It's actually a nice little park. A bit wider than our normal field, but only about 1/3 as long (our normal field is something like four times as long as it is wide). This field is basically square. Both are surrounded by tall trees. The big field has some tall grass, and a cluster of short trees, but would still allow "G" motor flights.

As a kid, I flew from a much smaller field (our pasture), complete with mounds of "early-state compost", bordered by the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, tall trees, power lines, and a corn field (good luck finding a rocket in a corn field). I learned to fly using smaller motors and I learned to read the wind - and I had a great time. When I moved to California, I flew with LUNAR and BayNAR. Lunar was nice, they had a soccer field at the time - with rockets hanging from the field lights and power lines. BayNar launched from a paved parking lot at a community college. It was small, surrounded by trees, and had lights, power lines, and tree islands throughout the "field".

Our club actually had a contest at a field that was even smaller! We had a pretty darn good time. I think we lost two rockets all day. It was the same Parks people, and they never responded to our requests to use the field again.

Basically, the Parks people seem reluctant to provide any written permission to fly at this park, which I would go after with daily calls and e-mails ... if the response of the club had not been rather tepid. I have flown rockets and had a lot of fun in much worse fields than the two I looked at recently. I think it's a case of "Perfection being the enemy of Good Enough" on the club's side, and the realization on the Parks side that they can't make money from model rockets like they can with sports that injure children.

__________________
John Adams
"There is a lot of rocketry under 20ns"