Modelers look for smooth flying

Mathis Winkler

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001 | 9:43 a.m.

Way out there at the northern end of town, where only gravel roads slice through the desert, the valley's model airplane fliers are hoping for some extra asphalt.

The city's model airplane field sits there at the corner of bumpy Horse Drive and Decatur Boulevard. Modelers, as the fliers call themselves, say they're a little crammed for space to park their planes.

The field's pit area, where folks ready their planes before takeoff, are too small when 30 or so people get out there on weekends. As a result, many have to prop their planes on gravel. That's not a good idea as planes can cost $3,000, said Gerald Carrick, 65, a member of the Propnuts Radio Control Club.

"It's just inconvenient," he said.

City officials, who maintain the field, said they'll try to fix the problem. But the $6,000 price tag to pave extra parking spaces for planes means that it will take at least until the next budget cycle, which begins on July 1, 2002, before anything can be done, said Ken Albright, the city's parks and recreation director.

He added that the fliers only pay the city a few hundred dollars in fees a year to take care of the grounds.

Back at the field, Carrick and others said they were happy with what they had overall.

"When we're asking for more, we're not complaining," said Tom Collins, 58, another Propnuts member. "The city has been really good to us."

Visiting modelers, who attended an interstate competition on Sunday, said they wished for a similar field back home.

"I think it's one of the best (fields) on the West Coast," said Ryan Taylor, 23, of Mesa, Ariz. "There are only a few that have this much open area."

But Suzi Frohreich, 48, another visitor from Glendale, Ariz., said she worried the field might disappear as more homes get built nearby.

"It's not a golf course, we make noise," she said, the lawn mower-like humming of planes in the background.

Frohreich, who travels to competitions with her trailer and tabulates the scores on a laptop, said she didn't care much for flying planes herself.

"I tried it for a while when I was a kid, but it's too greasy," she said, adding that she'd rather watch from the sidelines as her husband, Greg, flies his planes.

Modelers "are all little boys at heart, playing with their toys," she said.