

A comment on the AMA site layout-

The barrier is shown 20 feet from the edge of the runway. This is too close. Allow another 5 to 10 feet. This provides room for wing overhang to give the pilot time to recover if they drift off the runway.

Stan

Hossfly

The AMA set-up in the 2009 Membership Manual (published late in the year) defines the AMA suggested field as 46.7 acres using the aera behind the safety line as 2000 ft vice the field size as 2500 ft. With the other 500 ft thrown in, the size becomes .92 acres larger, for 47.62 acres, not far off from your desired 50 acres.

My main club OWNS 50 acres of flat farm land. Fairly LARGE facility when compared to any other field that I have ever flown at except Muncie itself which has, IIRC, some 1000 acres. Their layout has to accomodate a large main Power Line running through it.
I've flown models in many states and I have yet to see any club facility as big as ours. Last event I attended, some 3 weeks ago, has 400' of hard surface. The turbine machines did very well on that facility. Total land use is about 10 acres as I will estimate.

And to J-P-S: Any pilot that veers off a runway by 20 feet has no business flying solo RC anyway!

rc34074

My Feedback: (5)

I guess I am not sure what specific point(s) you are trying to make. Part of what I wrote wasn't specific enough though - when I wrote about the AMA field layout being out of date I meant the area in the pits and the distance between the pits and where the pilots stand. Also the distance between where the pilots stand and the runway is too small.
I live in Ohio and have been to quite a few fields here - probably 25-30 or more in the 20 years I have been flying rc. There is only one club field that I have been at in that time has a pits/flight line/runway spacing as shown on the AMA recommended flying site diagram. It was MUCH too tight for pilot safety, and I refused to fly at the warbird flyin they had there after I understood where they wanted the pilots to stand when flying vs where planes were being started in the pits and taxiing behind you. Their plane starting tables/stands were about 30-35 feet behind the barrier fence and the pilots were supposed to stand between the barrier fence and the starting stands when flying. This means they had planes taxiing behind the pilots within 15 feet of the pilots when flying - that's not acceptable to me. This field is made exactly to the AMA diagram - to me this clearly shows that the AMA diagram needs corrected.

NONE of the three fields in my area has a pits/startup/taxi/pilot area that confined. The distance between the plane stands and the area where the pilots stand is twice to three times as far as shown on the AMA diagram.
Only one of those 3 fields has a runway less than 600 feet long. That club is dying because of the short runway, and some other things about how they have been running their club - politics. The runways are grass here in Ohio.

As far as flyover area the field where I usually fly has a flyover area of 50 - 75 acres. I give wide variation here because we have a wide open farm area to fly over. There are a couple houses which we avoid, but those are the only real restrictions. When I fly my warbirds I use at least 30 acres. There are other pilots who use a larger area, especially the turbine(s) and some pilots who fly scale planes.

We rent 5 acres which is the runway, pits, parking, driveway. The rest of the area we have flyover rights.

Does this help explain my concern?

As far as staying on the runway how wide the runway is vs crosswinds can have an effect there, especially gusty crosswinds. The runway width is an important factor here, compared to how close the pilots stand compared to the runway.

Anyway, its nice that your club owns the 50 acre plot.

Ed

JustPlaneSweet

Hossfly,

Our barrier is an unforgiving chain link fence. We have instances of strong crosswinds and the ocassional landing gear malfunction that sends planes skidding down the runway. The current 15 foot setback gives the grass taxiway no time to stop the model. Since the OP is looking for input, I am suggesting that the setback he chooses be increased to improve aircraft survivability.

Our previous barrier was plastic snow fencing with a top and bottom wire. This barrier would catch the planes without much damage. It was a big shock when the first plane was shredded by the chain link fence. We were not prepared for it.

These events occur only a few times per year.

Stan

50+AirYears

The AMA diagram is only a guidline, not a definition to be followed exactly. Each club fits their area to fit space available,

Our club has a 75' X 450' runway along about 35 acres we lease, and have clear airspace access for at least 1500 feet to the front and sides, exept for a thin line of low tree to the North, and a marsh area to the South. Enough clear space one could probably fly beyond visual capabilities. Our pit area is maybe 45' deep, and about 380' long, since we have a heli hover area at one pit end. We do not have any problem with taxiing behind fliers at the six pilot stations, because taxiing in the pits is strictly forbidden. You start your plane, adjust it, then walk or carry the plane to the flight line. Most members either carry or walk the plane out holding on to the fin, and occasionally someone will use a leash.

We have days that are very active with flyers, an days where nobody shows up, but during our annual public show, we can have as many as 6 planes in the air at a time, and have hadas many as 160 flights in the show period, including as many as 3 control line flights at a time.