TORKS, The Oklahoma Radio Kontrol Society: home

Field Rules

These are the Tom Jones Memorial Model Aircraft Flying Field Flight Operations Regulations, adopted April 2, 2024, including the requirements of the club’s lease with Oklahoma City. The signed version is the official one, and it includes the agreement every pilot signs each year.

The most important rule: come here to have fun!

1. Requirements

Oklahoma City requires the following of everyone at the Field:

  1. Every pilot, Member or guest, must read and agree to these rules and sign the waiver for the current calendar year.
  2. Every active pilot must pay for and carry an Oklahoma City Parks flying permit (City Ord. § 38-309.1).
  3. No smoking or vaping of tobacco or marijuana.
  4. No alcohol, and no one under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
  5. No glass bottles.
  6. Keep your own first aid kit in your car or field box.
  7. No-fly zone: never fly over the Lake Hefner treatment plant, the generator buildings or the dam. Don’t try to slope soar off the north face of the dam.

To fly, you must also be a TORKS Member and carry:

  • your current AMA membership card
  • your current TORKS membership card
  • if you fly R/C, your FAA small unmanned aircraft registration
  • if you fly R/C, proof that you passed the FAA’s The Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST)

Students who aren’t yet AMA members may fly for up to 90 days with an AMA Intro Pilot, if they are enrolled in the AMA Intro Pilot program online. Once their AMA membership comes through, they join TORKS.

Visitors who live outside the Oklahoma City area and are here for 8 weeks or less fly free, with a temporary TORKS membership that ends when they leave. They need everything listed above, plus the City Permit, and must fly with a TORKS Member present as their host.

Members of other metro clubs may fly at special events such as fun flys, or occasionally (fewer than 4 times a year), with everything listed above plus the City Permit.

Everyone follows all AMA, federal, state and city laws.

2. Safety

  • All AMA safety rules apply at all times.
  • If a model flies away to the south or west, call the Wiley Post Airport control tower right away at 405-798-2040. Tell them which way it was heading and how high it was when you last saw it.
  • 72 MHz and other 50–72 MHz radios must show the correct frequency number under the AMA Radio Control Utilization Plan. Keep your transmitter off until your membership card (guests may use their AMA card) is on that channel on the frequency board and its frequency pin is on your transmitter. Channel 20 (72.190) isn’t allowed.
  • Pilots on 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz identify themselves to other pilots if asked.
  • Point models toward the runway when starting them, or wherever windblast and a thrown propeller are least likely to hurt anyone.
  • Start models on the pit side of the engine shutdown line on the taxiway, on the ground or on one of the two starting stands. Never start a model on the tables.
  • Fly safely at all times. Reckless or unsafe flying isn’t allowed.
  • An experienced Member supervises inexperienced pilots at all times.
  • Don’t stand on or near the runway where you’d be in the way of, or a danger to, yourself or other pilots.
  • Anyone flying R/C or control line is responsible for the safety and control of spectators at all times.
  • Control line pilots use a safety thong (wrist strap) to prevent fly-aways.

Calls at the pilot stations

R/C pilots are strongly encouraged to call out what they’re doing:

Call When
“Coming out” As you taxi to the runway
“On the runway” When you move from the taxiway onto the runway, or your model stops on the runway
“Taking off” As you take off. Make your first turn away from the pilot stations.
“Touch and go” or “Low pass” Before you do it, so other pilots know
“Landing” On final approach
“Dead stick” or “Emergency” When your engine quits or you have any other control problem
“On the field” Whenever you go east of the pilot stations or cross the runway to get your model
“Clear” Once you and your model are back behind the pilot stations

3. Operations

General

  • The Field is open for flying from sunrise until 11 pm, every day.
  • Fly at night only with lights on the model itself. Floodlights and spotlights aren’t allowed.
  • No gas or glow flying, or engine run-ups, before 10 am on Sundays.
  • R/C two- and four-stroke engines of .19 cubic inches and larger need a proper muffler. For control line, the limit is .41 cubic inches and larger.
  • R/C flying stays east of the front of the pilot stations (or over the control line circle when it isn’t in use), and north of the jogging and bicycle trails along S. Lake Hefner Dr. Never fly over the parking lot, spectator area or pits.

R/C fixed wing

  • Fly from the six pilot stations west of the north–south runway. No more than six aircraft in the pattern at once.
  • Take off and land into the wind. Start your takeoff on the upwind side of the runway’s midpoint line.
  • Fly the traffic pattern east of the north–south runway.
  • Make low, fast passes east of the runway’s east edge, over the grass, not over the runway.
  • Landing aircraft have priority on the runway. Dead stick and emergency landings have priority over everything.
  • After landing, taxi off the runway and down the taxiway, stop, and shut down your engine or motor east of the line on the taxiway.

Helicopters and multirotors (drones)

  • When control line pilots aren’t using it, use the control line circle in the northwest corner of the Field for hovering, low flying and autorotation practice.
  • All other rotary-wing flying follows the fixed-wing rules.

Control line

  • Fly in the circle in the northwest corner of the Field, north of the parking lot fence.
  • Always use a safety thong, as the AMA code requires.
  • Pull-test every control system before its first flight and after any significant repair, as the AMA code requires.

4. Courtesy

  • Pilots sharing a 50–72 MHz frequency agree on fair turns with the frequency pin, for example one 15-minute flight each.
  • Everyone keeps the Field and pits clean. Take home what you brought.

5. Training

TORKS offers three kinds of free R/C training:

  • A one-time introductory flight, at Thursday night training or any time an Instructor at the Field is able to give one. AMA allows a guest one introductory flight to try R/C flying.
  • The AMA Introductory Pilot Program, for up to 90 days, free to prospective Members. Students must register online with the AMA, and the club tracks each Student’s 90 days. The 90 days give you time to get your own AMA membership, after which you train one-on-one as a Member.
  • One-on-one training for Members, at Thursday night training or whenever you arrange it with an Instructor.

The regulations set Thursday night training from the first to the last Thursday of daylight saving time, 4:30 pm until sundown. See Learn to Fly for this year’s sessions.

Tips for Students

  • Don’t fly solo until an Instructor has checked you out. Waiting for an Instructor beats crashing a model you weren’t ready to fly and spending hours rebuilding it.
  • Don’t fly solo in wind right after you’re checked out. Wind and gusts make a model feel as if something is wrong with it or your radio.
  • Learn on a trainer. Save the hot sport plane for your second or third model.
  • Take your time. Everyone learns at a different pace. Enjoy each stage.
  • On a 72 MHz radio, never switch on at the Field without the frequency pin, and don’t hog the channel if someone else is waiting for it.