Model Landing

A Riverside pilot made an emergency landing Wednesday morning on an abandoned airstrip now used primarily by model plane enthusiasts. The landing, in Mile Square Regional Park, added unintended fuel to an ongoing battle between county supervisors who want to expand the park’s golf course and hobbyists who want the strip to stay.

Mike Gorman, the 36-year-old pilot of the 1959 Cessna 182, had other concerns. Like how to get his plane off the hobbyists’ airstrip and back to Flabob Airport in Riverside.

“The FAA isn’t exactly cheering us on to fly it out,” he said, gesturing to the two solemn-faced representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration who were peering into the small two-seater. A long haul back home on the back of a flatbed appeared to be the only option.

The emergency landing resulted from “engine stuff,” Gorman said. His mechanic, who raced over from Riverside, discovered a broken spark plug, which indicated pretty serious engine problems.

An aerial photographer, Gorman had left Flabob about 10 a.m. and within the hour felt the engine start to sputter, while he was sailing above Beach Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway at 1,300 feet.

Losing about 100 feet of altitude per minute, Gorman radioed John Wayne Airport and started heading over, but realized after doing some quick math that he wouldn’t make it. He recalled flying his own model planes in Mile Square park as a boy and decided to give it a try. “John Wayne told me they couldn’t authorize that,” he said with a laugh.

A police helicopter guided him down, and he was quickly surrounded by police, park rangers, firefighters and hobbyists, who had been told by the booming helicopter loudspeaker to land their own little planes on the double to clear the air space.

Gorman, who has been flying for 15 years, was grateful for the clear blue sky and the relative emptiness of the strip. “I saw one guy walking his dog and then a truck pulled out, and I thought, ‘Oh, great,’ ” he said.

John McDonald, a 50-year-old model plane enthusiast from Orange, saw the plane land. He could not help rubbing his hands just a bit over the potential weight the incident might give to his group’s lawsuit over the expanded golf course.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors decided last year to create a golf course in the park’s 137-acre center and touched off a storm of controversy that is still brewing in court and via angry letters in local newspapers.

“If they had had a golf course here today, this guy would have been in trouble,” McDonald said. “He could have landed on a body.”

Just a few days later, and Gorman might have landed on some of the 25,000 Boy Scouts who will start congregating Friday for an annual Jamboree.

A photographic crew from McMullen Argus Publishing Inc. had actually laid claim to the entire strip for the afternoon, with permits and all. Their plans for the “set” were delayed a bit by the landing, although everyone took it in good stride.

“We were going to be shooting a cover for Electric Car magazine today, and I certainly didn’t expect to see a plane here,” said Keith Buglewicz, special publications editor for McMullen. “I thought our biggest problem would be rain.”

As the hours wore on, the crew simply drove the shiny new electric cars onto other parts of the blacktop and tried to ignore the fracas around the plane.

James Puckett of George’s Towing was unloading one of the cars for the shoot, a sporty red GM EV1, when he heard the commotion in the sky. The first crew member to arrive, he was startled to see a plane land on the day’s set.

“It just barely touched the edge of asphalt,” he said. “It just made it. I was surprised. I didn’t think they landed planes here anymore.”

Well, they don’t. At least not real planes. But model plane hobbyists have been flying their remote-control craft from the strips around the park’s triangular center for years.

Park Maintenance Supervisor Rene Guzman said the strip, which dates back to World War II or more, was a military heliport until the park opened in 1972.