Shortage of land in Orange grounds model-plane group
It suddenly occurred to Larry Meddock, as he attached the wings to his model Landsair plane, just how long it had been since the aircraft took flight.
“Since I’ve been on the hunt for a field, I haven’t flown in three years,” said Meddock, 70, of Lake Conway, who has been looking almost everywhere in Orange County for a site to build a public airstrip for radio-controlled “RC” planes, helicopters and drones. He said the strip would be available to everyone as a community park.
But so far, every one of the nearly dozen sites he’s identified has been rejected, for reasons ranging from environmental pro-
tection to proximity power plant or airport.
“We don’t want to own the property, we just want access to the property,” he said. “We don’t need electricity or asphalt or concrete. All we’re going to do is clear a [grass] runway … And if they say, ‘Sorry, Larry, you’ve got to move,’ we’d pick up and move and nobody would even know we were there.”
The biggest obstacle is the same one that closed his club’s last field in south Orange in 2014: ever-encroaching development.
“It’s an ongoing battle,” said Chad Budreau, director of public affairs for the Academy of Model Aeronautics, the national group that promotes and insures the hobby. “What might have been a perfect AMA site 20 years ago might now be near a neighborhood or business.”
Some groups have managed to find homes. Sanford Aero Modelers is one of the lucky ones, said its president, Phill Spain. It has a lease agreement with the city of Sanford at a site near Geneva for another 15 years.
But Spain listed the number of Central Florida airfields that have closed over the years, from Rocket City near Christmas to Narcoossee near Moss Park, or that have been forced to relocate, such as one in Kissimmee.
On Thursday Meddock was visiting the last real RC airstrip left in Orange County, the Remote Control Association of Central Florida’s private Tangerine Field, outside Apopka. It’s just a few hundred yards from State Route 414, which was completed in 2009.
His own club, the Orlando Radio Control Association, was forced out after a developer bought the private land a few miles east of Lake Nona that the group had used for a decade.
His ideal field would include a grass strip, 100 feet wide and 600 feet long, on about six acres.
But any field would also need 15 to 20 acres of empty “overflight” acreage around it to fly and provide a noise buffer, especially since gas planes tend to sound “like you’re flying a weed eater,” Meddock said.
As a member of the AMA, he has access to $2.5 million worth of insurance, plus millions more for the landowner. Meddock said most county officials and commissioners fully backed the idea of a community airstrip, which he said would be open to anyone who pays an annual fee of about $120 and gets AMA membership.
But even in a county as big as Orange, the land just isn’t there.
“I can appreciate his frustration,” said County Commissioner Pete Clarke. “I think he’s got a pretty good idea going. … But land’s at a premium, and I told him I’m going to look out for any acreage if it pops up.”
A site near the county landfill was ruled out by the Orlando Utilities Commission because it was close to its power plant, an OUC spokesman said.
Another site was too close to the Tangerine Airport.
An Orange County-owned parcel near State Road 520 seemed perfect, but it was protected by an environmental law called Green Place. Six other sites near Apopka, Moss Park and Bithlo also were ruled out for the same reason.
Beth Jackson, Orange’s environmental program supervisor, said the county has been trying to work with Meddock, but there are conditions the county agrees to when it buys land for preservation using Green Place funds.
Such properties are meant for passive recreation such as hiking, horseback riding and birdwatching, said Marge Holt of the Central Florida Sierra Club.
“I believe if you allow airstrips in there, someone else in the county can say, ‘Well, I want a soccer field,’” Holt said. “I think [Meddock] should try to find private land to use.”
But Meddock said that was no longer a real option.
“I’d do it in a heartbeat,” he said. “Every private parcel I’ve found, it’s for sale. … I can’t [tell plane hobbyists], ‘It’s going to be sold sometime, I don’t know when, give me a couple thousand [dollars] to make it nice.’ They’re not going to give you a couple thousand and then get thrown out in a couple of years.”
RC flyers acknowledged it can be a pricey hobby, with entry-level planes costing between $350 to $500, and the average age of flyers leaning toward late middle age.
But Meddock said the popularity of drones in recent years has a number of young people interested in RC flying, despite drone restrictions by cities. A place where people can actually fly drones, he said, would be a great attraction for the county.
“I know we’re not soccer, softball, baseball,” he said. “Is there truly enough demand or interest to justify land designation? My question to them is: What is the tipping point? How many must it take for them to care?”