Coachella Valley Radio Control Club

The Coachella Valley Radio Control Club is based near Coachella in Riverside County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest model aircraft clubs in the United States, one of the oldest non-profit service organizations in continuous existence in the Coachella Valley and one of the few Academy of Model Aeronautics gold-certified clubs in the country.

"Gold certification" means that the club has met certain strict guidelines of safety requirements within the AMA rules as well as a high degree of both safety and quality regarding the facility itself.

The club traces its roots to 1938 when a loose-knit group of free flight model aircraft enthusiasts began meeting on a weekly basis at the now-defunct La Quinta Airport. That site, between Eisenhower Drive and Washington Street south of Avenue 52, is today a part of the La Quinta Cove residential district. It lies almost directly at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains, is prone to sudden high winds and, in the case of the hobbyists, the resulting loss of models.

The onset of World War II in 1941 brought the practice to a temporary halt, resuming after the war at other open sites around the area. The immediate postwar era would see three major developments in the hobby, namely the development of control line flying, small nitromethane-powered glow engines and early, single-channel radio control. The latter took advantage of another postwar development, that of citizen's band radio. Model aircraft were allocated only one frequency, 27.255 MHz, meaning only one plane could fly at any given time. These early advances insured that the club would continue to grow, with hobbyists meeting at almost any open area that was available at the time.

By the early 1990s, the central and western areas of the Coachella Valley were growing at a record pace. Many of the club's previous flying fields were either built over or were considered private property. Finding areas that were free of interference from buildings and power lines was becoming increasingly more difficult. 1992 saw the club's move to their fifteenth official site with the lease of undeveloped land at Avenue 58 and Monroe Street in the unincorporated Vista Santa Rosa area.

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