club scene

Tell us all about your model flying club. E-mail me with some idea of the sort of facilities you have, size of membership, flying rules, subscription rates, training facilities, types of model flown, social activities, special events, site availability, guest arrangements, frequency of meetings, location, or anything else you can think to mention. Pictures will also be most welcome, and if you want to send me pictures by conventional post, my address now appears on the home page. If your club has a website, let me know the address and I will pay you a virtual visit!

Perhaps in response to my appeal for some heli contributions for Modelflight, I received an invitation from Bath Model Helicopter Club to visit their fly-in over the weekend of 16th/17th September. "It will make a great read for Modelflight", they said. "Bob J, Russ Deakin, X-Cell team, Robbe team will all be there. Most of the greatest pilots will be there on Sunday." It sounded as if it would certainly be a great meeting, but I was due to be in Leeds for the weekend (visiting that new grandson!), but I did suggest that if they could perhaps send me a few piccies and a bit of a write-up of the event, it would still be a very welcome heli item.

However, having made contact with BMHC, I thought it would be good to try and make a virtual visit to the club, so I visited their website at http://freespace.virgin.net/heli.bath to see what I could find out about the club.

First of all, it's a very attractive home page, but it took rather a long time to download. Perhaps my browser was playing me up, although I don't really think so, but the menu panel took so long to appear that I really thought it was missing. Until it does pop up, you can't go anywhere on the site, of course! The website still seems to be in the development stage - certainly a number of pages referred to in their scrolling message line are not yet appearing and others are awaiting more information.

If you click this thumbnail, you can view the opening page in full screen format. The menu on the left-hand side of the screen gives you an overview of the content of the site.

The club has its own permanent flying site where they fly from 10 a.m. to dusk on Wednesdays, Saturdays and bank Holidays and from 11 a.m. to dusk on Sundays. There's a little club house on site. There is also a club meeting every second Wednesday of the month. I've unfortunately been unable to obtain any details of the club - how long they've been up and running, how many members, types of model currently being flown, etc.

Any way, if you're looking for a heli flying club in that part of the UK, give their website a visit and you will find details of how to contact them and join their ranks.