Abilene Radio Control Society’s flying field is located in Sea Bee Park and has a 40 foot by 400-foot concrete runway. Our field is known as Dick Bowen’s Field of Dreams, who was a long-time club member and club supporter. We have unrestricted flying from the northeast, to the east, southeast, to directly south of field due to being on the edge of Lake Fort Phantom. The club will most likely never be forced to find another flying site, related to encroachment, due to flying field being in a flood plain. When the lake is over the spillway, water covers the south end of runway and float planes come out of hibernation. With the flying field in a city park, the city requires anyone who flies at Sea Bee Park to be a member of the AMA, regardless if you are a club member or not.
The club loosely started in the 1950’s as control line and continued as such into the early 1970’s. When the first “digital” radio systems came onto the scene in the early 1970’s, Abilene Radio Control Society was formed and was officially chartered with the AMA in 1976. has been going strong for over 60 years. Average yearly membership is 30 to 40 members a year. ARCS had a larger membership when Dyess Air Force Base had a larger personnel presence here.
ARCS is a diverse group of pilots. There’s several of us that still fly nitro airplanes, but mostly foamy electrics are now the norm. Club members fly airplanes, nitro helicopters, electric helicopters, gliders, gas, ¼ scale, and several members are heavily into racing First Person Video (FPV) quad copters.
As a side note, the first successful, documented, recreational hobbyist Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV) was a Curtis Robin 80 at Sea Bee Field in 1992. The Curtis Robin 80 was considered a large model airplane in its day and carried an analog video camera that was mounted in the cabin of the aircraft. A video arcade booth, from the 80’s, was re-purposed and had a TV monitor mounted inside, along with controls that mimicked the controls of a full sized aircraft. Once aircraft was cranked and ready, the remote pilot took over the controls. The remote pilot then proceeded to taxi out, take off, flew a circuit around the field, landed aircraft, and taxied back to the pit area, all from the comforts of his booth. The most striking item about this feat is that it was accomplished with analog electronics, using amateur ham frequencies, plus was recorded on VHS tapes.
ARCS hosts two main events. Longest running event is our Chopper Madness event in September of each year and has been going for nearly 25 years. Chopper Madness usually host about 15 to 25 helicopter pilots at each event. We could accommodate more pilots, but the parking is limited for parking camping trailers. The other event is our Wings Over Abilene International Miniature Aircraft Club (IMAC) hosted usually during late summer. IMAC scheduling is not the same each year due to scheduling conflicts with other area IMAC clubs. Wings Over Abilene will also host 15 to 25 pilots for each event. ARCS will usually host a late spring Fun Fly and invite the area clubs to participate.
The only ‘stick in the mud’ with the above info is the average wind speed, on any given day of the year in Abilene, is 14 mph from the southwest! From late fall until early summer, a typical wind forecast is 10 to15 mph winds with gusts to 25 mph, with few ‘calm’ days in between. Best consistent flyable weather starts usually about mid spring and lasts well into fall. We typically get about 20 to 25 inches of rain a year and if we're lucky, we don’t get all the rain on the same day!
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