Flying site upgrades to 2014. |
Video courtesy of Alastair Nicol |
The West Calder club was formed in December 1999 as a response to only being able to fly on week-days on Kirknewton airfield The full history is here http://www.modelclub.org/articles/flying_site/diary.htm but basically we received three lottery awards over a number of years to develop the site. This is what it looked like on day 1: |
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and today: |
In 2011 we invested quite heavily in replacing the original single-strand electric fence with a full-blown stock-proof fence. Whilst the sheep were welcome in keeping the grass short they did unfortunately leave a considerable mess behind. |
The addition of a sturdy gate between the flying area and the car park means no sheep, and we keep a 1 metre wide long grass free zone around fence as protection. The end result is a much cleaner flying site and one which is now very youth-group camping-friendly. |
The next piece of development work was to replace the old dangerous path to the pilots stance and replace it with a new safe slab one. |
Another of the recent additions is the "large model" starting area for the planes that are too big for the normal starting tables |
Being unable to curb the enthusiasm of the highly skilled volunteers the committee arranged for the starting table areas to be uplifted and re-laid again with slabs rather than the mono-block we had originally. The mono-block is earmarked for another project in the new year. |
We have 2 pits areas - tarmac for general use: |
and a grass overspill area: |
New assembly tables with fenced-off paved area: |
Being conscious of the fire risk when charging Lipos, and the worry that one car going on fire would damage adjacent cars, the club installed a charging table. This is all driven by a leisure battery donated by one of the club members, a new duel charger supplied by the club, and a busbar installed by another club member. |
As well as the starting table for glow and petrol engines, the club installed a specific clean table for electric models where all arming and disarming must be done: |
This year (2014) saw a major moss-attack whereby the grass runways were treated with organic-friendly moss killer, then scarified and generally cleaned up. The result is two very nice grass runways: |
Further work over the last 2 years includes the annual painting of the club house (ok, container) and this year a major task to paint the inside as well. The club has a 66 metre tarmac runway with an adjacent 90 metre grass runway and an 80 metre cross wind runway. Also put in this year was a second pilot's stance which doubles as the cross wind stance, but can also be used on training days to position the pilot depending on the weather conditions. |
So what's next? For 2015 an upgrade to the seating area is planned using the aforementioned mono block, and as the club gets bigger the single outside table is not big enough so a second one is planned. |
The club website is www.modelclub.org and contains maps and contact details. Saturday & Sunday mornings are the busiest time and we are always pleased to have well behaved visitors, though as usual, please contact the Secretary beforehand. |