Flying Site Case Study #12
The Arizona WingNutz was recently chartered as an electric RC club. Pat Gagon was looking for a place for his club members to fly. The city's first response was "Yep, we already have a flying field. Go fly with the helicopter group." The city let helicopter club know that other modelers might be using "their" field. Neither club was keen on the idea of putting fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft in the same airspace in high-density situations.
The initial reaction from the city was somewhat intransigent. The city officials couldn't understand the difference between the two types of aircraft and the flight dynamics that were the result. They saw no reason the two groups couldn't share the airspace.
Time for a bit more education ... More meetings took place, including representatives from the helicopter group, the fixed-wing group, and the city officials. Ideas such as "time of use" plans, "days of use" plans, and "weeks of use" plans were put on the table by the city, with the idea being that a single flying site should be able to serve all of the modelers.
To the enduring credit of the clubs involved in this issue, all of the meetings resulted in a focus on the problem rather than in a club-versus-club brawl.
Reasonable members making reasonable requests finally convinced the officials that two separate flying sites were needed. Another water-retention basin was identified, roughly half a mile from the helicopter site!
The net effect of the persistence of the modelers, their willingness to focus on educating the town officials, and their willingness to cooperate with each other, was two great flying fields in a town that had none. Both fields are visible to passing traffic, and might well serve as catalysts for the development of other such flying sites in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.