The last day of September marked the end of flying at the Half Moon Bay airfield used by the Peninsula Channel Commanders since the year 2000.

A local farmer had rented his land to the club for the airfield.

But the farmer recently sold his land, including the patch used by the PCC.

Two months ago the new owner notified the group that the lease was now month-to-month. More recently the new owner decided that the lease would end on the last day of October, and that flying was to end immediately.

Fourth Visit. My first blog entry, dated Dec. 20, 2006, briefly describes a visit to the Half Moon Bay field, my fourth time there. I also documented the field with a movie shot from a Slow Stick.

This was a spectacular flying site, a quiet stretch of countryside overlooking the ocean. The PCC installed a long strip of AstroTurf for a landing strip.

Two Crashes. With frequent fog and a sheer cliff dropping into the ocean, it was also a challenge. On that fourth visit, I crashed two planes: a Slow Stick, which I piled into an adjoining hill when I misjudged my altitude, and an Easy Star, which somehow lost radio contact with my transmitter and flew off the cliff into the ocean.

(Someone later told me that PCC members flew about 20 planes into the ocean during the first year of flying.)

Tough Taking Off. For those of us who aren’t used to taking off from the ground, the runway was daunting.

The grass tangle at Baylands foils most wheeled planes, so many of us fly planes with no landing gear, electing to hand launch them and belly flop them at the end of their flights.

Despite the terrors and the hill and the runway and the wind shear that buffeted planes as they came down to land, I loved flying in Half Moon Bay.

We saw some magically beautiful days at the site.

The best PCC flyers are an inspiration, too. I enjoyed watching Paul Lum, Jake Chichilitti and their peers put on air shows for the rest of us.

Tearing Down. During October, the group will be busy peeling up the AstroTurf, dismantling the weather station and the field camera, stowing the tables, chairs and other paraphernalia that turned a farmer’s field into an exemplary flying site.

The group is now actively searching for a new flying location, a significant challenge in Northern California.

I’m sorry to see the Half Moon Bay field go away.

Tags: Crashes, Flying, Half Moon Bay, PCC.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 6:31 pm and is filed under PCC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.