Welcome to our club home page on the World Wide Web.

Our club is as follows:- Gerald de Beer (Chairman)

Dave Williams (Secretary/Treasurer)

Members: Grant Dicks, Phil Pain, Ainsley Williams, Hennie Smit and Roy Bruce.

 A Short History of the Eshowe Radio Flyers

During the 1950's a large number of young men and boys regularly flew control line aeroplanes each weekend on the King George V Oval. Some of the enthusiasts including Maurice Williams got together and purchased a radio control. Several attempts were made to fly radio controlled planes with reed switches and clockwork servos with some success. Interest waned and up till the mid 1970's the only flying was done by youngsters with baby bees and control-line planes.

The birth of the Eshowe radio Flyers came about in 1988 when Jas van Wyk (a radio technician with the SAP), realising that there were a number of aeroplanes buzzing around the sky, placed an advert in the local paper inviting all enthusiasts to form a club. Ten people turned up and the following weekend no fewer than 7 aeroplanes took to the sky. Three of the clubs present members ( DawieBritz, Maurice and Dave Williams) were part of that founding group.

A runway alongside the main runway was graded and grassed and flying became a regular event. When the main airstrip was up-graded for full-size planes we were fenced out. Once again the club had nowhere to fly except off the main runway and flying was again limited to a few enthusiasts.

In 1993 a very enthusiastic Gerald de Beer got us all together and the club was re-born, the present site was identified and leased from the Borough and a new runway graded. A proper constitution was drawn up and the long process of registration with the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA), through the South African Model Aircraft Association began.

Meanwhile facilities were upgraded with the runway being extended to 100m of tarmack, fences and the cement pit area installed. The official opening and first public airshow took place at the end of May 1995.

A busy pit area during our second airshow, July 21st 1996. With over 30 aircraft and more than 600 members of the public it was a great success.

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This page updated on 21 April 2004 22:45