Why keep it simple when you can make it complicated?

Recently, a specialty retailer remarked that many of his customers would like to use an airfield without having to join a club. They find that process tedious and complicated. Just as customers can easily purchase a model airplane or helicopter, complete with an RC system, for a few hundred francs, using the airfield should also be a completely ordinary consumer service.

I’ll readily admit that larger model flying groups organized under club regulations usually have to invest not only in the operation and maintenance of their infrastructure but also in ensuring their organization runs as smoothly as possible. Furthermore, democratically run clubs tend to have more complicated and cumbersome decision-making processes. There are also sometimes imbalances between costs and benefits. However, experience shows that operating company-owned airfields isn’t so simple either; because as soon as a motley crew of individualistic model aviators shows up, it’s hardly feasible without certain rules and restrictions—aside from official regulations. What brings joy to one model aviator can quickly become a nuisance to a neighbor. This may be one of the reasons why there are so few company-owned airfields—and, unfortunately, why some attempts have failed miserably. Anyone out and about on a nice weekend can easily see that far more airplanes and helicopters are changing hands than new members are joining our clubs, even though many of them haven’t had to complain about a lack of new members in recent years. Unfortunately, even we model aviation individualists are herd animals, in that some clubs are almost overrun while others barely scrape by. These spirals can turn upward or downward: successfully managed clubs can afford better infrastructure, which attracts more members, allowing them to invest even more in their airfield—which makes them even better known—and so on—and vice versa. However, as soon as interest in the club consists

(still) consists of being able to drive to the airfield as unhindered as possible at any time and reach the runway with as dry a foot as possible, then experience shows that at the slightest problem with the airfield, the whole thing quickly falls apart. Quite simply because the other, social aspect of the club—namely, camaraderie, solidarity, and a shared commitment to the hobby and the airfield—has been sacrificed to consumerism and user selfishness.

Most sporting successes—right up to world championship titles—were only made possible by the training grounds maintained and provided by a club. Despite all the drawbacks and weaknesses of our club system, I believe in the “model flying group” as a successful model—especially when I see how committed, modern, and intelligent the responses to societal challenges consistently are.

Best regards
, Emil Ch. Giezendanner