The boss and I are thinking about leaving the land of year round flying (FL) to move to PA. We are looking at the Stroudsburg area because I need to be within 2 hours of the Newark airport. A good field/club are important to me... so, can any of you PA club members give me advice or direct me to a club website in or around that area. And, just how long/short is your flying season? Any and all advice is welcomed.

Duc

Try LVRCS.com, buc-le.org and tcws.org. I think the LVRCS (Lehigh Valley Radio Control Society) would be closest of the three. Buc-Le and Tri County Wingsnappers are the two nicest of the three with Buc-Le having the longest, widest runway (about 1000 feet) and Wingsnappers has a smoother grass runway and a kitchen. But Wingsnappers is the furthest at 60 miles from Stroudsburg, Buc-Le is in the middle at 52 miles and LVRCS is about 30 miles.

I live in Macungie, PA and drive 22 miles to Wingsnappers and sometimes go to Buc-Le which is 14 miles for me.

Best of luck,
Jim

Thanks Racer,

They all look like nice fields, I love the putting green grass. We share our field down here with a bunch of cows, so you can imagine the mess on the paved runway. As for Buc-Le and Tri County, 50-60 miles is kinda far for daily flying but Id like to visit them and possibly join because they look like very well equiped, exceptional sites. Try not to laugh too hard at this next question but... being from FL, we fly all year, how long is the season up there?

Thanks again,
Duc

Hi Duc,

The flying season is about March thru about mid November. Some guys fly year round and put skis on their planes if it snows. I am a fair weather flier and fly March thru mid November and build and do maintenance during the off months.

I think you may find clubs closer to Stroudsberg than the ones I mentioned but Buc-Le can handle the "big stuff" and turbines easily. They also have a yearly warbird meet which is spectacular.

If I can be of any more help, please let me know. If you would like to visit Wingsnappers or Buc-Le as a guest I can help with that also. If you want to talk to me, PM me and I'll send you my phone number.

What kind of work do you do? What is the draw of Stroudsberg if you don't mind my asking???

Best,
Jim

Track down Mark here on RCU (ontheedge). I believe he knows of some fields up that way. I'll find him and direct him to this thread.

Hi Duc, You're in luck. The RAMAC club is fortunate enought to have two flying sites. One of them is located near Marshall's creek (just out side of East Stroudsburg). Looks like a 15 minute drive [sm=thumbup.gif]. (I envy you.....) See link for the club site. You can get in touch with them and find out about membership. The Pocono field is one of the nicest flying sites in the Northeast. Nice runway, and a HUGE (i.e. no trees) overfly area. We just had an Imac contest there last weekend. The club is very active as they also host pattern, fun-flys and a believe a combat event. It's also not a super busy site (Two fields help with that) so you can get lots of stick time. The guys are really nice and helpful as well.

http://www.ramac.org/

Best of luck and welcome to Pa! Hopefully we'll meet up at the field some day. I'm not a member but I fly there as a guest onece or twice a year as well as at the Imac contest.

.............Mark

As for the flying season, well that depends on you. I know some guys that will fly off of the snow. Usually the season of "comfortable" flying goes from late March till mid-to-late October. Last year we flew (55 degree days) up till the end of November. Will you be working throughout the week or will weekdays also be a flying day possibility?

Wow most people go the other way around, give up on the cold and snow and move here. I know I did.

Racer, Crash, Edge,

Thanks for all the great tips, it will make the "area elimination" process a little smoother

Barracuda,

I always joked that when I got older I was going to dye my hair blue, move up north, drive slow in the left lane with my right turn signal on. Just making good on my promise [&:]
Thanks again guys,
Duc

Careful doing that around Marshalls Creek, most of those boys have shot gun racks in their pick-em-up trucks

South of Stroudsburg in Bucks County is the Sky Pirates. www.skypirates.org

The good news is a one way Uhaul going back up North should be pretty cheap.

On the topic of PA, I just moved to Montoursville, near Williamsport Airport. I know where the [link=http://www.montourhobbies.com]LHS[/link] is, but where is there to fly?

Hi Duc, there is the Hawks field just south of Milford,on rt.209.Flat and open.Flying 12 months a year.



Frank.

I can't believe you're going to give up Florida Duc!! Your wife must really love you..

www.lvrcs.com and www.buc-le.org are two good fields, as mentioned. LVRCS is very convienient to the ABE area (it's on the north side of 22 on rt 33.) Wouldn't be bad from Stroud either, I don't think.

I'm a member at buc-le and have been over to lvrcs as a guest (I am going to join). Both are very nice. Buc-le probably wouldn't be worth it as there are closer ones to the area you're looking at.

Glad you asked about the season. Being new to the area, I was wondering the same thing. I've been off for five days and it has been raining nearly every day, I think. I have an Edge that still hasn't flown that I want to maiden.


See ya on the battlefield! First beer or three is on me.

Chris

Chris,

This commute is KILLING me. Im ready to buy a refigerator, sell it, and move into the box it came in just so I dont have to sweat being #5 for the jumpseat on an oversold 737-300.
Anyway, How do you think you did with PBS? where is it you guys live again? Drive time? Skiing? Hills or flat? yada yada. Oh yea, careful offering to buy another pilot beer We gots to get back to Hamburg yo. I was there a couple of weeks ago but it wasnt the same, however I did find some interesting establishments.
The Yak is about 80% finished, John at Aero-Tech has been helping me out tremendously, I cant wait to fly it. Its gonna suck moving away from his shop too.
BTW, We maidened dad's 1/4 scale super cub the other day, it flew very...cub-ish Its gonna be a fun relaxing airplane to fly.

Au Revoir from CDG,
Steve

It should be free! I imagine they would be happy to get one back

Steve,

I'm not surprised about the commute. Anything FL-NY sucks. The area is pretty up here. Rolling hills and farmland out where I am (I'm on the west side of Allentown). It's a bit far for driving, so being closer to the border would help the commute. Beats Florida, though! Though I feel like my butt has been firmly planted in an airplane all summer with no time off, there is quite a bit to do out here, outdoors wise. There's skiing in the area (it's not Steamboat or Jackson Hole if that's what you're used to, but it is there), hiking, rivers to kyak or fish, shooting ranges, etc... Plenty of places to fly, too.

PBS is going to be a huge experiment for me in Oct. Oct is my aniversary month for work (THANK GOD) and the second half of the month I'm on second year pay. Well, I don't want to work the 1st half of the month for first year pay when I could get double the second half of the month, so I put in to work like 12 straight on the second half of the month and to barely work any on the first. We'll see how that goes. I should have spent more time with the practice bids... Ah well, it's only schedule and quality of life, right?

Get that plane finished before you move. I'm lookin at one of those 50cc 260 Quickbuilds from Aeroworks. Hopefully I can get one this fall after I buy MBNA credit cards a very expensive Christmas present. First year pay sucked..

Say hi to the french for me....

Chris