Larry’s Log,
Chuck Curtis and I put together a list of flying locations the club has had over the years. We have added some notes as well.
The following picture is from the Rocky Mountain Gas Model Club taken in 1942.
In the early 60’s, BATS (Bozeman Air Tragedy Society, later changed to Telemetry) was flying east of the north 7th avenue freeway interchange. That would be north of Walmart. Chuck started flying here in 1965. Picture is spring of 1966 with Norm Shyne.
About 1972 the club moved to Haggarty Lane and then to top of the hill where the Life of Montana building is now. I came to Bozeman in and remember flying off the road in 1972. Someone brought out a ram jet and fired it up on the ground. This brought the city police out to see what the loud noise was all about.
1981 we were flying on an old railroad right of way north of SpringHill road. It was very narrow and very bumpy.
We moved to Hiesel’s Sod farm on Spring Hill Road in about 1982. This was a great loca(on, lots of room and no field maintenance.
about 1983, we moved to Summit Engineering building on south 7th, south of the museum. We were there about 4 years. We also flew off the MSU soccer fields during this (me. Below is a picture taken in summer of 1976 I’m flying a Lanier Comet II, one of the first ARFs. Nice hair!!
In 1984 or so, we were flying off the closed North/South airport runway built in 1940’s for basic pilot training.
The airport maintained the blacktop runway. Its was about 60 feet wide and 600 feet long. Good location, but had to have a spotter to be alert for full size airplanes. Silent sailplanes would sneak up on you. I remember I “strained” a Dirty Birdy (60 size aerobatic plane) through the cyclone fence. Lost the site in about 1991 when an uncontrolled plane crashed between the active runway and taxiway. My Dirty Birdy fall of 1976.
We moved to a Manhattan farm in early 1990’s and stayed until 2004
In 2004, the club finally moved to our present location on Kelly Canyon Road. The surface started
out with an old conveyor belt, which lasted a few years. Once the belt started to fray, one could do great aircraft carrier landings when the wheels were caught by the fabric. We scrapped that for recycled blacktop the city donated to us. Unfortunately, the mix was so dry it would not pack down and was basically gravel.
Then about 2020, High Country Paving donated asphalt to pave our 300 -foot runway with a taxiway. By far, this is the best flying site Gallatin valley has ever had. Stan Johnson is in the foreground.
Keep on Flying!!
Larry