On this site:

The club is located at the college in the village of Impington, two kilometres north of Cambridge. We are only five minutes from the M11/A14 junction serving Cambridge from the North, South, East and West.

Our main flying site is the college sports field (right) which is approximately 300m by 175m with a clear area of fields beyond. We also have a small hill site (below) a few miles from the centre of Cambridge. In the right conditions the slope is soarable with a lightweight glider.

Click here for map

Our membership, currently running at around 50, flies a diverse range of models from miniature 'Pistachio' indoor scale to 150 mph pulse jet control line models, though not on the sports field I hasten to add! On the sports field we do fly R/C, Free Flight and Control Line on Friday evenings while light permits and move indoors for the winter.

Outdoors R/C at the school consists of electric craft and gliders while the F/F boys fly rubber, CO2 and jet (Rapier etc) powered models and HLG. We have a keen group of C/L flyers who fly sports, stunt and team race, even electric power on occasion!

Indoor flying is very popular with club members. In winter the Friday night club meetings are spent in one of the college halls flying all manner of sport, duration and scale models. We have several low key contests for both indoor and outdoor models, points counting towards trophies presented at the end of the year.

60 Years of IVCMAC

A new publication produced and distributed by
Impington Village College Model Aeroplane Club

Price £10 plus £1.50 post and packing.

This book has proven extremely popular and is unfortunately now sold out.

This book is probably unlike any other aeromodelling publication you have seen. It has waited 60 years to be written and tells the story of one of aeromodelling's all-time greats, Ray Malmström, who during a life time of model building probably produced more plans than any other designer. Ray, as he was universally known has been described variously as a genius, an elderly youth somewhere between 15 and 50, a nice old man, a character and even by some as a bit of an eccentric. Whatever you like to call him his mark on aeromodelling is deep and lasting through the hundreds of model aircraft designs he produced during his long life - to say nothing of boats, racing cars and other odd things!

The book was the brainchild of Impington Village College Model Aeroplane Club Chairman, Chris Strachan, who saw it as the perfect way of celebrating the diamond (60th) anniversary of the Club which was founded by Ray. Much of the research and editing was done by Club President Peter Hoskison who was a close friend of Ray for more years than he can remember. Rare pictures of Ray have come to light, so too have hitherto "forgotten" plans from Ray's vast output during more than 60 years. The book charts Ray's rise to fame from humble beginnings - like building models for the pilots of aircraft operating between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight during the 30's. With the cash raised Ray bought himself flying lessons on DH 60s!

A big attraction of the book is a selection of 40 plans of Ray's designs ranging from his first ever, the diminutive Pee Wee indoor model produced in 1940 to the large outdoor flier the twin-engine Handley Page Herald. Whatever your interest, free-flight, control-line, indoors or outdoors, rubber, glider, power or Jetex there is probably a design to suit you here.

All the work in bringing some of Ray's fading plans into the 21st century, laying out and printing the book was done by John Valiant. He is also the Club's librarian and guardian of hundreds of Ray's plans all of which are for sale.

If you like aeromodelling then you will like this book.

The Ray Malmström Plans Service is now up and running. It was launched at the Impington Village College MAC Indoor Meeting on 21st October 2001 accompanied by a splendid display of models built to Ray's designs. The plans were all on display around the walls of a separate room from the indoor flying hall and many people were able to see some of the designs for the first time. At that meeting and soon after the club has sold about 200 plans.

Copies of the Catalogue and Bibliography of Ray's designs are available from John Valiant at 64 Ellison Lane, Hardwick, Cambridge, CB3 7XH, UK or at the e-mail address shown below. This is much more than just a price list, giving details of where published down to date and page together with classification of type of model. If you have a collection of modelling magazines this is the easiest way to find the Malmström designs and come up with any you've missed.

So far the service has plans for 173 designs for sale from between 50p and £2.00 each, depending upon size. We also have information on 24 further designs for which we have yet to obtain plans. The search continues for further designs such as those believed to have appeared on the back of cereal packets. Any help would be appreciated!

It would be nice to produce an illustrated catalogue but that is clearly a mammoth task. The next opportunity to see all the plans and have a good browse will be at the next Impington Fun Fly Indoor Meeting

If you have any more information on Ray's designs or any queries please contact John Valiant at the address below:

Impington Village College Model Aeroplane Club was formed over 50 years ago by the then art master, the late Ray Malmström, we have enjoyed an uninterrupted presence at the college for all this time. Nowadays our membership is from all walks of life and includes all aspects and standards of aeromodelling. We are happy to have within our membership complete beginners, expert free flight competition modellers, top radio control scale flyers and a very active group of control line enthusiasts.

We meet every week at the college (except school holidays in the winter months). In summer flying takes place on Friday evenings on the sports field and in winter indoor flying is practiced on Friday evenings along with a programme of talks and demonstrations. Come along sometime and see for yourself !

British Model Flying Association
Affiliated Club N° 0124

Acknowlegments: