Esher & District Model Flying Club

President: Dave Ward Esq
Vice Presidents:. J.S. Barker Esq. Terry Kitson

COMMITTEE

February 2005

From the Chair

A happy new year to you all and let us hope that we will have lots of lovely flying weather. Attendance was good at the AGM and he committee was re-elected en bloc.

We still do not have a Competition Secretary but, as there is little interest in competitions by the current membership, it is of little consequence. Nevertheless, competitions do help to improve your flying; we will endeavour to hold the odd one or two during the year so that we can dust off some of the trophies that are in store.

The Christmas Dinner was enjoyed by all and our thanks go to Dobo for the planning and arrangements; also a special thanks to Andrea for running a superb raffle with lots of lovely prizes!

Club Meetings - we are back at what used to be The London Fire Brigade Sports Club. The room is smaller, but brighter, and we have activities scheduled for February, March and April - see details below. Make a special Diary note to come along to the March & April meetings as these look very interesting. Evening flying (Electric & Gliders) will take place there, as previously, from May onwards.

Downside Flying Field - This site has proved to be very popular and weekly attendances have been around 15. It has been nice to see Chris (our host) there (and flying) on a regular basis. Also Paul, whose other interest is photography, has taken many excellent shots and videos over recent weeks - the DVD he has produced is very professional and well worth seeing. We have had some minor problems with the mower due to a slipping belt so the grass and worm casts have not been too kind to small wheels and retracts!! However, we now have a new belt so, hopefully, the problem will now be eliminated.

Flying Field Rule Reminders

·       A frequency pennant must be attached to your aerial showing the number.

·       Keep away from the paintball woods. If taking off towards the woods, turn left as soon as it is safe to do so and, if approaching to land from the woods, try not to over fly the corner of the paintball woods - especially at low altitude.

·       Do not take your transmitter onto the strip (or any other part of the flying area) when retrieving your model (BMFA rule also - you may shoot someone down if they fly over your, much nearer, transmitter).

·       When flying, stay close to the other flyers not only for the same reason as above but also because you may not hear someone call "dead stick" or "landing".

·       Do not fly low over the horses in the outfield.

·       The running in of engines is not allowed in the pits (it prevents people hearing if there is an emergency). Move about 50 metres away from both the pits and the flight line.

·       Strictly no high-speed flying along the strip at low altitude - safety is paramount. Slow flying along the strip is the same as a landing, high speed flying should just over the far side of the strip and always in the landing direction.

We are planning to return to our summer field at Merstham on Saturday 4th June and we would like volunteers to help prepare the strip during the two weeks beforehand. Please let me know if you can help.

I look forward to seeing you all with those new models over the coming weeks!

Happy Landings                  TM

Diary

09/03-Wed   A talk by Soar Ahead Sailplanes also a chance to examine and purchase SAS kits with plenty of time to get them built in time for the Easter club soaring day.

25/03-Fri     Club soaring day. Meet at Alan's by 9:00a.m. or 'phone by 8:30a.m. (Details at top of newsletter) to find the slope we are going to

13/04-Wed     Concourse d’elegance competition. Two groups of models: ARTF & kit/scratch built.  Members vote for the best in each class with a cash prize for winner & runner up in each group. Everyone has a chance so bring an entry.

21/05-Sat      Sandown Show. Field won't be open as too many go to show but we will fly on Sunday instead.

04/06-Sat      Expected date to return to Summer Field. Help needed to prepare strip 2 weeks previous.

AGM Wednesday 10th November

At the AGM, held on 10th November 2004 there were 24 members present to hear the Chairman reflect on the uncertainty and changes taking place within the club. The Chairman highlighted the average age of members is increasing, the loss of App's Farm flying site and the various moves to our club night meeting place.

On the positive side, we have secured a new winter flying site at Downside Farm, Cobham, and many thanks to Chris Norman who has not only allowed us to fly there free of charge but has also become a keen flying member as well. Things have continued to get better with Kit Wallis donating a sit-on mower for use at the new field. We are extremely grateful for those kind gestures of support for the club.

Competitions fizzled out this year with little support from the members and during 2004 there were no BMFA 'A' or 'B' certificates awarded.

Conversely the Christmas dinner was a great success as was the after Christmas slope soaring day.

The editor reported that the pressure of work restricted the newsletter issues to only 2 with another planned but it is difficult when there is a lack of material. Any member who can submit material, no matter how small, photos, etc., would help make publishing easier.

The accounts continue to show an acceptable balance with only a small deficit of £155 during 2004. This resulted in there being no need to raise subs, which remain the same as 2004.

The election of the committee for 2005 has resulted in the existing committee being voted in en bloc.               Fred

The Annual Slope Soar 2004

This was a unique day, in my experience, as we ended up flying on two different slopes in completely different wind directions in the one day! We also met up with the owner of Soar Ahead Sailplanes - his aircraft was performing much better than our, now ageing, Zagi's. He has agreed to come along to our March meeting. I suspect a number of people will be interested in buying the kits he'll bring long with him. I'll let Alan continue with the story.

The venue was chosen to be Mill Hill at Shoreham as the wind direction was SW. There were a few fliers that did not make it on the day for one reason or another. We arrived at Mill Hill to find that the wind direction had changed to North West {Editor's note - the 'planes taking off from Shoreham Airport directly towards the hill were a bit of a give-away!} so we decided to go to Devil's Dyke as this would work OK. The wind was very light, but we managed some flying until, conveniently in time for dinner, the wind dropped down. It was back to the bottom of Mill Hill for dinner at our usual pub. After dinner the wind seemed to have gone around to the South West so it was back up to Mill Hill where we had a couple of hours of flying to finish the day. We had a good turn out and some novices turned out as well. Let's try and make this annual event even better next year with more flyers turning up.

Well Done Chaps,      Alan Dobson

I might add that our novices did very well, Peter Duffee managed to get my Zagi higher than I could with some very smooth flying and Paul Silcox scored the only contact of the day (not sure whether it was actually intentional though!).

Several people have asked that we hold more than one soaring event a year. The problem has always been the difficulty of a finding a day lots of us are off work but the slopes aren't busy with regular flyers. We have decided, therefore, to give it a go on Good Friday.    Keith

Sunday Flying

We've had a few weekends recently where Saturday has been a complete washout (or more often blow-out!) but Sunday has been fine. Chris has said that Sunday flying is OK, from 10:00 onwards, if the weather is too bad to fly on Saturday. For safety there are two main rules for use of the field:

v      At least two people in attendance when anyone is running an engine or flying.

v      At least one duty member - usually defined as someone with a BMFA 'B' certificate.

So, if flying is not possible on Saturday, ring around the duty members to see if it can be arranged for Sunday. The current duty members are:

Flying other People's 'Planes

This was mentioned in March last year. Someone successfully sued an instructor who crashed a very expensive jet. This, if allowed to continue, would make instruction impossible. It is also not unusual for a member to let another have a ’go’ of his aircraft.

By its nature, there is a risk that a model will be damaged every time it is flown. Wind, interference, mechanical failure, poor aerodynamics or balance, runway condition, even just a bad day - it can be nearly impossible to be sure what caused the damage. One thing is sure: no one, instructor or otherwise, would deliberately damage a model and you always need to ask yourself “Could I have done any better?”

Therefore, by this notice, anyone who agrees to let another member of this club (instructor or otherwise) fly their aircraft is by doing so also agreeing not to hold that person responsible for any damage caused.

Short Finals

Congratulations to Arne Wack who has managed to get his ‘A’ certificate just in time for his return to Germany. We all wish him the best for the future –  I think Esher MFC is about to be twinned with Hamburg.