FTCA Flying Site: Holmes County RC Airpark

kingfieldbill

New member
FM- you inspired me to try and establish my own improved flying field. to date we've flown under the ask for forgiveness rule but we would like to at least have a mowed runway. I met with our town manager and she was receptive to the idea. I told her about your site on a reclaimed landfill and she suggested our retired landfill. I've lived here for 20 years and didn't know we had an old landfill. She also offered up another town site that I didn't know about that comes complete with a barn and a paved area. Both are buried in snow right now but I was wondering if you might share more of the details about what you did to appease the liability issue and other set up tasks.
thanks.
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
This is awesome!

The barn is excellent, we aren't getting that with ours. We do have a concrete area we may want to look at putting a structure on at some point.

So the way our liability is being handled here, is that the flying site is being treated as any other county park property and is covered under the existing county insurance. If we choose to host an actual event, we would have to carry event coverage. Since that's not something we have planned yet, I haven't dug too deep into the costs, but they're supposed to be reasonable.

Digging into the insurance side of things it looks like we may want to check sports team insurance at some point, especially if we formed a non AMA "club". It's a coverage used by kids sports leagues, but sounds very similar to what your standard AMA insurance would cover.
 

kingfieldbill

New member
Thanks for the info Fred. It's very helpful. We can't get in to see the locations in person until spring (roads are not plowed) but looking at the sat view, it appears the location with the barn may not be large enough. The retired landfill, however, looks very promising. It may even be possible to use the barn as a built site and fly from the landfill. they are about 1/4-1/2 mile apart - basically across the street. Since it will be April before the snow is gone, we've got some time to work out some of the details.

And just an FYI, foam board gets VERY brittle at -10 F. We fly on a groomed sledding area in the winter where we basically have a "paved" runway but hard landings can be disastrous in extreme cold!
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
Brrrr...

I have a meeting at the airport today. I have a little maintenance to do at the field, but not sure if I'll bring anything to fly.
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
Weather is shaping up to be rather nice for flying tomorrow. High of 68, cloudy with 10% chance of rain, and light winds. out of the southeast.
I'll head out early. Going to bring out a couple "surprises". Hope to see you all there.

sat weather.jpg
 

skymaster

Elite member
Welcome!

If you've found your way here from the sign at the flying site, please feel free to introduce yourself.


(Not likely at the moment since there is no sign yet.)

If you're here by way of the internet, well, you can introduce yourself too!

The location is on Long Round Bay Road in Bonifay FL.

https://goo.gl/maps/BYCQdkFgjbrsrLDr7


The Holmes County RC Airpark was approved by the Holmes County Board of Commissioners in November of 2021. We're currently working to get the field opened to the public. The runway needs grading, and the road needs to be reestablished. Hopefully both of those items will be taken care of this weekend.

This post will be edited to reflect the current field situation. With luck, updates will start soon.

***UPDATE!!!***

Field will unofficially open on Friday December 24th, 2021.

Come on out and get a Christmas Eve Day flight or two in.

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nice but i would suggest that you move the green area a couple of feet away from the blue area for safety. and if you are going to build a asphalt, how about turf artificial grass golfing kind. the flying field that i go to they have a it's cement and it's like sand paper, so no one lands on it.
 

Flightspeed

Convicted Necroposter
You sure did.

I brought out my paramotor wing (left the motor at home) and I flew my quarter scale cub.

This Saturday I'll be on the other side of Lake City for a work related event.
Who’d you get training from? As soon as I get my drivers lisence I hope to get training. There’s a guy in Pensacola actually. Trains on the setup I want too. Air conception nitro 200 with a ozone wing. What gear u running?
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
I likely will not get out to the field this week.

I will VERY likely not be there next Saturday.

I'm planning to attend the giant RC swap meet in Perry GA.

It's three huge buildings full of used (and some new) RC aircraft gear and planes.