Nice idea. It's a good clean activity that parents and kids can share, as well as adult enthusiasts. But as you can read, the "not in my backyard" and the other special interest groups have already started to protest. Prediction: It'll never happen. Welcome to suburbia.

I agree with Adrienne. I compete in field events, including all the throwing "arts". I feel these people's pain. Open spaces are few and far between if you don't own them. If I hadn't insisted on getting - and defending - a usable yard against the onslaught of annoying developer suplicants to buy it and divide it into teeny tiny plots that no active human can play on, I'd have no place to go for practice. My friends whose kids are in little league tell me of their angst - games having to go too late for kids of that age, neighbors complaining about games, etc. Wow. This is what happens when you have too many people and not enough undeveloped land. I think we've created an overcrowded suburban hell. It is only fine to live in Fairfax County if you are a couch potato who never leaves your house. A pocket park, which is the best you can hope for in many developments these days, is of no use to people who actually go outside for exercise. I hope these model airplane folks get their piece of land to pursue their interest, but I don't have a good feeling that they will succeed.

I have another view on this issue. While I understand the need for hobbies and spending quality time
with the family and the scaricity of open land for these pursuits.
Why must they take a well used and very much needed field from another group of people, who are
simply looking to spend time in the outdoors also with family. The field in questions is not unused.
It is very much in use every day. This field is the ONE AND ONLY WAY for us horseback riders to access
the Battlefield trails. And when the river is too high and dangerous to cross this field is the ONE AND
ONLY WAY for us horseback riders to access an place to ride.
This model plane group has another field they are currently using for flying planes. Must they take from
the horseback riders in the area the ONE AND ONLY WAY for us horseback riders to access any trails or a
safe place to ride.
This land is in no danger of being developed for huge Mc Mansions on tiny lots, it is in the flood plane
of the Bull Run River.

You miss my point. The problem with overdevelopment is that opposing uses are forced to fight over dwindling open space. We put houses where we shouldn't and now we are stuck with the leftovers for public use. The "only" place left to play should not be a flood plain. The fact that equestrians are set against the plane folks shows a lack of planning for existing uses.

When I was a kid, my neighbor had model airplanes. He could play with them in his own, ample yard or in any of our numerous parks. One park had an area for model plane enthusiasts set aside. Several of my neighbors had horses. They were able to ride them along our connection of public trails and along less busy roads.

I grew up in New England, in a community where houses are still more expensive than they are here. People there demanded space of their officials in association with development and local governments had a lot of power to make demands upon developers to see that they people's demands were met.

This area, on the other hand, is more transient and more thrown together and the lack of planning really shows.