As everyone is aware, Shannon Park is our prime flying location for HEFA. We’ve been able to enjoy and to lease the field and have flown very responsibly under the MAAC umbrella. Lease agreements have been in place for years with multiple 6-month extensions. Renewals have often been "just in time" for our continued use of the field. For this cycle, our current lease expires June 30. Your directors have been coordinating for a renewal for weeks but this request has not yet been approved.
As we all know, permission from the landowner is a cornerstone for MAAC approval. Landowner approval is currently with their legal department under review. We are hopeful that our community engagement, MAAC affiliation, proper insurance, and proven track record of safety and a good tenant will help to faciliate this approval process. Until this approval is in place, we cannot fly with HEFA / MAAC coverage. Participating in any flying activities WITHOUT this approval in-place will be without the support of MAAC or HEFA and it’s Directors. The Transport Canada exceptions, specific to MAAC fields, will not be in-place either. There are many online references on the Transport Canada requirements including this page: https://tc.canada.ca/en/aviation/drone- ... ly-legally.
Without approval in-place, HEFA directors will also be de-registering the Shannon Park field from the MAAC database. This can be re-registered if required conditions are met.
We are hopeful that approval will be received in the upcoming days. You will certainly be informed if there is a change in status. That said, for now, please consider this email as notification that the Shannon Park field is no longer an approved flying site by MAAC or HEFA or the HEFA Directors, effective June 30 at 9pm. All flying under the HEFA / MAAC umbrella is to be suspended until further notice.
Short-Term Options for RC Flights
HEFA still maintains approval for flying at Lawrencetown (slope) and Porter’s Lake. These remain good options for our club.
In addition, there are several other local clubs which would welcome HEFA members. To name a few:
- Shearwater RC Flyers fly at the decommissioned runway on weekends when there are no helicopter flights (while being aware of local flights too). Their website is https://shearwaterflyers.proboards.com/posts/recent. Shearwater has a $5 drop-in fee per day, to the maximum of a membership ($45 for civilian, $35 for military)
- ASRCM is located in the Shubenacadie area. https://www.asrcm.ns.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/Y ... ion=recent
- AVON is located outside of Windsor. http://www.avonflyers.ns.ca/cgi-bin/For ... ion=recent
Future Considerations
Your HEFA Directors will continue to work with the Shannon Park landowner to try and reach an agreement for our club’s continued use of this field.
Considerations for other fields in HRM have been reviewed, mostly at a high level, and this effort could be restarted. This would ideally require a larger committee to be organized for the optimal results, with a close eye on leasing costs, field upgrade conditions and site location.
Closing
We recognize that this is not the news that you want to hear, especially rolling into a nice long weekend. This impacts all of us.
Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns to any of the HEFA Directors.
Sincerely,
Brian Gray
Chris Hodgkinson
John Liddard
Joshua Mardling
Rhoady Hickey
Gary Foster