McMinnville construction begins...

The McMinnville, Oregon model complex took another step forward today as construction crews arrived to begin work on the r/c runways and c/l circle. Funded by a private donation, the model fields are on property adjacent to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, a division of Evergreen International Airlines. McMinnville is about 35 miles southwest of Portland Oregon.

A new AMA club is forming to administrate operation of the model park. The club has chosen the name TEAM for The Evergreen Aero Modelers. It's also the acronym for The Evergreen Aviation Museum, home to the Spruce Goose and many remarkable vintage aircraft. You can learn more about the museum at www.sprucegoose.org

Plans call for a 28' x 500' paved r/c runway, a 24' x 500' grass runway, and a paved c/l donut. Another grass circle is being considered.

The first thing to be done today was mowing the wheat cover crop. Here are a few images of the c/l area. Note the sr-71 getting a bath behind the museum in photo #1.

Jerry,

This is great. At least it will be a site for now and into the future. Certainly encourage people to use it as much as possible... Once it's built, of course.

Car's packed ....I'm Ready

Jerry

Will I have to join the club to use the site.

Terry,

Since I've been to the club formation meetings, here's what I know about the rules so far. The club wants to maintain a close supportive role with the Museum, so we will be signing in with the Museum shop when we fly. We discussed having a token fee (maybe $1 ) for non-members to fly there. This would help defray the cost of the Museum keeping a sign up sheet for us. Part of the reason for the sign up is to assure that pilots have their AMA membership up to date ( for its insurance protection ). Flying hours will be 8AM till 8:30PM (summer) If you want to fly in the winter, bring rain gear. Not much flying gets done from November to March.

Membership in The Evergreen Aero Modellers is $20 per year. We are currently meeting the 3rd Tuesday at 7PM each month. One of the roles we hope to play at the museum is educational (Training, Demonstration, Display.....) Should be fun!

>Terry,
>
>Since I've been to the club formation meetings, here's what
>I know about the rules so far. The club wants to maintain a
>close supportive role with the Museum, so we will be signing
>in with the Museum shop when we fly. We discussed having a
>token fee (maybe $1 ) for non-members to fly there. This
>would help defray the cost of the Museum keeping a sign up
>sheet for us. Part of the reason for the sign up is to
>assure that pilots have their AMA membership up to date (
>for its insurance protection ). Flying hours will be 8AM
>till 8:30PM (summer) If you want to fly in the winter,
>bring rain gear. Not much flying gets done from November to
>March.
>
>Membership in The Evergreen Aero Modellers is $20 per year.
>We are currently meeting the 3rd Tuesday at 7PM each month.
>One of the roles we hope to play at the museum is
>educational (Training, Demonstration, Display.....) Should
>be fun!
>
>Bruce Hunt
>Salem, OR

Bruce

Thanks for the info. Is the meeting held at the Museum?

Great to see the creation of another flying site. Will the site be open for visitors to the area to use, maybe while visiting the museum?

Bill Hodges
X47 Flyers

Complete with a museum... sounds like future paradise for us airplane nuts! Good luck to all involved!

What is the cost of living like out there? Looks like a good potential retirement area for me!

Randy,

Outside of Portland, the costs are reasonable. Probably upper middle range nationally. Since we have no sales tax, taxes are mainly property and miscellaneous fees. The cost of gas is $1.55/Gal (currently), the cost of milk is $2.00/Gal, the cost of model fuel is $18.00/Gal (Hazard Material shipping costs) and Latte's will run you $22.00/Gal.

How cold does it get in the winter?

Wow.. a SR-71, and what's that? A F-102 or F-106?

Its a Deuce, F-102, proper name Delta Dagger. The giveaway at the front end are those forward intakes, the 6 (F-106) has its intakes back at the leading edge, thre are really alot of differenced but the intakes are the most obvious. These aircraft were really amazing, I crewed 6's, F-106A and B, proper name Delta Dart. The F-106 was originally to be called the F-102B but the changes were so extensive it was redesignated.

Bruce,

Send me an application, I'm in.

Isky,

One of the reasons I moved to the area was I was tired of living in a place with a 100 degree plus temperature varience from summer to winter. I live a couple hundred miles north of McMinnville and it's 50F degree winters and 70F summers. Plus or minus. It's somewhat warmer in Oregon.