Malta/Halfar 2009
During March 2009 Club Member Ken Anderson visited the Halfar Model Flying Club whilst on holiday in Malta, here is his report:
18/20c temperature, no wind in March!!, concrete runway to takeoff and land from. Sound like heaven? It is!!!! This March while away for a week’s holiday in Malta I arranged to meet up with Maltese resident and fellow flyer, Mr Victor Saliba who fly’s model aircraft at a site in Malta called Halfar.
The model flying club is best described as near/next to the main Malta airport. Standing watching the model’s you can see the tail’s of the full-size aircraft not far away!!
Mr Saliba and I met up on Sunday morning at our hotel in Sliema and made our way to the flying site. There were already about half a dozen flyer’s flying aircraft and many a model we would recognise, Acrowot’s, Extra’s, 3D models, Helicopter’s and Mr Saliba was flying a panic bi-plane powered, I believe, by a 60 2stroke.
I was told that most people like to use super tiger engines as the spares are easy to aquire. When I asked if there were many electric model flyer’s I was told only a couple as it wasn’t as easy as in our country to get the various bit’s over the counter. Most if not everything was mailorder, a gallon of model fuel in Malta is £17.00.
After the session at the flying field I was invited back to Mr Saliba’s home to meet his family and have a cup of tea. He also showed me his collection of model’s (he has some 50+) and for each one has a log kept of every flight. He told me the Wot Trainer had some 196 flights to it’s credit.
The only way to describe Mr Saliba’s model store beneath his home is it’s like being in your local model shop. He also has a motor bike with the reg “wot 4”.
I would recommend anyone going on holiday to Malta to make there way to the Halfar site as I was told people fly there most days
You will see the Maltese way of Model aircraft flying and no doubt get the same warm welcome that I did.
Ken Anderson
With many thanks to Mr Victor Saliba, family and friends at Halfar Model Flying Club