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The Conejo Club did not have a place to fly, but Gene Linhart worked at the Northrop facility located at what was then the end of Rancho Conejo Blvd. Gene and members of the Conejo RC Modelers along with members of Northrop’s Ventura Rec Club worked with Northrop and their lawyers in 1971 and gained permission to use the 40 acres behind Northrop’s main facilities for their flying site. Approval was given and with a $35.00 grant from the Northrop Rec Club Gene Linhart rented a tractor and graded a dirt strip runway. An old concrete floor from the original Northrop building is what was used as the pit area.
The Club flew off dirt until they collected enough funds (through fund raisers and loans) and permission to pave the runway in late 1974. One of the early concerns was that their contract stated they had to share the area with sheep and allow them to graze. For several years the club shared its field with a seasonal flock of sheep and their shepherd. The sheep cleared all of the vegetation off of the whole area and it turned out to be an excellent place to fly.
RC Helicopters and the Conejo Valley Flyers date back to around 1976. John Gorham was the first in the club to attempt Helis. Tino Villanueva and John Minasian were also among the first to venture into RC Helicopters around 1969. Villanueva and Minasian were not in the Conejo Valley Flyers at that time but were in a group called “Helicopters Anonymous”. After building their helicopters these two Pilots had to learn on their own to fly from scratch, (no simulators and no buddy system, just as John Gorham did), as no one else knew how to fly these challenging RC’s. John Minasian said he went through about 400 feet of rotor blades during his learning process.
John Minasian joined the Conejo Valley Flyers in 1976, He stated, “It was a lot of fun and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of nice people along the way." John flew Helicopters until 1989, when he went to fixed wing models. John said recently “I enjoyed flying very much and still like to go and watch the younger guys fly them. They do some impossible things with these Helis”. Our Current Club members are still all nice people and always willing to help new folks with the ins and outs of RC flying.
The club was listed as an offsite event for the annual Conejo Valley Days and Chili Cook off. Each year the club would put on a free RC Model air show for the public as part of the Conejo Valley Days event. This relationship grew through the 80's and 90's until around 1998, the club was notified by Northrop that they were selling the property and we had less than 2 years to find a new home. At its peak our club's membership grew to reach 250 and at one point we even considered limiting it. The club flew at the Northrop site until the property was sold and developed, around 1998.
It took a long 8 plus years to find a new home located on the Adventist property behind their school at the end of Wendy drive in Newbury Park. Our Club members never gave up and continued to fight for a space to call home. Many long hours were spent (thanks to Joe Martin) with first the City of Thousand Oaks and then the County of Ventura before being given an opportunity to use the Adventist private property for our new home. This battle shows the commitment to the sport by our club members and especially our club officers at the time (Rick Esler) who also contributed many man hours to helping find a new CVF home.
We are currently using a 400' x 40' dirt runway which is surfaced with a low maintenance synthetic material which is quite nice for RC aircraft. As time passes our membership is starting to grow with RC flyers, flying everything from fixed wing aircraft to Helicopters, 2 stroke, 4 stroke, electric to gas. In addition we have gliders that are now also enjoying the flying site. We will continue to improve our field as membership grows.
The club meets on the 3rd Wed of each month (7:30 pm) at the Goebal Center on Janns Rd. in Thousand Oaks, CA -- everyone is welcome, all ages.
As our club grows the membership gets stronger and this club continues to grow the sport and maintain the tradition of RC flight.
Come join us for some flying fun.
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