On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:07:53 -0500, "Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired"
wrote:

bowman wrote:
Pete Schaefer wrote:


There's an R/C airfield that is alarmingly close to the Van Nuys airfield
in SoCal. It is watched pretty closely, but I would hardly consider the
R/C guys to not be a "threat". There have been incidents. You should see
the place. Talk about "too close to airports".


I used to fly at an uncontrolled where people would fly R/C at the airport.
Nice Sunday afternoon, you'd have R/C's, gliders, sky divers, ag planes,
and the odd helicopter. Kept life interesting.


What would have been more interesting would be to have a friend at
their field with a transmitter while you fly patterns.

We have several pilots who are accomplished RC pilots as well. The
bring their models, some of which are big enough to require a trailer
and fly them at the field on occasion. Yes, they have several
helicopters as well. It's amazing to see a max effort take off with
one of those. Wind it right up to maximum then watch it climb
straight up several hundred feet so fast you can hardly follow it.

However the serious RCers have their own field about 5 miles from us
and there is almost always some one out there flying on a half way
decent day. Calm, warm, spring and summer days bring them out.

As to not being any threat, it all depends. Some of those models are
far faster than my Deb, or any of the other planes based at our field
and may weight several hundred pounds. OTOH I'd not want to be flying
very low over in that area anyway.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired