History of the Pioneer R/C Club

The radio control club, now known as the Pioneer R/C Club, Inc., is believed to be the first R/C lub organized in the United States. It was organized at a meeting held August 19, 1950, at Alfred Bazurto’s home in San Francisco. Ray Mayes, Wynn Smith, Ralph Arista, A. Bazurto, L. Bazurto, Ed Rockwood, Ray Regalia, P. Patoni and Bob McReynolds attended the meeting. The minutes of this meeting stated: “Our first meeting was called at A. Bazurto’s house in S.F. to see if it were feasible to form an R.C. Association and to see what was thought about it.” The first official meeting was scheduled for September 16, 1950, in Walnut Creek, California. At this meeting, the name given to the club was “Pacific Radio Control Society”. An entrance fee of $1.00 was to be charged for membership in the society, but no dues were to be paid. Officers of the society were to consist of a permanent Secretary-Treasurer and a rotating chairman who would be picked from the area in which a meeting was to be held. Alfred Bazurto was elected Secretary-Treasurer and Ed Rockwood was chosen as Chairman for the next meeting held on October 21, 1950 in Walnut Creek. The club grew rapidly in membership. The meetings were generally held in member’s homes, except for some meetings in Walnut Creek, which were held at the Coast Counties Auditorium. In March of 1957, when the club became too large, the meetings were held in meeting halls. On May 5, 1952, the club was reorganized and the offices of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer were established. An executive board was also formed with Vice President Arista and members Ray Regalia and Bill McKerracher. The club’s first flying site was at the Warm Springs glider airport. This field was used until October 1952, when it was closed to flying of gliders and R/C airplanes. A field off Page Mill Road in Palo Alto was used briefly and then a field near Novato was tried. In March of 1953, the club finally rented a site at the Center Field Airport in Centerville until July of 1955. Dues of $.50 per month were charged to members in order to cover this expense. A new field was found in 1954 in Menlo Park at Marsh Road and Bayshore Highway adjacent to Ed Rockwood’s new shop. It was used for flying until 1958. A taxi strip at Half Moon Bay Airport was also used as an alternative field during 1956 and 1957 as well as a field near Alviso. In 1967, the election date was changed to December in order to coincide with a Christmas dinner and to have terms of office start in January. In 1976, the terms of office were changed to two years with staggered terms to avoid total change of officers in each election. The Club’s name, “Pacific Radio Control Society”, was changed in December 1956 when the PRCS name was wanted for the federation of west coast clubs. The club then adopted the name “Pioneer Radio Controllers” and the club bulletin was called the “Pioneer Modulator. In 1961, the Pioneer club was incorporated and became, “Pioneer R/C Club, Inc.”. Note: The “Pacific Radio Control Society” of west coast clubs did not flourish and in 1959 was replaced by a new organization of Bay Area Clubs called the “Northern California Radio Control Society” (NCRCS) a name that exists today.

In April 1958, the Sunnyvale Parks and Recreation Committee gave permission to the Pioneers to use a field adjacent to the Quarter Midget Race Track in Baylands Park The runway was paved in 1962 and was occupied until 1966 when the area was designated to be used for a dumpsite. In 1963, because of the proximity of this flying field to the 14 midget race track, flying was restricted to alternate Sundays for safety reasons. Subsequently, Sunnyvale officials offered the club the use of another area in Baylands Park, adjacent to Lockheed, for a flying field. This field was prepared by the Pioneers and put in use about April 1966. It was named Stewart Field in honor the late Bob Stewart who had been very active in obtaining and preparing the flying site. The field was used until August 1969, when it was turned back into a dumpsite once again. At about this same time, the old field by the midget racetrack was reactivated. However, due to dumping, the field was now about 30 feet higher than it was originally and further away from the racetrack, so that alternating between flying and midget racing was not required. However, trees had been planted at the south end of the field along Caribbean Way, which required skillful flying of pattern-type airplanes when landing into the prevailing northerly wind. Use of this field continued until 1976, when negotiations with the Santa Clara Police Activities League organization resulted in obtaining a flying site on the old Santa Clara dumpsite between Great America Parkway and Lafayette Street. In 1982 the club was given notice to vacate the dumpsite land for future development. At this time the club membership was about 400 members. Once again the Pioneer’s were without a flying site for a year. Finally the Police Activities League (PAL) sponsored a new flying site for the club at the Agnew Development Center West in Santa Clara and a new asphalt runway opened in 1983. The club was very active and the membership reached 550 in 1988. In 1989 there was further development of the area and a new roadway (Lick Mill Blvd) was going through one end of the club’s runway. The club was again without a field for about a year and one-half until 1991 when a new runway was completed under the direction of the new president, Bob Sweger. At this time, the club established new noise control policy with Agnews officials that limited the model aircraft power to four-cycle engines and electric motors. The club’s membership recovered somewhat and reached about 125 members in the subsequent years as flying continued. In September of 1998, the club was given 30 days notice to vacate the Agnew-Lick Mill Blvd site because the state sold the property for development. Since then, the Pioneer R/C Club, Inc, has been without a flying site. Exhaustive searches, contacts and proposals have been made with agencies in the south Bay Area and within a 25-mile radius of the club’s old site, but no landowner would let the club use, lease or rent any land. At this time, land development was at it’s highest in the area, prices were extremely high and no one wanted to get involved.

The Pioneer R/C Club and it's members are still active
in model building and flying and continue to function
with a current membership of forty plus.