Prohibited to fly in state park

[smau1]

I hope this is the right place for this discussion. I fly only small electric parkflyers (speed 400 class, power from 30 to 150 Watts, like walmart foamy conversions, Multiplex Twinstar, Wattage hawk), so I go to school yards or parks near my home and work to fly. (Beling able to fly anywhere is mostly why I stay with electric.)

However, I was not allowed to fly in two state parks. I live next to the Liberty State Park (the one that includes the statue of liberty) and have been stopped by park rangers with threats of a large fine and confiscation.

My question to the forum member is that whether there is written rule against ALL RC planes in state parks, or what are allowed discretionary? I certainly think that very powerful ones should not be flown in parks, but I do think that the ones I fly are pretty safe. One park ranger told me that other things like roller blades are also not allowed, but I witenessed them not enforcing that particular rule. The only logical conclusion I could make is that they think my airplanes are more dangerous than roller blades. Perhaps, the general public's image of RC planes is that of the older glow ones which tend to be more destructive.

Perhaps my real questions are where I can fly close to Jersey City and whether I should lobby the Park Service to allow certain kinds of RC planes; if so, where should I start, should I contact AMA first?

Thanks.

[pda4you]

Depends on the Park. I used to live in Salt Lake and we had a site setup in a state park there. It had a motorcycle track in it as well. It was perfect.

I think the parks you are talking about a super security conscience about any aircraft including models, which I can somewhat understand.

Mike

[Don Sims]

Why not ask up front at the parks? Take your plane in with you when you ask. Like Mike said, check for security issues also. I can see the headlines now: "Plane attacks Statue of Liberty!!"

[ED B]

My club, the Washington Crossing R/C Flyers Assoc.(www.wcrc.rchomepage.com) flies in Washington Crossing State Park in Titusville NJ. They have given us a dedicated area with limited access to use and let us manage and maintain the site. As I recall, Liberty State Park only has one large open field that would be big enough for any R/C activity, and you couldn't be sure to have the area remain clear while you were flying. Also, Liberty State Park is directly across the Hudson river from the the site if the the former Twin Towers of the WTC which were destroyed on 9/11. It's easy to understand why the rangers would frown on any R/C activity there. We have a number of requirements to use the park, such as a 92db sound limit, AMA membership, set hours of operation, and we have a special use permit which must be renewed every year. We meet regularly with the Superintendant to make sure that there are no issues which might jeopardize our use of the park.

Ed

[John_R_C]

Not being able to fly is state parks is not limited to NJ. I was in a state park outside Loveland, CO this summer and flew my electric Skimmer 400 a couple of flights (altitude does make adifference!). Later, when I was reading the rule listing down by the beach house, they included no flying of R/C aircraft :mad:

[SoCalGliderFlyr]

Not being able to fly is state parks is not limited to NJ. I was in a state park outside Loveland, CO this summer and flew my electric Skimmer 400 a couple of flights (altitude does make adifference!). Later, when I was reading the rule listing down by the beach house, they included no flying of R/C aircraft :mad:

Hold over from the U-control days and un-muffled engines. With the new generation of very quite light weight electrics it's an uphill battle to get the use of any public facility other than flood basins and other areas not normally open to the general pubic.

Still you can cut yourself pretty bad with the electric props just as with the gas engine props. Batteries catch fire more often than gassers used to in crashes but I didn't say that. The weight of the electric motor and battery is at least double that of a gas engine. I didn't say that either!

Kind of an off topic question; Don't lakes have shores and oceans have beaches? Guess living on the Pacific has jaded me.