Sorry for the delay in responding; I only picked up this thread today.


In answer to your question ... we fly general sport models and light scale types. We don't fly gas turbines, but there are quite a few of those electric ducted fans.

The largest model that I have personally flown there was my 120" Bird Dog ... but that's a slow machine, with effective flaps.

Usually, you'll find the standard crop of models up to about 84" span ... Harvard, 1/4 scale bipes, Me 109s @ 72", those 3-D generic Extras, lots of Flair models, such as Magnatillas and DV11s, DB Hurricane. It's all quite modest, I suppose.

The runway is grass. It is surrounded by pasture which is grazed by cattle. The pasture is very "clumpy" and you really don't want to be setting down on it. However, the approaches are pretty good. It's not a good place for retracts, unless you are a confident pilot.


All that said, it's not as bad as you'd think, nor as difficult as you might imagine. New flyers turn up and they don't question the runway' length ... they just learn to cope with it.

It's all about speed control.



A few years ago, the club split and some began flying on a nearby military airfield (Leconfield). I went there a few times and the change/difference was remarkable. Within a very few weeks, much of the discipline had gone. With vast expanses of concrete, the guys were landing their models almost carelessly.

Then, after a few years, the military airfield was lost to development and that club was left homeless. Remarkably, very few of those blokes were willing to return to the short grass runway, often citing its short length as the deciding factor.

What I'd really like, though, is the best of both worlds ... a nice long, grass runway, with clearly defined threshold markings. That way, I could still work at nailing my landings, yet not be punished for making mistakes. I can dream.