President: D.A.E. Smith B.Sc. (Eng.),
C Eng., F.I. MECH. E.
Vice Presidents: M. Charles Esq. J.S. Barker Esq.
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Tony Fuller: Chairman |
Jeff Cosford: Secretary |
Dave Hodges: Treasurer |
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Tony Major: Vice Chairman |
Mark Stonard: Competition Secretary |
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Keith England: P.R.O. |
Alan Dobson: Social & Membership Secretary |
| 23rd May | Club meeting Wednesday 23rd May will be at the Tattenham Corner Public House, Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs as the LFB club house is shut that night. Since you can fly on the Downs until 8p.m. a number of members will meet to fly first (probably from 6pm onwards) and meet at the pub at 8pm |
| 2nd June | Fields shut as most people go to the Sandown Show |
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9th June |
Likely date to move back to Reigate Field. |
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16th June |
Club Fly In & Barbecue. All flying will be at Brooklands for all members. |
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23rd June |
Gas Turbine Builders Association Event at Brooklands. Club field will be open as normal |
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8th July |
Club Outing to the Woodsprings Show |
Please see the heading "Events" below for further details on all of the above.
The newsletter would normally come out at the beginning of April, but this year, with the poor weather, a lot of events etc. were up in the air. Things are a bit clearer now so in compensation this newsletter is at least a couple of pages longer than normal - and with photo's too!
Another small apology to those 'surfing' members who get a feeling of dèja vu when reading this newsletter. Not very many members have access to our wonderful web site at www.edmfc.org.uk so I have copied a couple of articles directly from the web site to the newsletter as I figured they deserved a wider audience!
There is now a club notice board which should be up during Wednesday evening club meetings. Please use it to put down your name for outings that are organised or to volunteer to help out at any event. Members may also put their own advertisements for anything they wish to buy or sell on the board.
Competitions
As mentioned in the last newsletter, competitions are there for FUN.
If you can land your plane in one piece some of the time your good enough to
enter League 3. The competitions also give your flying some focus and are a
great way to improve your skills so do please enter and have a go. The competitions
do not take long to run so there will be plenty of normal flying on competition
days as well.
Competitions will be held on the first Saturday of the month from May to September.
9th June - Back to Reigate
This year, the weather has been very unpredictable. This has made the date for
moving back to the Reigate field equally unpredictable. However, assuming that
we start to get drier weather, it is intended to move back to Reigate on the
1st June. Please note that the farmer has now put his own combination padlock
on the gate which he will not want widely published. Please ensure that you
contact a committee member for the combination and correct date for our return
to Reigate. If you do forget the combination, park up clear of the gate and
walk over to the field to get it. We will try to ensure that a committee member
gets there early and opens up the field.
Please note: volunteers are needed to help mow the grass (at a time to suit yourselves) several times between now and June to ensure that the runway is in a usable condition. Please put your names on the club notice board.
16th June Club Fly-In & Barbecue.
Brooklands Museum imposed quite
unacceptable conditions this year, which meant that it would have cost the club
a significant sum to put on a show for them! However, we found that we can hire
the runway from the owners (not the museum) at reasonable cost. It has been
decided that, instead of having a show at which only very experienced pilots
can fly, we would have an all day club Fly-in in which everyone can have the
chance to fly from a real, and historic, hard runway. Instructors and buddy
boxes will be available, as usual, for those who might otherwise find out just
how hard the runway is! A few guest flyers, who will be of interest, will also
be invited. Families are welcome to come along as well - but do please remember
that model aircraft can be dangerous and you will need to ensure that any children
are closely supervised.
Note: you will need an entry pass (one per car) to get on to Brooklands runway so please tell a member of the committee or put your name on the club notice board if you are coming.
23rd June Gas Turbine Builders Association Event at Brooklands
Athough our club has agreed to organise this event on behalf of the GTBA, this
is not intended to be a spectator event. So, if you want to see the jets fly,
you need to volunteer to assist with the setting up or running of this event
in order to get a pass onto Brooklands Runway. Typical area's where help is
needed are, marshalling, transmitter control, safety, tent erection / dismantling,
etc. Please put your name on the notice board, contact Kit Wallis or Tony Fuller
if you want to help. The club field will be open as usual.
8th July Club Outing to the Woodsprings Show.
I went to Woodsprings for the first time last year and was very impressed. It
is a superb flying site with a hard runway. The model aircraft flying really
were the biggest and/or the best in the country with comfortable viewing. The
trade stands were well (and spaciously) laid out which meant that, unlike Sandown,
it was possible to leisurely browse the stands and buy anything you wanted without
entering the usual rugby scrum! It was also the first time in my life that I
have ever seen a tornado - and I do not mean the aircraft - thankfully it dissipated
before it reached us!
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G-ACSS comes in to land You could easily carry a child in that huge model cockpit! |
You could carry adults in this one! Full size Australian Storch copy is produced for farming use. Took off at about 20Knots and landed happily on the model runway using half the length needed by most of the models! |
Please, either put your name on the club notice board or let one of the committee know if you want to come along. If there are not enough people to hire a coach, then we will arrange to go in a convoy of cars as we did last year. It works out fairly cheap to get there if we have four in each car.
As a comparative newcomer to the model flying game I must admit that I find building to be more pleasurable than flying. This is probably a good thing seeing that like Spike Milligan's budget airline " I crash on the hour every hour".
Having made that admission I am bold enough to pen the following thoughts on a novice career in the hope that others may find my trials and false starts of use in avoiding the same mistakes. Older or perhaps more senior Club members have seen it all before and no doubt continue to find amusement in the error of our ways.
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It all started for me when a pupil came into the School Workshop with a rather large box and said " Dad tried to make this but we didn't get very far". Inside was a kit for a 100" all built up Competition glider, the only part of which that had been started being one panel of a six-panel polyhedral wing. An investment of £4 replaced the balsa that had been used and building commenced. Lesson No 1: Do not start to build such a complex airframe. Eventually it was finished, just don't ask about how long it took to cover. A radio liberated from a R/C car was fitted and away we went. Rebuilding only took a month. A visit to Sandown resulted in acquiring a foam wing slope soarer, a SAS Ace. This went together well and a few short flights made at Colley Hill, all of which ended at the bottom of the hill, sounds familiar? A bungee was made and used at Chobam. More repairs as my flying skills were not up to the level needed for fast launches. This aircraft is still flying and was at the last 2 Xmas days at the Devils Dyke. No Keith it does not fly backwards it only looks that way. Finally I decided to get some lessons and on the advise of a certain Dave Charles joined the Club, now you Instructors know who to blame. A Kyosho Trainer was bought and after all the practice I had had was quickly assembled. Personally I found that it was terrifyingly rapid for the first few months despite the Buddy box. After this was lost A Twinstar was added to the hanger in the loft giving much enjoyment. I Know that e*e*t*i* Is frowned on by some but they do have some advantages. Xmas brought an Albatross 100" which flies well, I must get round to fitting the airbrakes sometime. |
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Keeping to the electric theme a Miss Europa has given me a lot of fun, this will fly backwards and has been flown from hand launch to catch landing.
To keep the Instructors happy I then built a 78" Lone Ranger with OS 15 and rudder, elevator, throttle control, this must be one of the few club power aircraft that thermals like a 100S. Much nagging resulted in an Aileron wing conversion of only 60" span which flies nicely although the ailerons should be twice as large to satisfy some.
Currently nearing completion is a PeTe 10 over engined with another OS 15 and an own design 40-size trainer yet to be named. Thanks for the suggestion of "About Time Too" but maybe next time.
Other aircraft include an Eclipse 78", Centaur 100", Fornier RF 4, Bee-Bop 38" all electric and Bullet sloper.
Next in line is an Auster AOP 9, 76" span semi scale from a kit but with functional flaps for proper STOL flight, whether I will have the skill to fly it yet is open to debate.
As you can see I have tried to do too much at once with Slopers, Soarers, Electric's and Power but it has been fun and as long as there is no ladder into the loft I should be safe for a while yet.
It only remains to thank all those who give their time to help out the newcomers and who refrain from laughing too loudly when the inevitable mistakes are made. John Turner
There are no livestock near the farms we use and there are unlikely to be any problems with us continuing to fly during the present crisis.
Wednesday 27th December was cold - very cold - but it was clear with a {freezing} Northerly wind.
However this didn't stop the intrepid members of the club from meeting at Jeff's at 9a.m. that morning for the decision to descend en masse (well 19 of us) to Devil's Dyke on the South Downs (the less intrepid members obviously stayed at home!) By 10a.m, after an interesting cross country tour of Sussex for those who followed Jeff's car, we arrived at The Dyke and started freezing - sorry flying - At least there wasn't snow on the ground like a year or two ago!
Zagis (or should that be Zagii!) were soon up in abundance, desperately trying to knock each other out of the sky. With up to 10 flying at the same time in the same airspace, you'd think mid air collisions would be easy (after all Jeff demonstrated how to land an Exitation minus its fin and rudder only the week before at the Club Field with only 4 aircraft flying.) It took a good 15 minutes of frantic wheeling across the sky before I spun a Zagi into the side of the hill.
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About this time I remembered that I hadn't locked the car. Dave and Ray who were standing near me had both come without any planes and had never flown a slope soarer before. The look on Ray's face, when I handed him my transmitter and asked him to fly my Zagi for me, was a picture. By the time I got back, he and Dave were taking turns at fighting with the best of them - and practising inverted flying as well. Fred turned up then. Not a great lover of Zagi's, he brought along a Middle Phase (I think) and a nice little electric model. Fred made the mistake of launching his Middle Phase close to the Zagi combat action, just as Tony Major was pulling out of a loop. The resulting collision ripped the fin and tailplane clean off and the 'plane crashed before it even reached the edge of the slope. Undaunted, Fred got his electric launched without using the motor but, after a short flight got into difficulties in the turbulence close to the ground. This resulted in it sliding across the top of a barbed wire fence with obvious results. About the point that we started to lose the use of our fingers, we realised it was lunch time. The great advantage of Devil's Dyke is the pub/restaurant just yards away. Thoughts turned to beer, warmth, beer, food and beer - not necessarily in that order. |
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A couple of hours later, now warm and mellow, the combat started again and we finally managed to prove that Zagi's are not actually indestructible. After a collision, Geoff Ward's Zagi was seen to dive vertically pirouetting beautifully all the way to the bottom of the slope. Some considerable time later when he returned to the top we found that the collision had broken, not only the one servo arm, but the gears as well. This doesn't leave a lot of control on an elevon model!
Zagi's were not the only models in use, I flew an Obilix and a Diablo, but the Obilix looking a bit Zagi like, it kept being chased by blood thirsty Zagi's, so I retired it before it got hurt. Jeff flew a (I think) Phase 6, he seemed to be quite happy to mix it in the combat zone and survived one mid air. Tony Major was flying a large floaty rudder/elevator job which seemed to spend most of its time inverted. John Turner also had a floaty rudder/elevator job - his spent most of its time going backwards! Some of the 'planes spent more than 4 hours in the air, thanks to several people bringing fast chargers with them.
In conclusion, a good day was had by all and Mick Charles Models are likely to be selling a few more Zagis. Keith England
Following the club's affiliation, Dave and I have completed all the form-filling and all of you who should have received your membership cards and copy of BMFA News, either through this club, via another club or direct. Let me know if you have not. If you are not a member, you have no insurance cover!
As Secretary, I receive quarterly Club Bulletins. This is a report from the various committees that meet. I will pin it to the Notice Board so you can read it if you are interested. It is pretty dull reading, except for the discussions that are ongoing about a new BMFA headquarters, or "Centre of Excellence", possibly with flying field.
A point of interest on insurance - it covers visitors to the Club who have no previous experience of model flying but are seeking to try out model flying prior to joining the Club. Not very relevant to our club.
Old Warden, 2001
The following BMFA events will go ahead, and will benefit from an extended runway
for large models:
Do you have an old Futaba Challenger or Skysport transmitter you no longer need? The club needs two additional buddy boxes, and will pay £15 each. No aerial or battery needed. Also buddy box leads. See Jeff.
Wednesday 25th April, club night, the buzz of mosquito’s could be heard in the field and even in the clubhouse.
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Mosquito’s? It’s been wet enough but surely not warm enough? No, it was the buzz of Mini-IFO's (Indoor Flying Objects) being flown by Keith, Luke and Dave Charles. These amazing little, nearly indestructible, flying wings have to be seen to be believed. Made of nothing more than thin carbon fibre rods, held together with super glue and kevlar thread and covered in a strong plastic film, they have a 540º per second roll rate and 3ft diameter loop. Of course, things had to turn competitive. The clubhouse meeting room is not large and has a, seemingly magnetic, brick pillar in the middle, but the challenge went up. |
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Dave Charles managed to circle the pillar 67 times - very smoothly - without hitting anything. Keith took up the challenge but hit the pillar on the 37th lap. Luke retired hurt when one of his kevlar strings snapped - about the only thing that breaks other than the propeller!
If you want one, Mick Charles has them in stock at about £54 with motor and tiny speed controller. They take about 4 hours to build - you can get built ones as well.
It is with the deepest regret that I have to tell you that Geoff died in mid-February of a heart attack - he was only in his 40's.
Those of you who have been members of the club since we flew at Chessington cannot fail to have known Geoff. He ran the full size company, Light Aircraft Services, at the farm and both he and his son James were members of the club.
Geoff had time for everybody and was always ready with help and advice on any field of aviation. There are few more knowledgeable and helpful people in the field of light, aerobatic and historic aviation to be found anywhere.
I think I speak for the whole aviation community in the UK when I say his loss will be deeply felt by everyone and our condolences go out to James and the rest of his family.
I suspect that Geoff's life story would make a good book. There is a short history on his own web site at: http://www.lightaircraftservices.co.uk/ an abridged version of which I quote below:
"Geoff Masterton trained as an apprentice at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough from 1968 to 72 As an Aircraft Technician working on advanced and not so advanced aeroplanes ranging from the supersonic English Electric Lightning, Jaguar, Hunter,Canberra, Comet, etc through to the Devons, Shackleton, Hastings, Beverley and SE5A.
At end of 1976 he supported the Rothmans Aerobatic Team while they were touring in the Middle East with their Pitts S2A's
One of the Pilots was the well-known aerobatic champion Neil Williams. Neil kindly guided Geoff through his early aerobatic training initially in the RAE Aero Club Tiger Moth G-AJHS and then in a Cap 10B. While in Bahrain Geoff managed to be checked out in one of the teams Pitts S2A's by Neil.
Bart Woodall had operated aeroplanes from Rushett Farm at Chessington for many years and it was one of these aeroplanes that drew Geoff to the farm when Bart had a propeller problem on his Helio Courier.
A chance conversation with Bart resulted in Geoff erecting a small workshop and having use of the end of a Barn and from that small beginning Light Aircraft Services was formed.
At one time or another most of the aerobatic people came to Geoff. Brian Lecomber, Richard Goode, Phillip Meeson, Ian Senior, John Harper, Pete Kynsey to name a few.
As if that were not enough Geoff also became involved with the Short Sunderland Flying Boat G-BJHS. Owned by Edward Hulton. Mike Searle was the Co-Pilot and had been flying the aeroplane with Ken Emmott until it was damaged in the 1987 storms. In 1989 when he was asked back to airtest it after repairs he was tasked with finding a Flight Engineer. To cut a long story short Geoff found himself on the engineers panel of a 4 engined flying Boat, and that as they say is another story." Keith England
