WMFC is predominately a fixed wing club although long standing members may fly helicopters & multirotors.

Multirotors:  You must be in possession of a BMFA A certificate before being allowed to fly a multirotor.  Flying FPV, you are required to hold a  BMFA Multirotor ‘A’ certificate, have the relevant CAA operator ID and have a competent spotter to inform you of any surrounding hazards.

Helicopters:  Two years continuous membership must be held as well as passing the BMFA ‘A’ test for fixed wing aircraft before members are permitted to fly helicopters at the outdoor site.  Solo flight requires passing the BMFA Helicopter ‘A’ test.

WMFC (previously know as WMAC – Wanstead Model Airplane Club) has occupied our current site on the Wanstead flats for over 70 years and has always been a fixed wing club.  Clubs such as ours tend to have a bias towards either helicopters or fixed wing because they don’t mix so well, WMFC has always taken the view we are a fixed wing club that tolerates it’s members flying rotorcraft at the outdoor site providing they properly observe fixed wing pilots and work around them.  As an example, not loitering around the strip when planes are taking off and landing, being able to react to other pilots (who may still be learning, have a failure, be making an emergency landing or just flying around really fast) and not doing your best 3d smackdown in the middle of the field on a busy day with lots of planes in the air who may have a hard time avoiding you.

Our current rules are intended to preserve the club’s fixed wing bias for its members and to ensure anybody operating rotorcraft at the site has ample experience with fixed wing in order to understand how to avoid conflict or collisions.  As of 2018 the requirement for multirotor pilots has been reduced from 2 years continuous membership to 1 years membership.

With the current trend towards multirotors we are having a surge of inquiries regarding membership to fly “drones” at the outdoor site.  While we welcome newcomers to the hobby, many are strictly interested in flying multirotors and operate “camera platform” style models (DJI etc).  This style of aircraft can operate in a largely automated way and is not suitable to be flown at the club site, they can in many circumstances be a lot more problematic for fixed wing pilots than a helicopter.  GPS assisted flight or any other type of autonomous flight is prohibited, pilots should be in full manual control of their multirotor (including the throttle) at all times.