Compromise may allow model aircraft to fly again

Parks and Recreation plans rules for pilots

City Parks and Recreation Department director Barbara Taylor said she’s willing to “consider a compromise” to allow pilots of radio-controlled model airplanes to return to Arroyo del Oso Park, after a sometimes contentious 90-minute meeting.

It would involve f liers adopting rules of the Academy of Model Aeronautics regarding days and hours of flight, aircraft size, speed and height at which they can fly, and the like.

No date had been set for when the fliers, neighborhood association representatives and city officials might meet again. But City Councilor Brad Winter, whose district includes the park at Spain and Wyoming, said he was confident that, if all the

concerned parties “come up with something that’s amenable to everybody,” an administrative exception to the ordinance under which the model planes are technically prohibited from the park can be adopted and “we can move forward quickly.”

Greg Rullman, president of the Duke City Electric Flyers, one of the groups that had been flying radio-controlled model aircraft at Arroyo del Oso, said he was ready to proceed in the drafting of formal rules, which he said would be easy. “Right now, there are rules in place, they are more unwritten, but the pilots already adhere to the AMA standard.”

The meeting Wednesday night packed a room at the North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center near Wyoming and Paseo del Norte.

For more than 20 years, pilots had been flying their radio-controlled model aircraft at Arroyo del Oso Park. Although a city ordinance prohibits such activity in most parks, the pilots at Arroyo del Oso were able to use the park under an agreement with a previous mayoral administration.

In January, the Parks and Recreation Department suddenly and without discussion rescinded that agreement and posted signs prohibiting the flying of model aircraft at the park. The move was made, Taylor said, in response to at least one letter and several calls to Parks and Recreation from other park users who said they felt inconvenienced or endangered by the aircraft.

However, one pilot, who submitted a request to Parks and Recreation through the Inspection of Public Records Act for complaints generated at Arroyo del Oso, said that, over the past three years, there was not one report of personal injury or property damage caused by model aircraft.

Pilots and members of neighborhood associations who attended the Wednesday meeting overwhelmingly supported the presence of the fliers at the park, and some criticized Taylor for reacting to the few complaints she received without consulting the pilots or neighborhood associations. Taylor acknowledged the oversight and apologized.

“This was a non-issue that turned into an issue when they chased the fliers out of there without due process,” said Judy Pellegrino, president of the North Domingo Baca Neighborhood Association.

Taylor said city Parks and Rec is also looking to add other locations for flying of model aircraft, including the far west end of North Domingo Baca Park, where the meeting was taking place, and Comanche North Park, near Comanche and Carlisle, east of the North Diversion Channel.

Currently, Balloon Fiesta Park and the George J. Maloof Air Park on the West Side are the only other parks designated for flying model airplanes.