Dave Doughty and John Wray
The Robson Ranch Radio Control (RC) Club has three major activities: Flying, Car Racing, and Drag Racing. We currently have 106 members, with some participating in all three activities. Club membership is required to participate. Business meetings are on the third Wednesday of the month and are governed by elected officers. All facilities have been set up for the handicapped. The RC Park is located at the northern end of Robson Ranch just south of the RV Storage complex. Drag Racing is at the Creative Arts Center. The club site has facilities for spectators. Guests of club members can use the facility, when accompanied by a member.
Radio Control Planes
Members fly RC aircraft of any size with either electric or gas engines. The club has 2 runways and a shaded work table area for the pilots. There is a Helicopter/Drone flying area. There is a handicap-accessible restroom on site. Members can fly any time of the day, usually in the mornings when it is cooler. The club has several Fun Fly events during the Winter season where pilots participate in skills competitions. The club has several trainer planes. Flight instruction by AMA certified instructors is free.
RC Car Racing
We have two dirt race tracks (Oval and Road). We race 1/10 scale RC Cars/Trucks—2-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive. There are two race seasons during the year. The Winter season, November through March, has the largest participation. The Summer season, May through September, has fewer participants due to the absence of snowbirds. We race Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning at 8:30 a.m. On Tuesday we race 2-wheel drive vehicles. On Thursday we race both 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive vehicles. Racers compete in 4 different skill classes determined by the racer’s skill level. We have electronic timing for lap timing and race statistics. We race two weeks on the Oval track and then the next two weeks on the Road track. Class winners at the end of each season are awarded trophies.
RC Car Drag Racing
Drag racing is on Sunday afternoons at the Creative Arts Center during the Winter season. Races are 1/10 scale distance on asphalt surfaces using a drag strip timing system. The system includes the light timing tree, staging sensors, and finish line sensors that allow the computer to collect race data. The system gives the racer his/her Reaction Time (RT), Elapsed Time (ET), and Speed for each race. All cars are 1/10 scale. There are three classes of race cars: Stock—cars that are set up for our RC car race tracks, Modified/Drag—cars that are modified to Drag condition along with larger motors, Unlimited—any size motor and battery is allowed. Gas engines are permitted. Class winners at the end of the season are awarded trophies.
The RR RC Club website is: robsonranchrc.net.
Note: We did an AI search and found that this is the only 55+ retirement community in the United States that has a club with both RC Flying and RC Racing!