Flying Off the Handle : Dogfight Among Rival Model-Plane Groups Escalates Into Legal War

The controversy has divided friends, cast a shadow over an otherwise innocent hobby and, on occasion, allegedly prompted death threats.

The warring sides hate each another to the point of one suing the other in a multimillion-dollar federal court action. And there’s a countersuit.

What’s stirred such ill will is radio-controlled model airplane flying, which involves more than 12,000 participants between the ages of 10 and 74 in Orange County alone. Statewide, the sport has more than 33,000 fliers.

“It’s causing really strained relations among people who have been friends for a long, long time,” said Bob Pompeo, owner of Hobby Town USA in Trabuco Canyon. “This is a hobby people are trying to enjoy. And for a lot of people, it’s turning into a real drag.”

The 3-year-old Dallas-based Sport Flyers Assn. is suing the granddaddy of the sport, the 56-year-old Muncie, Ind.-based Academy of Model Aeronautics. The upstart group says the older group wields a nationwide monopoly that is crippling its efforts.

SFA says that, in effect, AMA so dominates the sport that in order to fly these planes at all, one must belong to the AMA or risk not being able to participate.

The lawsuit, pending in federal court in Dallas, charges the AMA with unfair business practices and restraint of trade under antitrust laws. But with graphic descriptions, it also illustrates how volatile the issues have become.

“More than 160,000 AMA members are now ruled by leaders who are using their considerable power to harass and attack SFA,” the suit charges, further claiming that “SFA members have been excluded from public flying sites, threatened and even assaulted and/or beaten by AMA members or supporters.”

AMA officials deny the allegations and have filed a countersuit.

So far, no such incidents have occurred in Orange County, although several have been reported in San Diego County, where SFA officials say the problem is more explosive than anywhere in the country.

However, the dispute threatens to limit where model flying can take place in Orange County and may force AMA members, here and elsewhere, to pay much higher dues if their group loses the lawsuit.

Among the suit’s key issues is insurance.

Model-airplane fliers must carry both medical and liability insurance, which only two groups in the country offer--AMA and SFA. The suit alleges that, by blocking SFA fliers from public sites, AMA officials have virtually mandated that all fliers belong to its organization and buy its insurance.

“In effect, they’re saying, ‘You can’t be insured unless you belong to one group or the other, but the only way you’ll ever fly here is if you belong to ours,’ ” said an SFA representative, who asked not to be quoted by name.

Until the emergence of SFA, AMA was the only agency in the country offering liability insurance to members--which model airplane fliers say is a necessity, should cars, people or structures be damaged.

A radio-controlled plane zooming out of control recently killed a spectator at a Phoenix event. And one once put a three-foot-wide hole in the side of a Goodyear blimp.

Such planes commonly weigh between four and eight pounds and have wingspans of 60 to 70 inches. But Bruce Moore, the recognized leader of the sport in Orange County, knows of one plane that weighs 65 pounds with a wingspan of 29 feet.

Crashes prompting insurance claims are commonplace.

Last month, at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley, an independent flier--belonging to neither group and thus uninsured--crashed a model plane into the head of a passing jogger. The jogger is suing the county for thousands of dollars in damages.

Dennis Bunker, liability claims manager for the county, said a similar suit is pending and will soon go to trial. In that one, a man claiming to have been injured by a model plane in Mile Square Park is suing the county for damages although the pilot was fully insured.

The county recently made plans to end radio-controlled flying at Mile Square Park by soliciting private development of the triangular-shaped, 137-acre area used by hobbyists who like its 1,000-foot-long, 100-foot-wide runways once used by the Navy.

Once development begins--and the date is uncertain--the county’s only public site for model-aircraft flying will be eliminated, effectively freezing out the local members of Sport Flyers Assn., who would have to look for a private site or hope a public venue emerges.

The AMA wouldn’t be affected because it leases a privately owned site for flying in Orange County.

Moore, president of the Flying Falcons of Saddleback Valley, belongs to the AMA, as do 10,000 other model-aircraft fliers in Orange County. An estimated 2,000 belong to the rival group.

If Sport Flyers members want to fly in Orange County, Moore said, they’re welcome at the private site in Trabuco Canyon, but first must join the Flying Falcons--who lease the property--and then enroll in the AMA.

In other words, Moore says, SFA membership carries almost no weight in Orange County, absent membership in the AMA.

Pompeo, the 45-year-old hobby shop owner, is, for instance, a member of both Sport Flyers and the AMA, but it’s only the latter affiliation that permits him to fly in Trabuco Canyon.

Moore’s organization has largely sidestepped the issues raised in the lawsuit by using a private site, where it can easily impose its own bylaws and dues, as well as those of the AMA.

Officials for Sport Flyers allege that flying clubs across the country are seeking to prohibit its members, mostly at public sites, such as San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, which allows access only to AMA members.

Orange County fliers often practice their hobby in San Diego, where SFA officials say none of the 22 flying clubs allows its members to fly, although three-quarters of the sites are publicly owned.

SFA officials allege that it’s the AMA banning them from flying and using “scare tactics” to do so.

The lawsuit alleges that such exclusion is an example of “restraining trade to protect a virtual monopoly” in what SFA officials call “a billion-dollar industry.”

Marsha Howard, president of Sport Flyers Assn., declined to comment on the case.

But Don Lowe, president of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, said from his home in Altamonte Springs, Fla., that the AMA had tried to settle the suit repeatedly, to no avail.

“They’ve charged us with unfair business practices, which we think is a bunch of crap,” Lowe said. “They’re claiming we’re unfair, so we’ve countersued, we’re so angry about it.” He declined to discuss the countersuit.

Lowe sighed and said, “This is supposed to be fun, a hobby. . . . But when you’ve got this hanging over your head and you’ve got to deal with it and pay attorneys--well, it’s crazy.”

He declined further comment, except to say he worries most about the fate of the sport.

Moore shares that fear, saying the Orange County model-aircraft flier will, like AMA members across the country, be made to pay if SFA wins in court. Steeper dues will undoubtedly be required to pay court costs and damages, he said.

On a recent sunny afternoon, Moore, 62, and two of his club’s members flew planes around the perimeter of a quiet valley, near a rural creek. The pilots sent their planes soaring skyward, then dipping furiously in figure-eight pirouettes, before landing them flawlessly.

Pompeo, the hobby shop owner, said he figured it was only a matter of time before society’s litigious ways touched even model-aircraft enthusiasts.

“For me, there’s nothing more thrilling than to take a box full of wood and sticks and build something,” he said. “Then put a radio in it and watch it take off, fly around and land, all in one piece. It’s extremely gratifying.”

But until the lawsuit is settled, it will never be as gratifying as it could be or was before.

“They’re fighting like a bunch of kids,” Pompeo said. “I wish they’d all get together and work it out and let everyone fly. After all, no one owns the sky.”

Flyer Safety

At the heart of the radio-controlled airplane controversy is the issue of insurance. Such protection is considered important should a plane go awry and crash into a car, building or person.

High flying: Planes stay below 400 feet to avoid colliding with real aircraft.

Far Flying: Some planes respond up to three miles away. For safety reasons, pilots fly within a designated 400- to 600-yard airspace.

Other Precautions Pilots flying radio-controlled planes observe these restrictions: * Flights limited to six to 10 minutes. * Volunteer air-traffic controllers monitor takeoffs, flights and landings. * Only five planes may be in flight at any one time. * Spectators are not allowed on airfield.

Source: Orange County Assn. of Model Clubs; Researched by APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times