Introduction and business question.

[Radon088]

Hey guys I'm Radon and I've got a question for you.
I'm very new to this whole community but the more I watch various videos I can't help but notice an interesting similarity.

You see my Family's place out here in Texas seems to have many of the facilities I commonly seein videos. It sits on a hundred acre plot of land with a large workshop and a currently totally empty warehouse that might suffice for indoor flying. It's got a high ceiling and is pretty much one huge space.

The only downsides I can see is the often unpredictable Texas weather and that the ground cover is mostly pasture, (rough scrub and weeds). That and the location is quite rural.

Would anyone either be interested in renting the place out or possibly hosting events out here?

Its kind of been a niggling idea in the back of my head for a while to open a hobby shop. (Originally something more like table top gaming in town.) This might be a step towards that, though if anyone does use the place I'll probably just sell concessions at first or something as I pretty much have zero capital to invest into this. If anyone is interested I'm hoping I can turn this into a source of income for me and my family.

So what do guys think? Anyone interested? Do you have any advice or useful tips?

Thanks in advance.

 

[earthsciteach]

Welcome to the forums! Sounds like you have a great place for this hobby. If you would like to approach Flite Test with your idea, I suggest you mail Austin Furey, Austin@flitetest.com. Where in Texas are you located?

 

[Radon088]

It's close to a little town called Snyder. It's about a hundred miles from the three big cities in the area Lubbock, Abiline, and Midland.
I'll be sure to try shooting him an Email, I'm happy to hear that this place has got some potential.

 

[PsyBorg]

I live in a open farming county as well and there have been many times where I see perfect land for flying dormant and unused as well as large buildings that could be made to hold indoor events. Dairy farming is big here and there are many many huge barns and warehouses that could make interesting events.

Sadly the farmers don't seem to be interested in the fun part of "Drones" and only ask for surveying, filming, or if herding is possible with them. All work n no play it seems. I have tried talking to several people who own big land chunks if they would be interested in letting hobbyist use their property or maybe even to start hosting organised events and races.

With your interest alone in doing something like that I think its a step forward and could be good for the community as more may be thinking the same way then end up talking themselves out of it because its childish and stupid to the old school non technical world. I say jump in with both feet and put an add up locally to see what interest there is. Who knows maybe you could start a club and get help managing the land in the process to grow into a business at some point.

 

[earthsciteach]

A couple of things to consider, are you willing to let a few hundred (perhaps a few thousand) people camp on your property for a few days? Also, are there enough local hotels to support the event?

 

[Radon088]

The place was never really a farm (Though it is named Black Locust Farm). My dad tries to do things with it but he's somewhat mentally disabled. I haven't been able to help him with things around here as I'm working nights at a hotel in town and mostly sleep during the days. The two big steel buildings we have used to be a factory for display cases in the first business venture my family tried. Sadly we weren't able to compete with foreign labor and the place shut down. We made quite a bit of money while that was going on but when it hit bust we were left with a huge tax liability from having those commercial buildings. Needless to say it would be amazing if we could make the place work for us again.

 

[Radon088]

Yeah, I don't see any problem with that. We also own a bit of land down the street that used to be a small trailer park. If we get any positive income from an event or two we maybe could restore the old utilities so that RVs could be parked there. As for hotels in town there are several, four big ones (maybe about 70 rooms a piece) and a bunch (3-4) smaller ones. We even have an empty house that we used to rent on the place but has sat idle since a fire.

 

[earthsciteach]

I applaud you on looking to make the most of your property. Definitely send Austin an email. It can't hurt to ask!

 

[TexMechsRobot]

Is this the property?

 

[Radon088]

Yep you got it. You can see the two large steel buildings and the cluster of houses. It's at the (going by this perspective) top left of the property. We own from them almost all the way to that road that's branching off 1606.
I took some ground side cellphone pics but posting them will have to wait till tonight when I can get to my PC.

 

[Radon088]

OK, finally to the point where I can sit down and upload these pics I took of the place.

First off here's the exact layout of the property. Plenty of room I think.



Next the main entrance just for flavor.



Next we have the two buildings. (Though they are hard to see through all the plants.)



Here's the view of the rest of the area.




Here's the inside of the workshop and the main parking lot.





And finally here's the inside of the warehouse.





Hope this gives a better idea of what we've got to work with out here.