- Thu Jul 05, 2018 9:12 am
#403902
Please keep in mind that HG and PG flying in different parts of the country all have quite different logistics compared to where you may be flying at the moment. In the Midwest and Eastern part of the country, there are very few (I know of only one) sites that are on public lands. There could be more, but most sites are privately held and maintained. As far as I understand, the law does not protect the land owners in these situations. I know of only one club that has purchased land under it's corporate charter.
SO in the area that I fly, most every flying site is owned by a private land owner, or a combination of corporate (land owned by radio stations) and private (pasture / hay crop LZ's). There is just too much time and capital invested in this land for the owners to risk opening themselves to lawsuits from those who don't provide some assurances that they are responsible enough to allow to use the properties.
A few years ago, one of our sites was shut down because of pg pilots leaving trash on launch. The land owner was recently convinced to allow flying once again with the assurances that the hg club would better maintain a respectful atmosphere. That included using only 4x4 vehicles if conditions were not perfectly dry. Mountain accesses become rutted and chewed up, leading to severe erosion problems within a very short period of time (one good weekend!) if users are not respectful. Then the heavy equipment has to come out to fix the accesses, and more stone spread. More money and time.
At another favorite site, the owner very recently spent more money than he collected from the pilots this year merely on gravel so that he could better improve the mountain top access. He maintains the LZ in a golf-park-like fashion, and this access improvement was on top of all the expenditures of time and fuel for maintaining the LZ and launch every week.
There are many, many things that take place behind the scenes merely to allow for you and I to fly when we so choose. Much more than you may fathom. Much more than what you are paying for. Land owners that are kind enough to allow us onto their properties, for us to benefit from their years of hard work and capital outlays, need assurances that they will not be liable for our screw-ups. And if someone does try to sue the pants off of them, they feel comfortable enough that they have protection from a substantial organization that has more than enough wherewithal to do battle with these miscreants within the court system. Otherwise, the current legal system would be too much of a hurdle to allow them to justify our use of their properties for free-flight.
SO in the area that I fly, most every flying site is owned by a private land owner, or a combination of corporate (land owned by radio stations) and private (pasture / hay crop LZ's). There is just too much time and capital invested in this land for the owners to risk opening themselves to lawsuits from those who don't provide some assurances that they are responsible enough to allow to use the properties.
A few years ago, one of our sites was shut down because of pg pilots leaving trash on launch. The land owner was recently convinced to allow flying once again with the assurances that the hg club would better maintain a respectful atmosphere. That included using only 4x4 vehicles if conditions were not perfectly dry. Mountain accesses become rutted and chewed up, leading to severe erosion problems within a very short period of time (one good weekend!) if users are not respectful. Then the heavy equipment has to come out to fix the accesses, and more stone spread. More money and time.
At another favorite site, the owner very recently spent more money than he collected from the pilots this year merely on gravel so that he could better improve the mountain top access. He maintains the LZ in a golf-park-like fashion, and this access improvement was on top of all the expenditures of time and fuel for maintaining the LZ and launch every week.
There are many, many things that take place behind the scenes merely to allow for you and I to fly when we so choose. Much more than you may fathom. Much more than what you are paying for. Land owners that are kind enough to allow us onto their properties, for us to benefit from their years of hard work and capital outlays, need assurances that they will not be liable for our screw-ups. And if someone does try to sue the pants off of them, they feel comfortable enough that they have protection from a substantial organization that has more than enough wherewithal to do battle with these miscreants within the court system. Otherwise, the current legal system would be too much of a hurdle to allow them to justify our use of their properties for free-flight.