For more than 10 years, the group, a nonprofit organization created by and for radio-controlled model plane enthusiasts, ruled the skies south of Half Moon Bay near Martin’s Beach. But shortly after the parcel exchanged hands in August, the club received a notice of eviction from the new corporate owners of the 53-acre property, Martin’s Beach, LLC. The Commanders have until Halloween to take off.
“The new property managers have said it’s a problem that we’re flying over their beach,” said Ken Martinez, Commanders president. “More than likely they can see planes from the beach, even though we’re not flying over the beach. I think this new company doesn’t want to (risk) the headache of any people complaining about the planes flying overhead.”
 Frank Phelps rolls up the turf runway of the Peninsula Channel Commanders airstrip after a new landowner served notice on the club to cease operations on the premises. |
Several fliers met and dismantled the 500-foot airstrip over the weekend — the first and most significant of steps members are taking to uproot their 10-year ties to the property. The only thing left to do is to remove the maintenance storage container and rolls of AstroTurf, Martinez said.
“We’ve been screwed again,” said Alonso Richardson, recalling several relocations the group has been forced to make since its inception as an affiliate of the Academy of Model Aeronautics in 1961. The 92-year-old World War II pilot veteran is revered as the patriarch of the club.
“We did everything we could do to be a good neighbor to contribute to the community activities, and things were going fine until Mr. Deeney had to sell the property,” he said. “The people who bought it wouldn’t hear anything except us getting the hell out of there.”
Richardson remembers when the club was first ousted in the late 1960s from their original fly zone atop Trousdale Drive in Burlingame and found land in undeveloped Foster City. Throughout their five-year stint in Foster City, group members were bulldozed out of their sites several times by developers and county agencies, Richardson recalled.
“We had to move about five times to get out of the way of tractors (when they were developing the neighborhood),” he said. “Finally we went to Half Moon Bay to Alves Dairy (in the early 1970s) and we had a wonderful set up there — probably the best ever. But again (in 2000), the housing development got us, the county took over the property and we had to sell our assets, such as we had, to the county.”
That’s when the group moved to its most recent field near Martin’s Beach. But now the group is once again being removed against the will of its members.
“It’s a shame,” Richardson said. “It seems the county doesn’t have a place for radio fliers anymore.”
The majority of Commanders members are over 65 years old; many of them long-time members who understand model airplane flying to be more than just a hobby.
“It teaches discipline and skill because a lot of people build their own airplanes,” member Harry Smith said. “You build them from the bones up, so to speak. It can be an educational thing.
“It’s not something that’s just a pastime,” he said. “The stuff we use in the military these days came about from this type of radio-controlled flying.”
Over the course of their more than 40-year stay in Half Moon Bay, group members have tried to engage the community to gain recognition and visibility — working with the Boy Scouts of America to give lessons, and air time to anyone who stopped by the strip.
Two years ago, Commanders membership expanded when Peninsula Aeromodelers, a similar group of radio fliers, was displaced from its fly zone on the 208-acre Wavecrest property due to a “conflict of landowners,” Martinez said. The Aeromodelers ran afoul of the city of Half Moon Bay, which eventually issued a cease-and-desist order against the club.
“That’s not an uncommon situation,” according to Wes De Cou, Academy for Model Aeronautics western region flying site coordinator. “Generally when the properties change hands this becomes an issue whether they can stay on the property or not.”
De Cou said he’s been advising “an awful lot” of AMA clubs caught in desperate circumstances recently. He recommends groups always be on the lookout for potential fields to move to at a moment’s notice, even if they already have secured a location. In the Commanders case, he suggested talking to San Mateo County Parks and Recreation.
Commanders members are currently scouring nearby areas and contacting county agencies, but say they are a bit anxious trying to find a new location.
“We certainly hope (that the group survives the transition), but a flying club can’t do a whole lot or attract new membership if we don’t find a place to fly,” Smith said.
“We’re not in absolutely critical times but moving is expensive, which cuts into the funds,” Martinez said. “If we don’t get something really fast, that’ll make it tough for the club to continue.”
For more information on the club, visit the Peninsula Channel Commanders’ Web page: flypcc.org.
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