Radio-controlled airplane club aims for new place to land – and take off – in McHenry County

Lynn Garnand started building radio-controlled airplanes as a kid before serving in and retiring from the U.S. Air Force.

Now, the Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, resident and the Chain-O-Lakes Eagles R/C Club wants to help other young people learn about building and flying model airplanes using radio controls.

But to do that, the 50-year-old club also needs a permanent field its members both young and old can use to fly model planes. If they can find a field to lease connected to a school or public entity, that would be even better, said Garnand, the club’s president.

[ Photos: Chain-O-Lakes Eagles fly radio-controlled planes ]

“A municipality, a township, a school ... somewhere we can have a long-term relationship” would be ideal, Garnand said, adding that a site connected to a school or community college would be great because of the tie-in that radio-controlled airplanes have to STEM – science, technology, engineering and math.

In recent days, about a dozen club members met at their new field at 8915 Kemman Road, just southeast of Hebron. They started going there to fly July 1 after losing the plot they’d rented for the previous 20 years near Ringwood. The property owner there died, and his widow wanted to lease the land for agriculture, Garnand said.

So the club went looking for a new site.

“We located this property [to lease], but it is probably not permanent,” Garnand said. “We can use it for this season ... but we are looking for permanent field ideas.”

He sees the science tie-in when he talks to young club members Charlie Missak and Andrew Durik, Garnand said. Charlie is one of the younger club members. He got his first R/C airplane as a Christmas present after getting into the hobby because of Andrew.

“Charlie is an electrical engineer, and he is 12. Andrew is a mechanical engineer” who can talk to him about the gains, travel and torque of one of the planes, Garnand said.

“It is getting kids started in engineering and the technological space,” Garnand said of the hobby.

Charlie called the pastime “fun and something to do.”

His dad, Mike Missak, also joined the club this year. He’d flown R/C planes with his father as a youngster but got back into it this year when Charlie showed an interest.

What Charlie doesn’t include in his “it’s fun” assessment is the amount of time he puts into tinkering with his plane and the electronics, or practicing flying on a simulator, his father said.

Garnand started tinkering with control-line airplanes, connected by wire to a controller, as a 9-year-old in South Bend, Indiana. The technology just kept getting better over the decades, Garnand said. Those planes are the forefathers of drones and NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, he said.

They’d like to have 3 to 4 acres of level flatland, which is necessary for getting the planes in the air.

“We need a field with open acreages ... and a long-term lease,” club vice president Larry Erbach said. The club can and will do the mowing and upkeep “at our own expense,” he added.

There are several R/C airplane clubs in northern Illinois, Erbach said, including many that use county forest preserve or other park land. There have been recent discussions with at least one municipal park district, but a request to the McHenry County Conservation District was denied.

According to minutes from the MCCD’s June 20 Committee of the Whole meeting, Executive Director Elizabeth Kessler mentioned the club’s inquiry, but “the district’s current comprehensive administrative policy ... prohibits these types of activities,” she said, citing the recently updated recreation activities supported policy.

The decision was “based on several factors including environmental impact, safety concern and compatibility” with the district, marketing manager Caitlynn Martinez-McWhorter said this week.

The MCCD sent a letter to the club July 11 and offered to meet to discuss the request further, Martinez-McWhorter said.

“We have a lot of special interest groups that approach us ... for use opportunities. Right now, the district is in maintenance mode ... taking care of what we have,” Martinez-McWhorter said.

Any property owner or agency spokesperson who would like to talk to the club about a possible long-term lease is asked to contact the club and Garnand via email at president@coleagles.com.