Who We Are
Sanford Aero Modelers at the Lee Dargue Facility
The Sanford Aero Modelers was founded and chartered with the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) in 1978 by a small group of individuals interested in promoting Radio Control Model Airplanes in the Sanford area. Over the years, the club has grown to its current membership of over 130 members who have a variety of backgrounds, interests, and levels of modeling & flying experience. The main focus of our club is to promote safe model flying in a non-competitive atmosphere. In other words, we are in it for the pure joy that model building and flying can and does provide. Coupled with the fellowship of being with like-minded individuals, the bottom line is to have fun.
If you are a beginner, or someone returning to modeling after years of inactivity, SAM membership offers you the benefits of talking with and learning from a group of individuals who have years of modeling and flying experience, and who are more than happy to assist and share their experience with you. The club has a number of pilot instructors who have the experience and teaching skills needed to get you safely and quickly through the early training flights and soloed. If you are a seasoned pro, we welcome you, and hope that you will share your experience with us.
We then negotiated a lease with the City of Sanford and Seminole County, owners of the property. We received a fifteen-year lease with an option to renew. With only one renewal, this will ensure us a modeling site for the next thirty years!
To maintain the 40-acre site, the club has acquired lawn maintenance equipment and an equipment trailer. Coupled with the expense of the site development, support equipment, and various structures, our club has spent over $42,000.00. The annual operating expenses of the club are approximately $8,000.00. This is an impressive effort by all the club members. However, we still have further plans to develop this site into one of the area’s finest. Our runway is our proudest accomplishment thus far, an ideal grass runway over 800 feet in length with much open space around.
Taking all this into consideration, our initiation fee and annual dues are very reasonable. To encourage participation by family members, there is special pricing for those interested. See our application under the Publications page for a fee schedule. For special cases, we can make financial arrangements for partial payments.
To introduce newcomers to the joy of RC flying without the normal up-front investments in the hobby, the club offers a unique program, “The Introductory Pilot” program. This was established by the AMA to allow certain instructors of a chartered club to provide hands-on exposure to non-AMA members. In this program, the designated instructor pilot’s AMA insurance has an attachment to cover non-AMA flyers. The program allows up to two month’s participation, using equipment owned by the club, instructor, or the flyer. There are requirements that must be met before starting; they deal mostly with briefing the new pilot about safety issues and having the pilot read and sign a form. If interested, please contact our Chief Flight Instructor or one of our Introductory Pilots, who are listed on the Contact Us page.
If you are looking for a friendly, well-established club, we extend a cordial invitation for you to contact one of our club officers. We also wish to invite you to attend one of our monthly meetings at our field. We generally meet at 11:00 a.m. on the third Saturday of every month; see the Calendar page for details.
If you are interested in becoming a member of SAM, contact our Membership Chairman.
Last Updated January 2008