Esher & District Model Flying Club

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

COMMITTEE

March 2004

From the Chair

From the Chair

Welcome to the new Flying Season – 2004 has certainly got off to a cold and windy start but in spite of this an average of 12 intrepid members have flown for 8 weeks out of nine!!

The AGM – was well attended and the same committee was voted en bloc. Subsequently however, Colin and Luke Shaw have resigned from the club due to Luke working most Saturdays. Out thanks go to them for their past efforts on the committee.

Competitions – For this year the committee will jointly run the competitions – starting promptly at 2pm.

Flying Fields – We will return to Merstham on Easter Saturday the 10^th April and we would like 3 or 4 volunteers to help prepare the strip during that week; please let us know if you can help.

Clubroom – The existing site used by the London Fire Brigade has been taken over by NESCOT and we have agreed with them that we can continue to use their facilities.

However – NESCOT intend to refurbish the premises and bring the sports pitches up to a higher standard, as they will incorporate the site in their educational subjects of football and rugby training and coaching. They expect to finish the refurbishment in August.

Wednesday Meetings for April to August – These will be held at NESCOT in the restaurant from 7:30pm until 10:00 pm. The bar (in the restaurant) will only be open until 8:00pm so arrive sharpish if you want a drink!

Flying of electric models will be allowed on the adjacent grassed area; a duty member must be present and site flying rules will have to be agreed after we have assessed the area at the first meeting. A sketch map is attached so please park where shown and only use the entrance marked (which has “Restaurant” above it!)

Club Rules – Certain additions to the club rules will have to be made at the AGM to embody the requirements of the Child Protection Act and also a rule to exempt Club instructors from liability for damage to a member’s model. This is because there was a recent case where modeller successfully sued an experienced instructor for the damage caused to his model while being flown by the instructor.

Finally, I wish you all happy and safe flying for 2004.         Tony Major

Diary

10/04-Sat Return to Summer Field at Merstham.

14/04-Wed Indoor Free Flight Competition – See page 3 for further details.

22/05-Sat Sandown Show - Field will be closed as too many people go to the show. As usual we will all meet (to see who has bought what!) in the upstairs bar at midday.

10/11-Wed AGM

04/12-Sat Proposed date for Club Christmas Meal – probably same venue as last year further details in next issue.

Competitions

Competitions should be fun!

Competitions should be a fun spectator sport as well!

Competitions shouldn’t take more than ½ hour to run so they don’t eat into the flying time badly

Competitions should be open to all; and all should have a go! They help you to improve your flying so give them a go!

With the above in mind the committee have decided to run the competitions between them to ensure that they run on time and, for leagues 1 and two, run the more exciting, lower level competitions that are fun to watch as well as enter.

League 3’s competitions are all manoeuvres from the ‘A’ certificate – so there is no excuse not to have a go as it will be good practice!

To remind people:

League 1 is the best flyers in the club. You will generally be promoted to league 1 if you do well in league 2.

League 2 is any flyer who has at least an ‘A’ certificate or equivalent flying ability.

League 3 is for anyone not yet able to take their ‘A’ certificate.

Should any of the above dates be too wet or windy (or both!) the competition will be run on the first clement Saturday available.

Water Carrying, by the way, is a great challenge; a small, open topped, box is strapped to the top of the wing and a measured amount of water poured in. The pilot has to take off, loop and then land. The winner is the one with the most water left!                                                                   Keith

Epsom Downs Flying Changes

Dave Roberts has passed to me a message from Roger Marples of Epsom Radio Flying Club explaining the changes to flying on Epsom Downs.

It is no surprise that the fatal accident on Dartford Heath, and the coroner’s criticism of the competence with which the aircraft was built and flown, has seen councils who allow flying on their land worried and wanting changes to improve safety. The complete letter is too long to repeat here but the important section is the changes, which we must support if we fly there:

“The essential changes are

• The strip will be moved 80 metres West and 5 metres forward of the present strip, allowing a large space between the fliers and the ‘Old London Rd”; this is the path that leads from the Downs entrance to Walton Downs and is heavily used by the public.
• A pegboard will be erected in line with the Pits. A peg on system will be operated. Behind the pegboard are the bylaws that relate to our activity.
• No flying behind the Flight Line, over the Car Park or over the racecourse proper. This means that there will only be one strip parallel to the racecourse. Crosswind takeoff will be he order of the day if the wind isn’t down the strip. No takeoffs or landing approaches on a N-S vector will be permissible.
• Only 6 planes in the sky at any one time.
• BMFA Insurance should be held by all pilots.
• Solo pilots should hold the BMFA ‘A’ certificate.
• Novice pilots should seek the assistance of an experienced pilot before attempting to fly.
• Only 35MHz FM and 27MHz FM frequencies to be operated.”

Finally, the letter goes on to remind people that the land is not, in fact, public land (it can be gated off!) and goes on to say that it is recommended that a club is formed on the Downs – I don’t think I’d want to be a committee member on that one!

A few things to note:

The word “should” does not mean “must” however I assume that will change in due course, but Home Office approval is required.

I’m astonished at the “35MHz and 27MHz” statement. I cannot believe that it is in any way safe to fly on 27MHz, yet the other legal aircraft frequency of 459MHz is banned – either a very odd or a pointless statement!

I would not be surprised if the BMFA try and encourage the ‘A’ certificate to be the absolute minimum in any public space – it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Public spaces are noticeably prone to attracting those idiots who think that they can just buy a ‘plane and fly it.Keith

Radio Interference & Other Emergencies

Years ago, when I flew on Clapham Common, there was a model helicopter pilot who converted to fixed wing. He had just one problem: he couldn't judge airspeed! Occasionally, particularly when flying downwind, his aircraft would stall and enter a spin.

"Radio interference!" he would yell and, safe in the knowledge that the problem was out of his control, watch his 'plane spin into the ground - often from several hundred feet!

Then there was another young lad who, having just learnt to fly, would scream around the sky on full throttle, over controlling wildly. One day the inevitable happened, with a crack like a pistol shot the wing ripped clean off the fuselage. The noise caused everyone in the pits to look up and the sight of a violently rotating wingless fuselage heading straight at us on full throttle is one I'll never forget. Neither will I forget seeing its owner standing frozen in horror at the controls. Fortunately it buried itself deeply in the ground 6 feet short of the pits and we suffered nothing worst than a rain of bits of servos, balsa and foam; he suffered a number of unprintable accusations about his parentage!

Let's look at some other typical scenarios and their solutions:

• You think you have interference. Close the throttle, it closes. You haven't got interference, leave the throttle closed and attempt to recover.
• You think you have interference. Close the throttle, it doesn't close. You have got interference or radio failure. If the throttle does suddenly close before the aircraft hits the ground you know you have control back, recover the aircraft if possible and land immediately.  The above assumes you are not using a PCM receiver; if you were you would know how to make sure that it closed the throttle for you – wouldn’t you?
• You have some sort of structural or control failure – perhaps a mid-air collision. Close the throttle; this immediately reduces the strain on the structure and, if control cannot be regained, will reduce both the danger and the impact.  Try and recover with your remaining controls. If the aircraft will still fly use as little power as possible to maintain height and land immediately. Aim to cut the engine before touchdown and land faster than normal to maintain control.
• The first flight of your new 'plane reveals over sensitive controls and it flies like a kangaroo on nitro. Close the throttle. Airflow over the controls will be reduced making it much less sensitive. Land straight ahead, or if control can now be maintained open the throttle gently until height can be maintained and land as soon as possible.
• Get the common thread yet? In all cases, learning to instinctively close the throttle if you think you are in trouble makes all the difference. In every assumed control loss of a fixed wing 'plane (helicopters are arguably different!) closing the throttle first is always the safest option. Once you have (if you have time) assessed what is wrong you can open the throttle again if it will safely help save the aircraft.

When in trouble

Close the throttle on the double!

Indoor Flying Competition

The hall we will be using at NESCOT is somewhat bigger than our existing hall so, on 14^th April, we are going to have an indoor free flight flying competition. There are now a neat range of ARTF free flight models available for around £10 (From Mick Charles Models for example) So get on down to the model shop and pick one up. They do need a little bit of work so don’t wait until the 13^th to get one! I’ve shown a few examples below:

Christmas Slope Soar

This year’s annual Christmas Slope Soaring day was held at Mill Hill.

For those of you who do not know Mill Hill it is a South West facing slope on the South Downs with superb views of the Downs, Lancing College, Shoreham Airport and the sea.

When most of us finally found the slope, we had a very good session of flying and lots of aerial combat. The weather was not very kind to us, we had plenty of wind and rain, but we all enjoyed ourselves. At lunchtime we went to the local pub, had dinner and a pint, then some of us headed home while Jeff and Rossy headed back to the slope for more flying. The only real casualty of the day was John Turner who damaged 3 of his own ‘planes. Bad luck John. See you all next year chaps and HAPPY NEW YEAR                   Alan Dobbo

8 Zagis and their pilots doing combat all in the same shot looking out across the River Adur towards Lancing College. A superb picture taken by Ray Evans at this years Christmas soaring day.