| Radio Control |
Most radio control flying, other than slope soaring, takes place at Trentham. |
|
Sport |
More than 60% of club members are sport R/C flyers and fly for the sheer fun of it. Competitions are secondary - these members just enjoy flying their models around the sky. |
 |
|
Pattern |
Pattern flyers perform aerobatics to the best of their ability. Some take it quite seriously and compete in aerobatic competitions while others just have fun. |
 |
|
Pylon |
Pylon racing is fast and furious, and needs some serious expenditure, as well as skill. It is not much practised at WMAC these days. |
 |
|
Thermal Soaring |
Thermal soaring gliders tend to be lightly built, are designed catch thermals and fly quite slowly. Internationally competitive models (usually commercially made from exotic space-age materials) are less common. |
|
|
Slope Soaring |
Slope soaring gliders on the other hand are heavier, fly much faster, often close to the ground. They need to be built strongly to cope with the higher flight stresses and the hard landings that seem to be inevitable at slope soaring sites. |
 |
|
Hand Launched Glider |
These high tech gliders are gripped at the wingtip and launched with a round arm throw in the manner of a discus. Lots of computer radio magic helps get the maximum altitude from the launch. |
 |
|
Helicopter |
There is a whole lot of interesting (and expensive) machinery in a modern R/C Helicopter. This type of flying is regarded by many conventional modellers as a 'dark art'. |
 |
|
Electric |
The advent of light batteries and powerful electric motors has made a whole new class of modelling available. An increasing number of club members are venturing into this brave new (but not necessarily cheap) branch of areomodelling. |
 |
|
Scale |
Scale modelling is a very specialised branch of aeromodelling and this type of model is always popular at public displays, especially the jet engined models that are becoming more common. |
 |
Free Flight (Outdoor) |
The main difficulty with free flight is finding a field suitable to fly in. Free flight flying is done mostly at Rayner's Farm near Gladstone in the Wairarapa. |
|
F1H (A1 Glider)
F1A (A2 Glider) |
These classes, once known as Nordic A1 and A2, have become very high tech. Most of the top competitors now choose to buy their models in whole or part from the 'magicians' in the Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. |
 |
|
F1B (Wakefield) |
This class has likewise become the home of the carbon or kevlar masterpiece. Serious investment is required to get to the top of this class these days. |
 |
|
F1C (Power) |
There are no serious practitioners of this class in the club at present. |
 |
|
Open Rubber |
This class has less restrictive rules than the FAI class, and traditional models are capable of winning competitions. |
 |
|
Scale |
Our most prolific exponent of FF scale is John Henson who has on several occasions stunned the crowds at the NZMAA Nationals with complex models that somehow fly as well as many a sport flyer. |
 |
Free Flight (Indoor) |
|
|
HLG |
[Descriptive text to go here] |
|
|
Microfilm |
This is a very specialised form of aeromodelling that few still have the patience to make. These ultralight indoor models are rarely seen outside the NZMAA National Competitions. |
|
|
Peanut |
These are rubber powered scale models with a 13 inches maximum wingspan. |
 |
| Vintage |
|
|
|
Vintage models come in many classes, both free flight and radio. They allow modellers to enjoy the hobby the way it used to be. They are usually marginally less competitive than the FAI classes. |
 |