If it was not true it would be funny....

[Gray E Fowler]

Any Lawyer types on the list?

I got a call from my club President last night, since I am the ex 
president. It seems that a lawsuit has been filed against the Richardson 
Radio Control Club for about $4000. The break down goes like this

1. Broken arm -medical expenses......$1500
2. Lost wages..............................................$1500
3. Court costs.................................................$250
4. Suffering....................................................$1000

The charges also include "trespassing".

We have a meeting set up for this Saturday to discuss what we are going to 
do as a club and I wonder if anyone has some experience-advice.

Here are some facts. 

Round 1
The RRCC field is on Collin County land set aside by the county 
SPECIFICALLY for the development of and RC flying field. The county 
approached the RRCC about 1997 and asked us to develop this site per a 
plane they had, which we 100% complied with, and met all goals. We are in 
year 8 of a 20 year $1 lease.  This lady who filed this lawsuit in small 
claims court first attack us 3 years ago. I was president. We had a 
meeting at the Collin county Parks Managers office so they could hear her 
complaints and our responses. Her complaint was noise. At that time Lance 
who was VP and I had already started a manditory noise restriction club 
legislation and it was passed by our membership. This was because we knew 
we had a problem with several 100cc gas engines rating 108dB on the ground 
(pattern style measurment)  and screaming supersonic props in the air.
The lady IS nuts and went hysterical during this meeting with the county. 
I invited the County managers out to our field with this lady present to 
witness the "noise". in short we flew demos with several types of plane 
and measured noise on he ground and during overfly at and past our 
boundaries. The County managers witnessed that Lance's IMAC style plane 
(101 dB pattern style measurement) was quieter flying over the 950 ft 
boundary road than the traffic on the road itself by a factor of 2-4 X. So 
they concluded that there IS NOT a noise problem at our field. The 
complaining lady was not happy.

Round 2
Next, The lady files a complaint against us in "County Commissioner's 
Court" for the same reason. She states her whine, we state our case and 
are backed up by the county managers. We presented or efforts to contain 
noise and the results of our demo with the county managers. The County 
Judges dismiss the Lady's whine and asks us a few question about these 
"neat toys".   Yeah -we win.

Round 3
This lady consistently calls the Sheriff about noise. The Sheriff is 
obliged to show up at our field, but nothing ever happens. The plane she 
has pointed out to the Sherriff about the horrible noise is none other 
than Lance's Symphony.  During our demo, Lance flew his pattern plane 
(NATS legal) PAST the boundary road directly over my head at 150ft high-I 
could not get a dB reading over the background noise. 

So, I suppose that the lady got SO UPSET about the noise that she ran out 
of her trailer house, fell off the steps and broke her arm , so therfore 
it is the fault of the RRCC. She could not then work (she works for the 
USPO, so we better be careful!!!) and obviously the USPO has no short term 
disability insurance, and so no wages are our fault too. Trespassing must 
be planes flying over her house as we are not aware of any real 
trespassing. Court costs and "suffering" are obvious.

We are contacting the AMA today, and the county managers. 

Anyone have any real advice for this situation that could help? Fire 
bombing her trailer is not an option, even though it would solve the 
problem. I am not sure, but I suspect that she is from the Irish branch of 
AL-Queda (dyed bright red hair).

Seriously.....any ideas would be appreciated-especially from lawyers on 
how we should handle this. The lady DOES NOT have a lawyer, and it is 
small claims court. I do not know what the proceedure here is. If you read 
this past about 3pm please respond to aeroslave at comcast.net. 

Thanks Guys



Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering
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