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Florida, USA

WPMPA describe themselves as a multi-faceted AMA Club, involved in just about every known active form of R/C flying.

This is a large club by anybody's standards, currently at its capacity of 225 members, so right now those wishing to join have to go on the waiting list, with places being filled in order of application. 

The Club has a smart looking flying field, Starkey Field, located in Pasco County, Florida. It looks most attractive and has useful-looking facilities on site, as suggested by this west view of the field. 

Club meetings are held every 3rd Wednesday of the month and the club has many experienced pilots willing to help newcomers in whatever their interest may be in R/C flying. Flight instruction is free. The club also publishes a monthly newsletter, Vapor Tales, with back issues available online from their website.

Special events take place from time to time - in November, for instance, there was a Swap Meet held on the 11th and the club was participating in the West Central Florida Electric Airplane Meet due to be held on the day this issue of ModelFlight was uploaded.

This is a miniature of the home page of WPMPA's website, with the site carrying an interesting assortment of material. Included is a bulletin board, free classified advertising to club members and other general useful information relating to location, membership, weather, etc.

Also on the site is a clutch of pages each dedicated to a particular model flying discipline - electrics, fuel/gas, gliders, helicopters and old timers. Each of these pages appears to be managed by a different club member and they carry interesting articles, reviews, event reports and a few pictures. 

Continuing my on-going quest to find active lady modellers, I was very interested to see that the old-timers page is overseen by Barbara Kruger - if you read this, Barbara, how about telling us more about your model flying interests; we would be delighted to hear from you! The site does not have the usual gallery pages of model pictures, but I have picked up just a couple of pics from WPMPA and they are on the photo gallery page.

This club is one to which ModelFlighter Jim Slaughter belongs; you can meet Jim on personal profiles and there's a shot of his rather smartly turned out Zagi on the photo gallery as well.

Drop in on West Pasco at www.wpmpa.org 

After a great deal of preparatory activity during the month of October, this new club at Thruxton, near Andover, Hants, UK, was officially opened at 10 o'clock on the morning of Saturday 3rd November. The club has been waiting for the former tenants, the model flying school ATS, to vacate the very nice flying field before taking it over.

A few hardy souls braved the damp and foggy morning to be at the field at the appointed hour, but they did seriously wonder if it was actually going to be possible to fly. As it happened, the weather brightened at a rapid rate and it was not long before the sky cleared and they had a glorious sunny morning to celebrate the opening of JB Model Flying Club.

Whilst waiting for the weather, though, members were able to retire to the very nicely appointed club house to enjoy a chin-wag and a cup of coffee. The mobile home that was originally earmarked for this purpose turned out to be beyond reasonable repair, so the Club has acquired a replacement which is in superb condition and is extremely comfortable. Take a tour of the pictures below to see the facilities the club house has to offer. 

All club members are issued with a key to the club house, where tea and coffee can be made in the kitchen. A gas fire in the lounge adds even further comfort and with a nice supply of modelling magazines that John Simpson has provided, who cares about the weather!

The field has three old but very useful benches located on its lower side, just behind which is a large open Dutch barn which will doubtless prove extremely useful for a bit of shelter, maybe the occasional barbeque or even a spot of 'indoor' heli practice when the air is still! A peg board is permanently fixed to one of the benches and members hang their personal numbered tag on their frequency hook when arriving at the field. If the hook is already tagged, you still put your tag on the board and then liaise with the other user for flight time.

There is another larger model bench installed in a very useful area of the field set aside for helicopter practice - an ideal place for hover practice without any fear of interruption from fixed wing activities.

Go to the gallery page to see some of the field activity on the opening day.

Details of membership can be obtained from John Simpson at info@jbaviation.com or on the club website at www.jbmfc.fsnet.co.uk

I really did not know whether to put this item on 'club scene' or 'site seeing' as we are really dealing with a combination of a club website and a personal URL. However, since the site is dominated by HEMAC material at the moment, I plumped for this page!

The main title of the site, however, is Flight of Fancy and is the brainchild of webmaster Dave 'Taffy' Jones who was introduced on #47. Like so many other computer fans, Dave wanted to have a go at building a website and decided to carry his Club material on it to give it some useful purpose.

Affiliated to the BMFA (British Model Flying Association) in 1986 by a small group of enthusiasts, the Hough End Model Aircraft Club has flown on the same South Manchester site ever since (although some of the original members have been flying from the site since the early 60's).

Visit Flight of Fancy at http://takeoff.to/hemac