What sort of Club/Facilities do you have?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Bob Cotsford]

we've got a lock on the gate to the field.

Exclusive use of the flying area with planning permission, but a public footpath behind the pits. Club meetings weekly in a clubhouse remote from the field. No real extra-curricular activities and a fair spread of social classes and means.

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 10/03/2013 10:32:03

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Bob Cotsford]

The real reason for the gate is to stop anglers parking on our field - they got hold of the number once and parked all over the place.

Our landlord is a rare beast - a do-gooder who does a lot of good. Absolute top bloke. He organises farm visits for schools and often brings the tractor powered 'train' up to our site in summer so the kids can see the models being flown.

[WolstonFlyer]

The club owns the field with planning permission, it has a gravel carpark and locked gates and a mower in a shed but no other facilities. (oh and a windsock)

There are about 100 members in total but I don't think I have met them all.

Meetings are twice a month and indoor flying in a sports hall once a month. Just had a bring and buy sale in Feb and the very well organised club committee also invites some very good guest speakers for some club meetings. We also have club flying competitions over the summer.

[ken anderson.]

we have around about 100 members in our club........a friendly bunch of people ,,,,,,who i'm the chairman of.....check out our web site......

ken anderson....ne...1 big chief dept....

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Prop Nut]

We have a field with a well-mown grass patch and locked gate, well away from roads and dwellings, with a bridle path and parking to one side. We have a weather-proof shelter, can accommodate reasonably large models, and are fixed-wing only. Full adult membership is £60. Interest in club evenings has waned over the past five years, except for Bring and Buys, but the competition calendar is year-round and well attended. We have members from across the age, social, and professional spectrum, including several full-size pilots, and fly a range of scratch, kit-built and ARTF models, mainly IC but with some electric. There is a good feel to the club with plenty of help and interchange of ideas and opinions. New members are made welcome, and there is an efficient training and examining organisation. I consider myself very lucky to have such a club.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Bucksboy]

We've got 100 members and fly behind a locked gate over waste land, its an old rubbish dump so the land is contaminated for most other uses. We've got a container with some chairs and somewhere to sit out of the wind. The solar power panel was stolen off the roof, this was very successful while it lasted, about 2 months! Luckily our car park is close to the pits and is gravel/hardcore. Our pits area is fitted with several tables for starting the planes, no more kneeling in the mud for us. Our biggest asset is our Astroturf runway, we fitted this as the rabbits would not leave our strip alone. We tried everything but this has been the best thing, its 60m x 20m big, it was a second hand hockey pitch that a school was replacing. Its great for the smaller foamies and ducted jets, most people try to land on it so it has improved our general flying too.

We have club nights once a month and in the summer these are held at the field so we can BBQ at the same time and fly in the evenings. It all seems to work pretty well, its £75 a year but with a high one off joining fee to help pay for the Astroturf. We've got a queue to join still so we're doing something right.

Hopefully, here's a link to our website.

[Dave Bran]

We have a small but nicely mown patch on a field with single mature 85' high trees aligned either end of the strip, a tight and high tree line boundary on three sides, and a no-go horse paddock on the last side behind the no-go pits. Its at the top of a steep track that gets washed out frequently with deep canyons from the run-off water force. A large urban estate means the inevitable intrusion by those that have only causing trouble on their minds.

We have to share overall site access with other non-compatible users, particularly at weekends, though hours wise we are the largest user.

There are no restrictions on what is flown except the usual noise and time restrictions in the planning permissions, but there are practicality limits with that restricted a space! We do not exclude model types, though there are few Heli flyers (I fly both).

That's it, facilities wise, there's nothing else.

Why do we bother then? Well, its well inside the M25 circle, unlike most other viable options, ten mins drive in my case if avoiding commuter times of day, does not have a waiting list for the waiting list, and the group of people are great!

[John Privett]

Also inside the M25 circle (it passes within 2 miles of us), we have a mown runway about 55m x 12m and loads of space around it. The nearest trees are behind the pits - so in a no-fly zone anyway, other trees are so far away as to never pose a problem. We have a peg-board and facilities-wise, that's it!

We're on high ground on chalky soil, so flooding is never an issue. The land is privately owned but with public access - most locals assume it's common-land. We don't pay any rent for the "field" as the club was setup a few years ago as a requirement of the body that governs the use of the land to regulate the model flying that has gone on there for many decades. Consequently our subs are only £10 a year, but we'll never have the sort of facilities (clubhouse, hard strip etc.) that some clubs have.

[Codename-John]

We have a big old insulated shipping container as a clubhouse, an ordinary metal container for the mower and other club items, a windsock, a pegboard and a sort of wooden structure in the flying box to park your bum on while flying.

I dont know how much we pay the farmer in rent every year, but we have a large field on top of a big hill in the middle of the sticks, you can fly whatever you like although models over 7kg and gas turbines only if you have a BMFA B cert, with 2 runways almost square to each other for differing wind directions. Over the last few years we`ve built a fence around the strip to keep the sheep out but last year we got invaded by cows from somewhere and they made a right mess because of the soft ground with all the rain, so consequently the gate gets kept locked properly now

[Wingman]

We rent one and a half acres in NE Scotland for £600 a year and have between 15 an 20 members who pay £60 a year. We have a 3 roomed portacabin with heating and cooking facilities, a mover shed with ride-on mower, several 'starting tables' and a 7ft high chain link safety fence between pits and parking. All-in-all a pretty good setup but we struggle to attract new members for reasons I've never figured out as it really is a beautiful site and we are an easy going club with no requirement for flying other than insurance. If you're interested we're here.

[LMA Dave]

Well being in the LMA and very actively involved in setting up and running of all our shows throughout the season plus having a number of fly-in to attend that we support, I don’t see my flying site very much over the summer.

However it is, one if the best flying sites in the country, even if it will only be there for a couple of years, I am of course, talking about Woodford Aerodrome the home of our very own Vulcan XM603 and was once (not so long ago) a fully active Aerospace factory for the Nimrods to name but a few. There are no restrictions on size of models but we do restrict ourselves on noise, there is no point in annoying people who live near the site just because we can.

We have full size tarmac runways to play on and times are restricted to weekends only for now. It is a limited membership which is controlled at the main gate by fulltime security, if you name is not on the list you not getting in. I consider myself very lucky to be on that list and enjoy the camaraderie and friendship of the other members there.

[Chuck Plains]

The East Devon Radio Control Culb charges £69 to join and £38 if you already have a BMFA number. We basically have just a flying field on Woodbury Common near Exwick, and as such is 'common' land. The activities are noted on council owned sineage in the area, and all we have is a 100x100ft cut area among the gorse bushes. The gorse makes for a rather sipkey but 2 to 3ft thick carpet if you land before you return to base. But the public has access all year round and we never fly along here. If you fly, someone else must be there as a lookout for cyclists, pedestrians and their dogs, kids, iguanas, etc.

Edited By Chuck Plains on 10/03/2013 15:31:08

[John Privett]

Posted by Chuck Plains on 10/03/2013 15:23:58:

If you fly, someone else must be there as a lookout for cyclists, pedestrians and their dogs, kids, iguanas, etc.

Exactly the same for us. Not that I recall seeing too many iguanas recently.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

We fly in a public park oowned by the local authority - its a "country park" so it's pretty big! Being a park of course it is open to the public but in the main we rub along well with them and on a nice day we usually have a few "spectators"! Of course the presence of the public does mean we tend to be pretty hot on the safety aspects; no solo flying without an A-cert, B-cert needed for models over 7kg and jets, strip must be indicated via 4 red flags etc. We can fly alone - ie there is no club rule banning it - but its not encouraged.

We pay about £415 per year for rent and adult membership is £66 per year at the moment. We currently have about 56 members. We have a smashing strip now - having had it ploughed and leveled last year (with the permision of the LA of course!). Its 80mx40m so a generous size but not enormous. We are closed-in on four sides; pits behind, trees to left and right and a major hospital in front! The clear flying area is big enough though and large models can be flown with care.

We don't have any facilities as such in terms of huts/containers etc. But we do have a PA system and 3-4 tents/gezebos etc for "events"! Generally we don't need a mower as the strip and field are mown by the parks people as part of the lease agreement.

Socially we have a club meeting once a month, but not in July/August. We have indoor flying once a month Oct to April. We also have 3-4 organised outdoor flying events a year; club comps, fun-fly, scale day etc.

Overall we're a pretty happy bunch - and although we have about 56 members I'd say the "hard-core" flying members are about 25-30 in number.

BEB

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Yeah we find the LA is very good - whenever we have had cause to deal with them never any problem. But its the park rangers that are the "stars"! They have been fantastically supportive. I think they really like the fact that people are using the park - we've been there close on 50 years now so I guess we call call ourselves "established" with our feet well and truely under the table

BEB

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Stephen Grigg]

Very good ones haha

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

We're lucky enough, due to some far-sighted action by members 30 years or so ago, to own just over 5 acres of a former sewage works (no trace of the smelly bits which disappeared years before the field was put on sale).

This means that we've been able to invest time and money over the years to turn a scruffy piece of land into a very pleasant flying field with a heated club house, generator housed in the original brick buiilding on site, tractor and rather nice grass cutter, and assorted miscellaneous tools along with a large garage/workshop to keep them in.

The loan to buy the land was paid for many years ago, so all our subs income goes into providing equipment and facilities for the members. A very well established local club lost their field last year due to the whim of the farmer's wife - and I understand they were due to be charged £4000 a year for the privelege! At least their loss was our gain, having picked up some very pleasant new members as a result.

Before that, the club had the usual trials and tribulations with rented land, being moved on due pressure from golf clubs, school governers etc. and getting "useful" offers from the council such as the rooftop carpark of the local town centre shopping mall on a Sunday before trading law changed (believe it or not this was a serious proposal from the council!)

We have a few working parties during the year to do general site tidying and more major works such as safety fencing that we uprated a couple of years ago and very occasionally engage contractors for more specialist heavy work although in most cases we have the expertise to do most things within the club.

...and we have a very friendly real ale pub at the end of our access lane!

 

Edited By Martin Harris on 11/03/2013 22:31:09

[Ian Jones]

We share a small field with some sheep and there's plenty of trees in the hedge lines to keep us busy.

Our grass strip is about 60 x 20 yds and is rolled around this time each year. We have to park on the flying field behind the pits which is both good and bad as it's all a tight fit. We have a shed for the mower and a few other bits. Our field is down a long (bumpy) farm drive and so we are reasonably isolated which allows us to fly at any time. No other facilities but we make good use of what we have.

Oh we have an extra special facility I should mention and that is that most of the time the sun is behind us. The setting sun can be nuisance when it moves around to the west but on the whole it's good.

Around 50 members with a couple of dozen very active and another dozen or so fairly regular. Apart from a few newer members I know who everyone is.

At least once a year we run a day when invited guest flyers (the like of Nathan Farrel Jones etc) rub shoulders with members on the flight line and is always a good day. The last few years we have run a members fun competition in the summer. We don't do much else socially, though this years mass build has prompted a few meetings that I'm hoping will turn into monthly "socials".

I'm not going to mention fees etc other than to say they are reasonable.

Thinks that's it.