• Tell us all about your model flying club and report on your activities. E-mail me with some idea of the sort of facilities you have, size of membership, types of model flown, social activities, reports of 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!

The primary activity at HMAC is flying radio-control powered models, both fixed-wing and helicopters, although control-line and free-flight are also catered for. You will see the full range of fixed-wing models being flown at the club, with scale, sports, fun-fly, aerobatic and ducted-fan models all appearing regularly. As with most clubs, interest in electric flight is increasing, though mainly in the form of powered gliders at the present time - I bet that emphasis will change, though!

Here's a magnificent aerial view of HMAC's Broken Bank flying site, which they operate under licence from their local County Council. The site is located on an industrial reclamation site on the Wirral shore of the Dee Estuary and visitors with full BMFA insurance are welcome guests at the site. Broken Bank has a separate 30-meter diameter heli area. Club flying takes place on three days a week, but there are no limits on the use of the site by members and it is in use most days of the week.

The open and isolated aspect of this site can make winter flying a bit on the cold side, so the club has built a very useful club hut where a gas-powered heater provides welcome warmth and a gas barbecue is available for the preparation of hot meals - sounds pretty good to me!

HMAC also has a separate Clubhouse in Heswall, where members gather informally each Friday evening, with liquid refreshment available afterwards in the bar of an adjoining Squash club - these guys have got it made! A Club Night is held on the third Friday of every month with the programme consisting of video shows, quiz nights, talks on model-related topics, bring-and-buy sales, etc. In addition, the Club has a variety of social events like the Christmas get-together, annual dinner-dance and barbecue evenings at the flying field.

All members of HMAC receive a monthly newsletter, The Hawk (the title derives from the original name of the club, Heswall Hawks). It looks a very attractive publication and is compiled by Andy Tabor, who is also webmaster of the club's very smart website. Andy actually makes some of the articles from The Hawk available for down-loading from the website - I noticed a very interesting Workshop Data Sheet, for example - a workshop reference to number and letter drill sizes, wire gauges and BA, metric and UNC screw sizes and imperial and metric measurements. The downloads are configured for viewing with Adobe Acrobat and if you haven't got the software, it, too, can be downloaded via the site! 

This is the Home Page of Heswall MAC's website, and on the right a reduced reproduction of the smart navigation bars to the various pages of the site. Andy says he is still developing the Photograph Album, but already there are some nice shots of models past and present seen at the club together with some interesting comments on them, plus a link to Andy's own personal album of models he has owned and flown. I've picked off one or two photos to show you on our photo gallery page.

A great club, by the sound of things, a very smart website and a darn good publicist, if I may so so!

http://www.heswallmac.freeserve.co.uk