"It may seem like a silly activity to some, but it's very enjoyable and very inspriring, really," says Seth Arlow, who flies his remote control plane with a five-foot wingspan at Sixty Acres.

Sixty Acres North has 17 soccer fields. The undeveloped county-owned land to the south is used by "modelers," mostly older men. Homer Smith is one of them.

"We have the problem of not being able to fly anywhere except in a large field," Smith says.

"There are lots of soccer fields," Arlow says. "Hundreds of them. But there is only one Sixty Acres South.

Arlow is alarmed by reports the Lake Washington Youth Soccer Association will annex the open space in north Redmond to build more fields.

"What's wonderful about this field is it's a unique place where we can actually fly this type of aircraft." Arlow says there isn't another adequate space in King County.

The soccer association already has 17 fields on the adjascent Sixty Acres North. But Curt Bateman, spokesman for the association, says the demand for space is dire.

"We're using elementary schools and high schools and parks," Bateman says. "Oftentimes, there are three or four teams practicing on a field at a time."

King County has already agreed to a land swap that will turn over Sixty Acres South to soccer. The swap would leave the modelers with no place to fly, unless they're willing to travel to a prairie on Fort Lewis land.

"A lot of people look at it as either they're going to have to drive a long distance, or maybe it'll be the end of the hobby," Arlow says.

Bateman says the modelers would be welcome to use the soccer fields for much of the year. "Nine months out of the year, we're not playing soccer," he says. "So they could have pretty much nine months of unfettered use."

Modelers disagree such use would be unfettered. Arlow says goalposts and fences ruin the space for his purposes.

"Those become aircraft magnets," he says. "The kind of thing you're bound to smack into."

Homer Smith is part of a legal fight to block the land transfer. He says the swap violates the Forward Thrust initiative of three decades ago.

"This is a moral issue," Smith says. "Forward Thrust was recreation forever, and here now they are selling it for money."

The model flyers are considered "passive users" of the space. But they'll get active if need be, and take their case to court.

For more information:

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