Folks, we will be flying this Friday (13th) at the Lockheed Recreation Facilities at 3400 Bryant-Irvin road in Southwest Ft Worth. Flite times will be from 7 to 10 pm. Exit 9A off of I30 and head south for three miles, cross the Trinity river and its on your right. Two gyms side by side give plenty of room to fly and we have been having a ball. Tell the guard why you are there and he will point the way. A landing fee will be charged.

Hi Ed,
That's really nice that Lockheed has a place for you to
fly, even though you have to pay. I work for Boeing in
St. Louis. We don't have a rec center, at least for us
peons anyway, but lots of unused production high-bay
areas that would be perfect. We have a very nice club
field but it's usually too windy for the light stuff.

Steve

We were lucky enough that the facilities were receptive to the proposal. About thirty years ago they had a control line/freeflight group but as things change it gradually fell by the wayside. With the advent of small electric indoor r/c they offered us a nice facilities to fly in once a month. As with any group, dues were discussed and the normal rate for a club member within Lockheed seems to be in the 75 plus dollars a year. I ask if we could just charge a user fee instead and keep things simple and also possibly could we bring in non-Lockheed flyers who would pay a couple of dollars more to fly. They agreed and thats what we have been working on. Every dollar is put aside for our use and come fall we will have an all day play day and return quite a bit of the money back to the flyers in gifts/prizes for some simple fun fly events and drawings. Tom Blakeney and I wanted to keep things simple and work with the Recreational facilities. Hopefully going to a couple of times a month as things go along. Its a great place to fly and the first night we had 48 plus aircraft and over 25 pilots but spectators were approximately a 100 people coming and going within the 3 hour period. I like to fell over with the number of folks watching and asking questions, what a hoot. The other sessions have drawn a large number of spectators and the pilots numbers are holding at about 18 pilots but as word within Lockheed gets around more folks are becoming interested. Fall/winter should be the best months but that still to be seen. Keep the faith and if ya get down this way let me know. To the rest of ya, you are always welcome to come on out and fly. ed

Ed,

You've inspired me , I'm gonna talk to our Recreation
Dept. and see if there's any possiblity of copying your
set-up, THANKS. Hey, if I tell 'em Lockheed is ahead of us
on this I might even get a couple of million$ for a new
program
Steve

Steve, you bet ya, use our name and shame them into it. We flew last night with over twenty pilots and about forty air vehicles of all discription. At least seventy-five visitors roaming around, asking questions and all having a ball. Three to five aircraft in the air all the time, some bouncing off the floor and walls until they get used to the confined spaces. Grown men laughing and kidding with each other like kids. Husband and wife teams (2) going at it on who's the better pilot. Grandfather, father, and son all flying together with their ladies watching and egging um on. Just a hoot and people talk about grown boys/gal playing with toy airplanes. The flight line was again equally split between Lockheed and visitor pilots and no one seems to care. Impromptune flight line set up in parking lot under the lights after the building closed. Had to run um off so I could go home and get some sleep. I'm at work this morning at dark thirty on the F-22 and its just another day. Good luck to you on the quest and you can use our name "The Lockheed Aeromodelers" in vain when talking to the rec committee. ed

Wow Ed sounds like fun. I need to come on out. So you work for Lockheed? I might try to intern there next summer. I have a friend that is right now.

With Lockheed/Lockheed Martin/General Dynamics almost 23 years nowCome on out the 18th of July and fly with us. Hope that you make your internship here, we can use the help. ed

Ed,

That's awesome, glad you had so much fun. I'm
jelaous . I flew my mini GEE BEE outside today
in 10-12mph winds, a bit of a challenge but still
fun .