Lexington Model Airplane Club takes to skies for last time at old landfill. What’s next?
Michael Breunig’s first model airplane flight of the year took place on the final flying event at the Lexington Model Airplane Club’s home of 26 years, the former Haley Pike landfill.
He remotely piloted a model of an Eindecker, one of the first planes flown in World War I. Breunig is the third person to own the plane, but was the first to actually fly it after it was left to him from the prior owner’s estate.
It was built from a kit, as many models are, and has a gas-powered engine about as strong as that of a weed-eater.
“I was extremely nervous because both (the previous owners) had said that it didn’t have enough power to fly. It was close, but just enough,” he said of his first time flying the plane. “It’s been a really nice plane.”
It may be a while before Breunig has the chance to fly it again.
The club will vacate the Haley Pike landfill on May 22 to make room for Edelen Renewables’ 357-acre solar panel installation. The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted to approve the contract with the company, despite the protestations of the club and other controversies surrounding the contract.
On May 9, club members gathered for one final time to take to the eastern Fayette County skies.
“It feels like losing an old friend”
While many model planes are assembled from kits, Sylvester Hale and his son Buddy built the blue and yellow Utterly Butterly completely from scratch.
All the parts were hand-cut and hand-painted. It has a 96-inch wingspan and weighs 35 pounds.
Sylvester has been with the Lexington Model Airplane Club since 1977. In that time, the club has been relocated twice: from what would become the Kearney Ridge golf course to Masterson Station, then from Masterson Station to the Haley Pike site.
The Haley Pike site is the best one the club has had, according to Sylvester.
“I like it out here a lot better because you don’t have anything,” he said. “No houses or nothing around, so you don’t disturb anyone. It’s just nice and peaceful out here.”
He passed the hobby on to his son, who, Breunig pointed out, has won national awards for his impressive piloting maneuvers.
“It’s like losing an old friend,” Buddy said of leaving. “We have had so many good times out here.”
Chris Waybright said he came to the club after trying to find a new hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic. He now has somewhere between 15 and 20 planes in his collection.
“If I went back to playing golf again, I’d need new clubs and have to pay, you know, a hundred bucks every weekend,” he said.
But with flying, he can just charge his electric planes and come spend a whole day either alone or with fellow enthusiasts.
“It’s fun to spend time together, and it’s kind of a wholesome bunch of people just hanging out with the common passion.”
Throughout the day, members were helping each other get their gas-powered plane engines up and running. Every pilot with a model in the air has a spotter right beside them, letting them know when they may be getting too close to a neighboring plane or a buzzard, which may find its way overhead to join what it thinks are fellow buzzards scavenging for food.
“It feels frustrating (to leave) because of the way the city treated us,” Harris said, “and not really taking into account what they were doing to get a really bad deal with the solar company.”
What’s next for the airplane club?
After dozens of club members showed up to a March 13 council meeting and successfully delayed the solar project — although the project was ultimately approved at a March 26 meeting — city officials have been working with the Lexington Model Airplane Club to find another home.
Those efforts have not quite been successful yet.
“It’s pretty disheartening,” Breunig said, “especially since we don’t actually have a new site set up yet — not even a real possibility yet.”
Breunig told the Herald-Leader the site that seems the most feasible at the moment is the West Hickman wastewater treatment plant owned by the city.
But even so, that possibility feels out of reach. The city estimates it would cost $600,000 to flatten the property’s hilly landscape enough to hold a runway for the club. That estimate does not include the costs of the asphalt needed for the runway.
To rebuild all the amenities at the current Haley Pike site — including electric lines, a small shelter and the paved runway — would cost roughly $2 million, the city estimates.
The West Hickman property, while owned by Lexington, actually sits in Jessamine County’s growing Brannon area. There may be more neighborhoods immediately surrounding the site in the future, which could lead to more problems for the club down the line.
“At times the city seems helpful, and then at times it’s disheartening, simply because they don’t have the answers that we want. I wish they did,” Bruenig said.
Sally Hamilton, chief administrative officer for the city, told the Herald-Leader she can’t guarantee any future site for the club or any funding to help build facilities for the club, which she has also said to them. That would all be up to the council.
But she also needs a full project proposal to bring to the council. No such proposal exists yet, she said.
“What I would like to do, bottom line, is decide whether this West Hickman site has any feasibility at all, then determine the cost, and then discuss this with people. But I need something concrete,” she said.
Even if that proposal was in hand, she thinks it would be a “tough sell” to secure city funding for the project.
“How much do you give to a private group when you have a lot of public nonprofits also standing in line for money?” she said. “I’m not saying that they’re not worthy. I’m just saying there’s a lot of competition for funds.”
Breunig is trying to remain hopeful that the club will have a new home before long.
“You never know. Somebody could say, ‘You know, we’d love for you to come and fly out here on our farm.’ And that would be the best outcome we could hope for.”
If the club finds a home, it will be able to continue what Breunig said is the best part of being a model airplane enthusiast for him.
“We get to remember friends that have passed on. And you have those memories out here of those people,” he told the Herald-Leader soon after he had piloted the Eindecker model left to him from a friend now gone. “Then you’ll make new memories somewhere else, you hope.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 8:32 AM.
