Love is in the air... Meet the magnificent men of the Royal County Aeromodellers Club and their Flying Machines

“It's a bit like the Men's Shed with wings,” quips Bill Thompson as he carefully extracts a large model aeroplane from the boot of his car.

He greets fellow enthusiast Stoo Holland, who is also removing an electric aerobatic model from his car and laying it out on the ground with great care. The small grassy carpark is full, all with estate and SUV type cars that offer room for long delicate wings.

“At least the conditions are great for flying today.” says Bill, a nod to the two previous Sundays that proved too inclement to fly.

He's not wrong. It's a gorgeous Spring day with crisp blue skies and the faintest of cool breeze blowing across the unspoilt wilderness of Bracklin and Coolronan bog.

Remote is one way to describe this sweeping plain of uncut bog that lies just over the Meath border that has been home to the Royal County Aeromodellers Club for the last 13 years.

After exiting the Athboy Delvin road it's a cautious 15-minute drive down a rural lane that lessens to a marshmallow boreen rising and falling on tectonic plates of bog foundation.

I've followed RCAC Club Secretary, Bill from Athboy and there's a brief moment if I wonder if I should alert someone to my whereabouts, just in case. The only visible sign of life or indeed anything aviational on approach to the flying club is a limp windsock on a pole.

Seeing that Bill now has his radio control set in his hands, I'll let him take it from here.

“We're the Royal County Aeromodellers Club. It's basically a club of aviation enthusiasts, who specialise in model airplanes, particularly radio controlled model airplanes. We build, assemble, fly and sometimes crash radio control model airplanes that give us a certain amount of pleasure.

“A lot of the models are almost pre-built when you buy them, and you just literally assemble them, put in the radio equipment, put in the engine, and then go and fly it. Some models, depending on your ability and how long you've been in the hobby, are built from scratch. Literally, you buy a plan, you buy a whole load of balsa wood and you literally stick A to B to C, keep going until the model's finished and that includes building the airframe, covering it, fitting the radio equipment and fitting the engine.

“The engine can be electric, powered by rechargeable batteries, or it can be IC or internal combustion, and a lot of the models that we have are powered by two stroke or four stroke model airplane engines. Typically they would be 6 to 10 CC in capacity, turning a propeller of up to maybe 13 inches in diameter, at about 7,000 or 8000 revs. So a powerful unit that you have to be very careful with.

“We are based about 600 metres into the county of Westmeath. When we started the club back in 2006, we were actually in County Meath, hence the Royal County (Aeromodellers Club) name, but we moved to this location which we rent from Bord na Mona. It's a lot bigger than what we had before, about 12 acres, spread over the virgin bogland where we cultivated our runways from scratch. They are about 90-100 meters long and their positioning is based on the prevailing winds. We have a couple of wind socks that tell us exactly the direction of the wind. Ideally, we try and fly into the wind all the time.

“We have our own shelter, which we call the Departure Lounge, with tables and chairs and even on a bad day with no flying we can sit around, talking, chatting, discussing our hobby, discussing the world.”

At the moment club membership stands at about 16 members. Bill says there was up to 28 at one time but the pandemic set them back. The majority of members come from the general Meath area.

“I come from Dunshaughlin, at least half more from the Navan area. We've got a member from Mullingar we've got people over from the Portmarnock and Swords area as well,” says Bill.

The RCAC is one of about 30 model aeroplane clubs in Ireland. All of the clubs are governed by the Model Aeronautics Council of Ireland, membership of which allows them to take part in competitions such as international aerobatics and to scale models of real planes, such as a Spitfire or whatever and also to provide insurance cover.

Getting your model aeroplane hobby off the ground is quite simple, explains Bill who has developed his love for all things aviation over 60 years.

“You can start off with a basic electric model, such as a small glider, which is easy to fly because it's slower. It can have a propeller, even though it's a glider or can have a power source. A power glider flies slowly, easy to learn on. To get one with radio gear, you'll spend between €300-€450.

“A lot of the stuff can be purchased through a number of shops and model airplanes shops in Ireland, plus we also buy internationally as well on some of the Chinese sites. We used to buy quite a lot of models from the UK but Brexit knocked that on the head. We can still buy, but your hit with additional taxes, etc.”

“I've been building model airplanes since I was about 10. I gradually moved on to models with an engine. I then moved on to radio control equipment in the very early 70s. I've always been interested in aviation, not just model aviation. I worked for 20 years with Aer Lingus, not in any flying capacity, just in the IT section, but it was more of the aviation side of my life. I just love aviation.

“I never got to the stage of wanting to fly full size but this is a good fill in for all of that. So I can build a plane, I can fly it and get good fun because it looks like the real thing. I have an electric model of a Gloucester Gladiator World War Two bi-plane. When I get that ready I could turn up at one of the MACI scale competitions around the country and take part in a particular type of scale event. And if I do well, well and good, if I don't do well, I still have a great experience.

“We have a website, www.royalcountyflyers.com and there's a link to make contact with either myself or one of the other lads and just leave a message to say, I'm interested and we'll be in touch.”