Model-Aircraft Club's Future Up in the Air

By JASON TERADA

April 26, 1997 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

NEWBURY PARK —

In the years before biotechnology emerged as the Conejo Valley’s industrial engine, aerospace firms such as Northrop and Litton were the furnace that fired the region’s economy.

Those boom times of the Cold War era were also the heyday for local builders and fliers of radio-controlled model aircraft, who took to the skies with the help of one of the region’s leading aircraft manufacturers.

At its peak during the late 1980s, the Thousand Oaks-based Conejo Valley Flyers club boasted a membership of more than 200 model airplane and helicopter enthusiasts.

From his vantage point at Conejo Valley Flyers’ airfield, atop a hill behind the now-vacated Northrop complex on Rancho Conejo Boulevard, club spokesman Joe Martin, 49, talks about those days with a sense of yearning as he tends to his replica of a World War II-vintage P-51 Mustang, built over three years at his Newbury Park garage.

At the same time, he looks to the future and sees dark clouds looming on the horizon for the 25-year-old club.

“Northrop used to be one of the biggest employers out here and it was a very safe haven,” said Martin, who along with other club members Sunday will host an air show at their home field as an off-site Conejo Valley Days event. “Now we have nothing.”

Prior to the waves of mergers and layoffs that pounded Southern California’s aerospace industry, Northrop’s Newbury Park plant developed and manufactured remote-controlled drones--essentially life-sized model airplanes used as military targets.

“There are a lot of parallels between what they were doing here, and what we are doing here,” Martin said, adding that the aircraft company’s founder, John Knudsen Northrop, was also an avid builder of model planes.

“When the club was first started, there was an interest and an automatic association with what we were doing, so they allowed us to use this property.”

But with Northrop gone--the building and land surrounding it up for sale, and plans for a new recreational center at nearby Hill Canyon on the drawing board--club members fear they will soon lose their airspace.

“We used to be out here with the coyotes, bothering nobody,” Martin said. “Now there are all these buildings we have to be concerned with, and eventually we’re going to have to move out--we really don’t have a sponsor to help us do that.”

Many in the club hope Sunday’s air show--from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hill Canyon airfield--will call attention to the club’s plight and the larger issue of urban encroachment on open space.

The show will feature 16-year-old model helicopter ace Justin Chien of Westlake Village, considered a prodigy by many model hobbyists after only a year of flying time.

Chien, a Westlake High School student, has flown his $3,000 graphite-composite X-Cell helicopter in air shows and competitions across the country.

His maneuvers--including high-speed rolls, loops and upside down hovering, all accomplished with two joysticks set in a plastic box about the size of a portable radio--have dropped the jaws of many a pilot of both model and full-sized aircraft.

“A lot of pilots get mad because it took them so long to learn how to do it, and I did it in such a short time,” Justin said.

While many younger fliers such as Justin concentrate on speed and aerobatics, many older hobbyists enjoy the satisfaction of transforming a boxful of balsa wood into a powerful mechanical bird steered by the flick of a wrist.

“This is a challenge, both building them and flying them--they start out as just sticks and boards,” said 66-year-old Jack Robinson, editor of the club’s newsletter.

It is the older model builders and pilots who stand to lose the most if the Conejo Valley Flyers are forced to abandon the skies over Hill Canyon.

Many retirees in the club who populate the airfield on weekdays say that building and flying model aircraft allows them to enjoy the camaraderie of others with similar interests.

“We’re just a bunch of boys and grown-up boys having fun,” said 68-year-old Wil Trautmann.

Trautmann said he is irked by the lack of concern by city officials regarding the future of the club’s airfield, and what he considers the selling out of a long-established community for development.

“Nowadays it seems that if a buck isn’t there for the city, or someone there to make one, they aren’t interested anymore,” Trautmann said. “They keep talking about all the open land we’ve got. When are we going to keep it?”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Conejo Valley Days Events All events are held at Conejo Creek Park, Moorpark Freeway and Janss Road, unless otherwise noted. Carnival admission is $5 adults, $3 senior citizens and students, $2 children 6 to 12, and free for children under 6. On all nights, receive $1 off the admission price for taking a shuttle bus from Newbury Park or Thousand Oaks high schools. TODAY

9 a.m.: Parade, Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Duesenberg Drive to Erbes Road

Noon to midnight: Carnival

Noon to 6 p.m.: Western pit barbecue, $6 adults, $4.50 children

1:30 and 4:40 p.m.: Rodeo

2 to 10 p.m.: Bingo

7 p.m.: Singer Chrissy Lomax, main stage

8:30 p.m.: Singer Eddie Money, main stage

10:30 p.m.: Peter and the Wolves, main stage

SUNDAY

Noon to 8 p.m.: Carnival

Noon to 6 p.m.: Western pit barbecue, $6 adults, $4.50 children

Noon to 8 p.m.: Bingo