[madmax]

Hi Crew,

I'm going to step a bit out of color and tell you a story about what happens when city and local governments are called to intervene in R/C club politics.

My local electric flying field is The Costa Mesa / Harbor Soaring Society which is located in Fairview Park in Costa Mesa, California. This site has been around forever, and many generations of youth and adults have enjoyed modeling at this location for many years. As many of you may be aware, I am a Costa Mesa resident, and a large number of FlyingGiants members in Orange County frequent this flying site.

Without getting into too much detail or dropping names directly, a potentially unfortunate situation that began back in early December almost killed the CMHSS entirely. Just a little background, there is a minor rivalry at this field regarding the new electric planes, and the glider crew. Much like issues that occasionally arise with the scale/sport flyers & the 3D guys at fields across the globe. Luckily through club meetings, rules, open discussions, and mutual respect, these situations have a tendency in most cases to work themselves out, and a base level of solidarity as modelers is realized.

Not the case this time around. Local flyers at the CMHSS were recently caused a lot of grief when one individual decided to take his list of grievances directly to the Costa Mesa City Counsel and hammered on them relentlessly about personally perceived and fabricated safety issues at this site. This individual is not a member of the AMA and sees its founding principals and foundation as an organization of modeler’s, simply stated, ridiculous and inane. This person also finds insult in the fact that the FAA would dare interfere with ground activities of modelers by setting a 400’ altitude limit (there is a lot of full scale activity at HSS due to the proximity of John Wayne Airport). Agree with it or not, this person, a fellow modeler with practically non-existent support, fully knowing that he could jeopardize and shut down the flying site for ALL modelers, and understanding that flying sites are a rare commodity in Southern California, decided to take his beef and ego to the city instead of dealing directly with the club.

Last night this all came to a head, and a very large number of supporters of HSS, and modelers in the area attended The Costa Mesa City Counsel Meeting. This was one of the first issues to come up, and naturally, The Counsel, not knowing anything about model airplanes, was forced to re-visit city ordinances regarding flying model airplanes at this site. The AMA was requested assistance with this issue, and coming to our rescue were two very well respected AMA representatives from The Southwest who did a great job explaining our safety record, insurance, and other issues to The Counsel. Other local flyers came up to show their support as well. On the other side of the fence was one sole individual, with one age old ego and notorious agenda, who listened to The Counsel recommend shutting down the field, and then tried to pour salt in the wound and create the lamest form of drama I think I have ever seen by showing them a burnt up lipo battery to prove his point (we fly over a preserve, look what they are going to do – burn down your preserve).

Anyways, to make a long story shorter, I am proud to report he got nowhere with his rant, and the local city government hearing process worked in this case. Although he absolutely wasted 1 ½ hours of about 100 people’s time causing other important city issues to get shelved. As a modeler, I was pissed. As a tax paying resident of Costa Mesa, I was furious.

So thinking about this more, there is some great irony to be found in this story. One individual's despise of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, is what brought this issue to The City Counsel in the first place. The AMA, and the hard work of their field representatives is what saved our field, and protected modeling at this location. No doubt about it - they went beyond the call of duty to protect us. $50 a year is becoming cheaper and cheaper in my book. I received a call today by an anonymous source close to the AMA that this was the first time in 50 years of modeling that they had ever seen a modeler go after a club in this fashion. From my perspective, this was simply astonishing.

One of the speakers had an excellent quote from Dave Brown that was made by one of the numerous speakers last night – “Do not take your private battles to local government”. Sadly, I witnessed this occur first hand, and never thought I would see something like this occur.

Moral of the story? Got a beef with a group of modelers who enjoy one of the many different flying styles, and areas of the hobby? Talk as adults, leave your ego and pride at the door, and understand that we are a brotherhood of modelers regardless of what we’re into. Understanding this is our only saving grace.

These are my personal opinions. I would like to personally thank the AMA for their participation in this very important meeting, and The Costa Mesa City Counsel who now understands that one yapping poodle at your feet is not representative of the greater majority, and for understanding all the good that this hobby of ours provides our local community.

Thank you for reading my rant. I’ll try this again in another year or so, or hopefully never again. This one really pissed me off.

Want to see the city counsel meeting video? It's an interesting watch. http://costamesa.granicus.com/MediaP...=4&clip_id=510

It will let you fast forward to 48:45 where the issue begins. Your's truly can be found at 1 : 11 : 45.

Best -- Maxon Duncan, proud card carrying member of The Academy of Model Aeronautics.