GSCB field is no more

I know there is an long thread on Stunt Hanger about it.....you are probably there under diff name.....lots of history from there

That's sad. I know when my own Jackson Flyers club at Fort Jackson, SC closed up, I felt terrible about it. And it was not even historic and oft storied as the Garden State Circle Burners site. That it had closed on my watch made it hurt even worse. The reason was that, in the security crackdown of about 2015 or '16, most members fled to the Congaree site because it was such a pain to get into the Fort, background checks, ID cards, etc... you couldn't even get your grandmother in to watch you fly. No more picnics, 4th of July fly-ins, or any gatherings.

Wayne Robinson, Bob Zambelli, and I did our best to make it look occupied. I joked that we needed to rename the club "The Three Amigos," but it was futile. In fact Bob was possibly a former member of GSCB. I know he'd been a Philly Flyer. I'm sorry to hear of the demise of the GSCB field, and I wish you folks much luck finding a new home.
Rusty

Too many tree huggers. Our Prime Minister is promising a tree planting plan. It saves them labour for cutting grass, so they like that option. A local club here has one grumpy neighbor that might be closing a 40 year field. He was OK for 20 years but now retired, and has nothing better to do I guess. Urban sprawl make it hard to get a field near civilization now.

I've been flying there for the past 25 years. It's very disheartening and it was a shock to see it posted on Stunthangar. Having just flown there 3 weeks ago, there was no mention in regards to it. The GSCB recently lost a key man in the club due to a heart attack. If there was any mention of this possibility he would've known. I can only speculate but nonetheless, it's gone. I fly there 3 times a year and with the GSCB swap meet coming up the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, it really hits home. The swap meet generally is wrapped up by 12:00 in the afternoon and we head over to the field. Larry Scarinzini and a bunch of us Philly Fliers fly all kinds of stuff. As some of the members are aging, they don't travel as far as they used too. It's nice to bring out planes we completed to show them and fly them.  My son and I were playing in the back of the field at Vintage Combat and had our fast combat planes out with Fox MKIII's. We were getting our needles dialed in and then we had two pretty good matches together.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=KA9cIC44UqE

Was this field leased from the previous owner or a handshake agreement? If it was leased the new owner has to honor the lease agreement and provide notification of termination of the lease. Every state is different for lease laws.

This is happening everywhere. Getting to a point where you need to buy a section of open land (640 acres) in class G airspace and put the flying field in the middle of it.

I have no idea of what the agreement was or for how long. I do know that maintaining the field obviously was part of it and by no means was this inexpensive. The grass cutting cost a few thousand dollars a year to maintain it. I was reading that the original land owner passed away and the state purchased the property through the estate sale. The nice thing about this field was the fact that due to being in a flood plain, there were no nearby developments allowing for open exhaust and no noise issues. This is going to be difficult to replace.

In and around 2014, we suffered another loss which was Pal Park, NJ. Three circles on the parking lot of the Pal Park swim club. Living in highly populated areas and the way development and construction takes place is making it increasingly difficult. The other club which is the Middlesex Modelers are also facing issues. We used to have contests on a football field requiring extensive paperwork and permits making it difficult to retain consistency. These issues have ended up in court. The loss of these two flying areas placed the flyers at the GSCB field when the flood waters resided. This is where the AMA will hopefully lend some assistance.

I pretty much only went to New Year's Day and The Swap Meet, I live an hour away and work most weekends on a farm so my participation is some what limited, But it was such a nice place, it's going to be hard to find such an isolated spot in such a dense area , I can fly in my yard at home but the guys at the field are what really made it special for me. TJ

How many circles can your property support? I think 3 is required to have sanctioned events

This is a shame to hear.

Over the past decade or so we've lost a few of the closest fields to the metro. One, Tri-Valley, just south of the Twin Cities was bought by the University and Minnesota for a wind farm (or that was the story), but that must not have completely worked out as just the other day on the news they reported that a developer backed out from constructing a few hundred cookie-cutter homes on it...

Loss of this field is like loosing another piece of aeromodeling history. Our hobby is held in such little esteem, any group can run over us with no concern. AMA has been spending thousands of dollars thinking they have been successfully working with FAA. Well so far we got required licensing (thinking our AMA numbers would suffice). And now the 400 foot altitude limit has been instituted with no more discussion. Strike three will be mandatory transponders. We have been thrown into a barrel with drones. Commercial drone manufacturers and their industry have the money and the publicity have governments ear.

Sad times for us old timers. See some of you at the swap meet!

I think I could probably put in 2 circles, but there's an R/C club 3 miles from the house that allows control line and by this time next year my field is gonna have animals on it.TJ

YakNine wrote:I think I could probably put in 2 circles, but there's an R/C club 3 miles from the house that allows control line and by this time next year my field is gonna have animals on it.TJ

Extra points to dodge the cow pies.

I have a concrete circle thats 62’ in diameter. It’s the old foundation from our Harvester SlurryStore system we no longer have or use. 500,000 gallons of pure goodness was stored in there.

I grew up on a dairy farm, we owned adjoining property and it was a wonderful place and way to grow up. The county bought the old man out and when he passed they bulldozed everything and now most of it lays fallow except for a few hay fields that are rented out. My field on my new place was let go for about 20 years and was pretty much overgrown, I have it pretty much cleared and am going to put up deer fence grow a big garden on it, and we are going to let an animal rescue that a friend of my wife is involved with use the 2 stall barn and one of the paddocks to keep large animals until they find homes for them. TJ