RC Guys Ain't So Bad

[mike londke]

Today I took Samuel to the local RC field to fly a Gentle Lady glider we picked up cheap at a swap meet. I threw in the Sakitumi and a 1/2A combat plane just in case.....  We roll in and there are 20 guys there. I manage to find the head honcho and get the lowdown on the rules and such for RC. We put up a half dozen flights on the glider and put it away. I took out the CL planes and within 10 minutes every guy there was standing around them and asking questions. I was flying shortly after. Not only were we welcomed back, they offered up the area adjacent to the runway to fly ANY time we want. The club has no dues and no permit by the county is required so it's all free. Best of all it's 15 minutes from the house. We drive an hour each way to fly with the Nashville guys every week so this is a godsend. We will definitely be taking advantage of this field. Who knew a beat up swap meet glider would find us a new place to fly CL?

[Andre Ming]

Sounds great, Mike!

Happy for you and Samuel!

Andre

[Air Ministry .]

10 points . 

[Jared Hays]

nice

[Dave_Trible]

I believe there lies our greatest potential for new growth.  Maybe some old re-treads but also many younger who have the model airplane bug already but haven’t really been exposed to CL much.  There are like 15 huge RC clubs here in Kansas with hundreds of members........

Dave

[TDM]

I took my CL SV12 with me when i went to a DLG contest. I set on the side of the field and flew over there. Next thing I know there is a big croud watching me and for a few minutes all forgot what did they go there for. one of them even got to fly it.

[jim ballard]

That is a great story! Wish I had one just like it to tell!

[Skip Chernoff]

Mike don't be surprised if some of the R/C begin to show an interest in C/L. If they were older guys, C/L is a nostalgia deal that might just wake up some love of model flying from their youth.

[mike londke]

Mike don't be surprised if some of the R/C begin to show an interest in C/L. If they were older guys, C/L is a nostalgia deal that might just wake up some love of model flying from their youth.

That would be cool and I'm certainly going to help anyone who asks. I'm just jazzed to have a new flying site so close to us.

[john e. holliday]

I took a CL plane with me one year to an RC fun fly.  After the fun fly portion was done I got permission to fly my CL plane.  After completing the pattern and landing one of the guys asked to fly it.  He landed and as he walked out of the circle he said now he remembers why he quit CL.  As I was loading up, the head honcho walked up and asked me to never bring another CL plane to his event or site.   Haven't been back to that site again

By the way glad you and Sam found some other modelers to fly with.   

[dave siegler]

Our club has done some outreach to RC clubs and no RC club is luke warm on control line.  We are either welcomed with open arms or told to get off their lawn. 

So we work with clubs that like us and stay away from the rest.

Told we are dangerous, noisy and a problem. 
Launching a combat plane off a stooge gave the safety guy a stroke I think. 
But same clubs have issues with Free Flight, helicopters, small park fliers and gliders as well.  Big Jets are just fine.   

As model aviation continues to shrink maybe the get off the lawn guys (elitist pricks) will not be active anymore.