Snoopy's Squadron R/C Flying Club

Johannesburg, South Africa

Snoopy's is situated about 30 minutes outside Johannesburg and has been on the same piece of ground for over 20 years. The ownership of the ground has changed hands around three times in the club's history, but they are still there - the club even has four of the founding members still flying at the club.

Marc, pictured left with his X-Cell SE, is Secretary of the club, which now has about 50 members, of which probably 30 are regular pilots. They are lucky enough to be able to fly for 11 months of the year, with August being the windy period when winds in excess of 40 kph are the norm!

As you can see from the photos, the grass at the field is pretty brown now, due to the fact that winter is the dry period. Rain should start in October, and once the rain starts, the grass takes two weeks to go green again and in the height of the rainy season (summer), the grass needs to be cut every week! This shot is of the plank pits with the clubhouse in the background.

Usual flying times are from 8 a.m. till late, which could mean up to 7 p.m. in summer. In winter, though, 9 a.m. is the usual starting time for the heli pilots, with the plank guys joining in at about lunch time! Here's the early-bird heli fleet - Hirobo RG, X-Cell SE and Robbe Moskito - with a nice little heli-pad in the background.

The club has only 5 helicopter pilots now (out of an original 15). The other heli pilots could not co-exist with the plank pilots, so up and left to join other clubs. Here's a plank/heli pilot with a beautiful Cub. It would be nice to see more of both pilot and plane, although Marc did ask him to smile, but with no luck!

The club grounds are split into two areas, one for helis and the other for the planks, although the airspace is free for all. The heli pits pictured here were constructed four months ago at a cost of about 3,500 Rand (about £330). This included grass, steel plate, benches and labour, all of which came out of the club funds.