GROUNDED!
Enthusiasts banned after two decades of flying radio control planes at Arroyo del Oso park
For more than two decades, hobbyists have flown their radio control airplanes at Arroyo del Oso park in the Northeast Heights.
But several weeks ago, a sign suddenly appeared announcing that the use of such aircraft was prohibited there.
The radio control pilots — many of whom are retired and veterans — question why the city would run them out of the park without at least talking to them. And they say there are few alternative sites.
“It just breaks my heart,” said Gary Kyle, 65, who said he will probably not fly his airplanes very much anymore. He lives close to the VA Hospital in the Southeast Heights and has been flying at Arroyo del Oso since the early 1980s.
A spokesman for the city Parks and Recreation Department said they were responding to complaints and safety concerns.
The president of a local RC club, however, said there was only one complaint, which he said was exaggerated. The city responded without seeking comment from RC pilots who used the park, he said.
Since 1992, radio control clubs have flown out of Arroyo del Oso Park under a waiver of a city ordinance granted for that purpose, said Greg Rullman, 58, president of the Duke City Electric Flyers Club. The park is west of Spain and Wyoming.
Keith Reed, deputy director for Parks and Recreation, said the new flying prohibition was made necessary “because of the increase in park usage for soccer and other recreational activities, as well as the increase in model aircraft activity there,” which he said had become “dangerous.”
“Dangerous” is not a description likely to be used by club members who have been flying there for years. For them, weekday mornings at the park
were “as much a social event as a flying event,” said longtime model airplane flier Bob DuBois, 75. “I think we’re getting a lot of flak because of the publicity surrounding the problem with drones. The Federal Aviation Administration classifies radio control model airplanes as drones.”
The sudden appearance of the signs prohibiting their hobby also caught club member Gary Broten off guard. “It really bugs me that nobody from the city talked to us about it. We don’t bother any-
body,” said Broten, 75. “In fact, people see us flying and they come over to watch. They love it.
ove it or not, Reed said his department received complaints about safety related to “aircraft being flown in the presence of other park users” and complaints that “dogs being walked at the park were getting wound up,” he said.
Rullman, however, disputed that. He requested a copy of all complaints made concerning radio control aircraft and operators at Arroyo del Oso Park from the last year. Parks and Recreation officials, he said, provided only a single complaint, which had been forwarded to them from the office of City Councilor Brad Winter.
In that complaint, a park user called the RC operators “obnoxious, irresponsible old jerks,” and said they “buzz maintenance men on the roofs of nearby homes,” and that they “crash planes all over the park at the feet of people walking dogs, women pushing strollers with babies, joggers, walkers, soccer players, and so on.”
Although planes do occasionally crash, Rullman con- ceded, the complaint in general was “highly exaggerated and simply not true.” RC pilots take great care not to crash airplanes, which can cost from $200 to more then $800. Worse, “the city never came out to look at what we do or talk to us,” he said. “They just went with this one complaint and didn’t confirm any of it.” He added that there has never been a report of a park user ever being injured by a model aircraft falling from the sky.
Reed stressed that the city was “not excluding model aircraft enthusiasts,” and noted that part of Balloon Fiesta Park is cordoned off for the exclusive use of RC aircraft, and George J. Maloof Air Park on the West Side “is specifically for model airplane usage.”
It’s not that simple, Rullman said. At Balloon Fiesta Park, he said, model plane pilots have permission from Parks and Rec to fly every morning until noon. But the hobbyists are often pre-empted and displaced by park events, or they are prevented from taking off or must land prematurely when soccer games encroach into their flying space.
The Maloof Air Park is regularly crowded with hob- byists, particularly on weekends, Rullman said, and “the runway is in disrepair and contains large cracks,” ”which frequently causes L damage to RC aircraft.
Reed said that Parks and Recreation is trying to schedule a meeting with neighborhood association representatives and park users “to see if we could also use the west end of North Domingo Baca Park,” north of Paseo del Norte and west of Wyoming. Also being looked at is 10 acres of undeveloped land attached to Vista del Norte Park, on Osuna west of Jefferson.