This is the Club's 31st year; established by a small group of
enthusiasts led by Dave Ellis (who ran the local model shop which sadly closed
some years ago) and a few others. Like most Clubs there is a small group who
have been "playing with toy aeroplanes" for this whole period and
many new faces over the years. It is good to see novices join, get trained,
pass their "A" test, become competent flyers and join the Committee
to help put something back.
Much has happened during those 31 years, the fantastic advance of electric power,
the effective silencing of I/C engines and the introduction of interference
free 2.4 Ghz radio to name a few. Many of the old "nitro heads" have
converted to electric and with the new Li-Po batteries which provide good duration
and light weight. We now have electric ducted fan models producing around 10
lbs of thrust approaching 3 Kw of power consumption. We have also found that
the less expensive LiPo batteries are equal in performance to the expensive
ones and often superior in capacity retention. Don’t let a high price
tag fool you into thinking they are necessarily better.
We are a fixed wing group and the ethos of the Club is very much flying for
fun and enjoying ourselves safely and creating minimum disturbance to our neighbours.
Our sites and location dictate that certain types of models cannot safely be
operated. For example gas turbine powered aircraft are not permitted nor are
models exceeding 7kg in weight. If competition aerobatic flying, large models
or fast and furious is where your interest lays then our Club facilities will
not match your requirements.
Felbridge Flyers Radio Model Flying Club operates near East Grinstead in West
Sussex, UK. Our members come from a large radius: Crawley in the west, Croydon
to the north, Edenbridge to the east and Brighton to the south.
The Club promotes quiet and safe operation. We learnt many years ago that to
maintain the use of flying fields we must fly quietly and minimize annoyance.
Quiet operation has had little effect on the performance of sport and scale
models. Many members are surprised on how much better the models performed with
the slower revving and more efficient props: it is thrust you need, not rpm.
We operate from mown grass runways at two sites on the Surrey / Sussex border
and operate i/c and electric powered sport and scale models.
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