Find a Club! There is little doubt that the best way to start in our wonderful sport is to check out your local club. Our network of over 750 model flying clubs provide a safe and welcoming place to get help and advice and training too.
If you have never tried flying a model aircraft why not arrange a free trial flight at one of the many BMFA affiliated model flying clubs up and down the country? Clubs offer trial flights completely free of charge, to find your nearest trial flight click the button below to see our interactive map.
The first step to get started flying model aircraft and drones is to decide what type of aircraft you would like to fly and what method of control you want to use.
Model aircraft and drones broadly fall in to 3 categories, fixed wing aeroplanes, helicopters and multi-rotors.
The main 3 'control' methods are Radio Control (RC), Control Line (CL) and Free Flight (FF)
Fixed Wing
Helicopters
Multi-rotors
Radio Control
A radio-controlled aircraft is a small flying machine that is controlled remotely by an operator on the ground using a hand-held radio transmitter. The transmitter communicates with a receiver within the aircraft that sends signals to servos or the flight controller which moves the control surfaces or powers the motors based on the position of joysticks on the transmitter. Read more....
Free Flight
The essence of free-flight is that the aircraft have no need for external control, for instance by radio. Aircraft of this type have been flown for over two centuries. They are designed to be inherently stable in flight; if disturbed by a gust of wind or a thermal current they will return automatically to stable flight. Read more....
Control Line
Control line is a simple and light way of controlling a flying model aircraft. The aircraft is connected to the operator by a pair of lines, attached to a handle, that work the elevator of the model. This allows the model to be controlled in the pitch axis.