Las Vegas Circle Burners (LVCB), Nevada’s newest model airplane club, has just opened a new flying circle. Many of us who have traveled to fabulous Las Vegas think of only the famed Strip – the hotels, shows and gambling. But there is a beautiful flying site right here at Bennett field.
This flying site was paid for by Bill Bennett for the R/C Tournament of Champions. Bill Bennett was one of the richest men in the world and he also enjoyed model planes and helicopters. He was once the owner of Circus Circus and Sahara Hotel and Casino. Bill also owned a hobby shop called Circus Hobbies. In 2006 Bill Bennett was inducted into the Academy of Model Aircraft Hall of Fame and a plaque was presented to his friend Donny Weitz at SuperFly V., the all-electric fun fly. When Bill died in 2002 the field was turned over to the Clark County Parks Department.
Las Vegas is a city with a large population of radio control flyers and mostly R/C clubs. Modelers who fly control line are a minority who are scattered around the city with no permanent home or organized affiliation.
Enter the Las Vegas Circle Burners. Reuben and Steve MacBride, two AMA members who relocated to Las Vegas from New Jersey, founded LVCB. Back in northern NJ this father & son proudly flew their control line planes and actively participated in every aspect of control line and model aviation which included being long-time members of the Garden State Circle Burners, flying in and placing in championship contests, organizing, directing and judging contests and more. It wasn’t easy to give up an active control line life for one much lower key in their new city. The Las Vegas Circle Burners formed in June 2011 and has quickly grown to have 50 members. Interest in their club, as well as in flying control line, is growing and hopefully this newly formed club can continue to promote this activity and increase the number of control line enthusiasts in Las Vegas. For more information about this club, contact their treasurer at LVCBtreasurer@aol.com. https://lasvegascircleburners.weebly.com/
Acquiring a flying site in Clark County, Nevada wasn’t easy. The first person Reuben contacted was the district ten Associate Vice President, Greg Clemensen. He suggested a few different places to fly control line planes but he did not know of a control line club in the area. One location was a desert lakebed, which was very dry and dusty. Another place was Lake Mead Recreation Park, which is a paved parking lot but not very close to home. With the high price of gas the travel cost would be a real problem. Greg mentioned a radio control club near by. Reuben and his son joined their club and started to fly planes on the 100 x 700 foot R/C runway. Sharing this runway especially on a weekend meant that while they flew, the runway was closed to R/C planes. To get in an eight-minute flight they had to wait their turn. An average time was one flight per hour. The control line flyers soon noticed an area west of the runway that was large enough to fly control line and not interfere with the r/c runway. The problem was an existing fence that was in the way and needed to be removed to make a single circle on the grass. Reuben And Steven approached the R/C club officers and asked if they could help them to speak with the County Parks Dept. to turn that area into a control line circle. The R/C club manages the park to assure it complies with all AMA safety rules and regulations. A request was put in and two years later the existing fence was removed and a new fenced in area was added for control line. The control line flyers are grateful to the Las Vegas Radio Control Club for promoting model aviation and expanding their site to accommodate control line. The Clark County Parks Dept. also did a beautiful job making a safe site.
Dennis Launching flightstreak plane