Coronado Park Flyers: AMA’s Newest Park Pilot Club

The Coronado Park Flyers of San Diego, California, is the fourth AMA Park Pilot club founded since the launch of the Park Pilot Program in early 2008. Established by club president Richard Rebuffatee, this group went over many unique hurdles to accomplish their goal: keep flying.

    The Coronado Park Flyers (CPF) started as just a group of friends who got together in a local park to share a common hobby. For approximately seven years, the group used Coronado Tidelands Park as a field for maneuvering their quiet electric aircraft.

    Tidelands Park is an older recreational area with rules dating back to the late 1950s. A part of those rules prohibited kites, balloons, and even aircraft, from being used on the property. Because of this, the pilots were often asked by the Harbor Police Department to leave the field.

    “The reason being,” Richard said, “is that there were power and telephone lines up, but in the early 2000s they were put underground.” Models in the 1950s were also much louder and more intrusive with their gas engines.

    With legal issues facing them if they continued to fly, the group took action. All the aircraft they flew fit well within the definition of an AMA Park Flyer. Richard began learning about how to establish an AMA Park Pilot club.

    Tim Attaway, District X associate vice president, aided in the club’s formation. He helped Richard with the forms for the club charter.    

    “Tim was a great help,” Richard said, “mostly near the end when everything came together. He really knows his stuff.”

    Coronado is a peninsula city in San Diego County connected by only a narrow strip of land, which earned it the calling of Coronado Island. It is a small area with minimal population and a majority of it houses United States Navy personnel. Naval Air Station North Island dominates the north, and the south holds the Coronado Amphibious Base, famous as a training center for the Navy Seals.

    There were many more rules and restrictions involved in permitting the club because of the airspace. Robert put on flight demonstrations for the Harbor Police, and Tim flew for some attorneys from the port and Coronado.

    “All this time I was working with the port police to get this thing off the ground, also the head groundskeeper at the park,” Robert explained. “I think that I must have had about 20-25 meetings and a hundred calls, really!”

    Finally, the CPF was given permission for a flying site in Tidelands Park. Port Authority reserved fields and times for the club members to use the site.

   For the first six months, CPF was put on a probationary period to make sure there were no problems. Richard said that rather than complaints, numerous phone calls were made to the port authorities thanking them for letting the Park Pilots come back.

   Richard explained that the area in which they always flew was bordered by a nursing home. Often the residents would come out to the yard and watch the pilots do their stuff.

   Another issue facing the club before it had permission to use the site was trouble with the grounds crew. Richard stated that the grounds crew in general did a poor job and didn’t want the Park Pilots around. They would often turn on the sprinkler systems while the models were in the field.

   Now a new grounds crew oversees the park and Richard says his club could not be more appreciative of them. The crew voluntarily mowed a runway for the group and will even assist them should an airplane happen to lodge in a tree.

   The Coronado Park Flyers club currently has six members. Members willingly teach pilots to fly if they have an AMA membership card.

   When Richard was asked about future plans for the Coronado Park Flyers, he had this to say: “The future is to keep flying for another 20-30 years. Being on an island, it’s just beautiful. We are about 50 yards from the water.”

   Richard also said that the club chartering process was not hard and a lot of that had to do with Tim. “He’s God’s gift to flying. He’d do anything for you.”

     “What’s so good now is that we’re back to having regulars that come out,” Richard said, “walking themselves and their dogs, and they all stop and cheer us on.”