Help before somebody gets hurt!

[66stang]

Here's the scoop. Today a friend of mine calls me and tells me he's at the soccer park where we fly electrics once in awhile. He says he went to fly today, but the park was crowded with small kids playing.. There's a guy flying a .60 size U-cando (glow) over the kids heads. My buddy approaches him and says you shouldn't be flying a plane that size at this park. He also tells the guy he should belong to a club and the AMA. Now get this, the guy says he's a rebel and doesn't need to join a club or the AMA. Says the magazine is junk anyway. To top it off there was another jerkoff flying a Helicopter. The guy flying the .30 size helicopter did not know how to fly. My buddy said he and another friend had to duck down behind their cars to avoid getting hit. In the mean time, the kids are all around playing. The clown flying the U-candow wrecked, just missing a couple of kids. I'm pissed because we like to fly at this park, respect the fact that if kids or people for that matter are in harms way, we don't fly. This ass is going to screw it up for all of us. What should I do if I see this clown out there? Pounding him is not totaly out of the question!

[madmax]

Brian! What's up man? This is an interesting one, and I'll throw my .02 in.. I have a park next to my house that I fly foam, and my trex at regularly. It's a pretty good sized area -- about 3 soccer fields. I only go down there when absolutely nobody is around. If there is, I ride my bike back home and come back later. The schedule is very predictable. Other flyers in the neighborhood come down on occasion as well, and we get the gig. Safety is key no matter where you are, trust me, I get it. If I was at my park, and someone brought out anything glow, I would probably get just as fired up as you did. If there were kids around, and the guy gave me a line of sh!t, I would either get in his face, or pack it up, and call the fuzz. That would completely jeopardize any future flying at my park for me personally, but the tradeoff of a near close call with a kid makes it worth the loss. The "screw everybody" attitude is indeed worthy of an ass beating, but maybe you can knock some logical sense into him next time you have a run in. Mentioning AMA, etc is good, but technically you're in violation as well is the field is not sanctioned, which makes the argument a red herring. Try diplomacy first, be nice, tell him where the local club is, and keep banging on him. If the guy still acts like a hard on, you need to risk your own secret location at the cost of true safety. They are around every corner bro. Hope it all works out.

[66stang]

Maxx, good advice. I wish I was there when this clown and his krownes where there. I just can't get over this ass. If I see it there will be a problem. The good thing is the rebel totaled his plane. But I already see the hand writing on the wall. I will need to find another park to fly. Dude some people are so stupid it hurts. This was not a young guy either. This was someone who should know better. On a side note congrats on your new field. Looks great!

[Biff]

Brian, feel you guy! We are all responsible for policing ourselves. Looking at the big picture, if anyone is harmed even just a ding, we lose credibility in our community. Bringing more folks into our hobby and promoting it for what it is is something we should try to do more of.

We've all done stupid things at the field. But flying glow around people at a public venue is just plain stupid. I'm assuming there was no frequency control (honor system I know, but how many soccer fields have a freq. board?)

I say things were handled well in that the idiot was asked to take it elsewhere and join a club. At that point the dip stick declared he's a rebel (a fact I dispute because of geography!!)

Max is full on right. Call the police and put a quick halt to the dare devil's stunts!! If my son was playing soccer there that day I would of had those punks in a "FULL SADLER" pretty quick. Dude, they are going to hurt somebody no question. Then who do you think in your community is going to be too keen on your AMA field?

Best thing you can do is call the police and put a quick stop to the freedom seekers. The next thing I would do is organize some of your electric crowd and talk to the parks people about you guys flying there. Show them what foam is all about and GET PERMISSION to be there. Perhaps if you use this situation as a positive, you can turn an AH SHEIT into an atta boy? Take the bull by the horns dude!

Flying park fliers and 3D foam (safely with freq. control) will not only give you a place to fly that's close, it will also no doubt bring more folks into the hobby!! Keep us in the loop! Great post bro.

[66stang]

Hi Biff, nice to hear from you. Yeah I wish I would have been there this time. I have been at that park before when know one was around. People showed up to play with their kids. I packed it up and left. I know the guy my friend is talking about. He's older, like 50ty ish. I talked to him one time when they where flying electrics. You could tell they where total scum bags. He mentioned he flew a Ucando there, and I told him that was a huge mistake. He just laughed and said he never heard a complaint. Next time he will know there trouble doing it.

[aviti]

To be honest, I think the police would understand the difference between park flyers and the UCanDo. If they show up again with nitro stuff, go ahead and call the police. Then stick around and explain that not all flyers are idiots and small electrics can be safely flown in parks away from kids. If they ban all flying at the park at least no one gets hurt.

The other solution is to get a bunch of fellow St Louis Giant members out there with you and "convince" him to leave. I'm sure you could handle it yourself but if there were enough guys facing him it might actually deter any violence.

[Tailchaser]

Man I think your wrong about the calling the police and waiting so they could see the difference in the planes, they would lump you all into the same class and tell you both to leave.

They don't, for the most part don't know the difference and too let one guy fly and tell another to leave will NOT happen.

Your doing the right thing and straighting this guy out should be a priority for your own flying privileges and the most important thing, the safety of the kids playing.

Best rule, do what you would do if they were your kids, like Biff stated,..........P.S. HAVE FUN DOING IT ......

Chuck

[HuckinChikn]

Wassup Brian?? what a couple of D-bags. personally, i Like aviti's suggestion.... turn on the flying giant spotlight in the sky, sound the F.G. Horn and make a couple of smoke trails in the sky, and every Flying Giant in the STL would be there faster than you can say "FREE BEER". by the way, when is the next big huckfest in St. Louis??

[50%plane]

All good advise here, but you should, IMO, call the AMA about it and ask them what you should do. Ya never know what they will tell you.


50%

[cliff600]

It seems like a bad situation you guys have there, but I don't think calling the cops will do any good. I don't think it is illegal to fly anything at a park, well, except full scale and that sort of thing. I am not saying what those guys are doing is good or the right thing, but if they are that much against AMA then I don't know what you guys can do to stop them.

[Cracky]

Who are we roughin up????????


lemme know....I can gather a couple of guys.....

[LawnJockey]

There is no excuse for someone flying a glow powered anything in a City Park. I would suggest taking ti to your City Council and getting a ordinance against flying anything over a certain wingspan. Most glow(I said most) are over 50in wings. Most Electric are not. This could be a start to keeping the electric and ridding yourself of the Rebel Without a Cause.
Get the Local Hobby stores to help. Try to get some classes formed for underprivleged kids. Have several weeks of teaching kids to fly using Firebirds. This is a great way to promote our hobby and look good in the public eye.
Just a thought.

Bruce