In this arial view of our club you can see our beautiful runway, and the surface vehicle racetrack on the other side of the buildings. Paul took this picture from his drone. Awesome.
The coolest thing is the runway – flat level compacted desert dirt with two layers of very tough fabric covering. About 450 feet long and 60 feet wide with some not too bad overrun areas on each end. Even though (for little model airplanes) its pretty long and wide, we manage to miss it sometimes.
The second most cool thing is the oval race track. It’s a dirt oval track with a series of jumps. The big problem here in the desert is the dust. We’ve installed a great sprinkler system to keep it under control and keep the track traction positive.
As you can see from the picture, we have 3 permanent awnings with plenty of tables and airplane stands. There’s a solar powered battery charging station. There are lots of chairs to sit around on. We also have a little snack shack and a firepit.
There is TONS of parking for when we host our special events (See Upcoming Events). And our field has his and her restroom facilities! Well – its really 2 porta-potties.
Our newest additions are the fabulous drone gaggle flying courses. We have defined a short and long course out in the desert to the north and west of the runway. There is no conflict between airplanes using the runway and FPV drones running the course. Here’s a link to a beautiful aerial video shot from a drone flown by Ben. And here is a link to a video of us flying the short course obstacles. Click here for more pictures of the drone courses.
Sun Lakes Model Airplane Club 