Crikey what a start to the flying season, how many days of sunshine have we had now ??? ok a few days have been windy but at least it has been dry, get the flying in whilst you can because we all know what is going to happen in June,July and August don’t we !!!
Flying Field
Just a reminder about taking your rubbish home please, I have been down recently and picked up empty drinks cans, propellor blades and wrappers from sandwiches.
‘A’ Certificate Passes
Congratulations to the following pilots who recently successfully passed their ‘A’ certificates
Tim Caswell
Rob Whewell
Heath Porter
I could not make it down to the field to watch them so I gave instructions to Tim to take some photos of the three of them with their certificates, Tim forgot so you missed your moment of fame I am afraid.
Thanks to Kev Watson for driving over and taking the three of them for their tests.
Just a reminder you have to have a BMFA ‘A’ certificate to fly solo. If you think you are ready for the ‘A’ certificate contact any of the instructors to go through the test and arrange some practice flights.
Annual Egg Dropping Event (April 13th)
It never fails to be a contentious event this !!!!
I was elected to be the judge for the event and run through the rules.
I was accused of cheating, bending the rules and having my favourites who were not penalised like others. I was verbally and mentally abused, you know who you were and I have made a note of your names 😂
Anyhow the weather was dry and sunny however there was what might be classed as a ‘stiff breeze’ blowing, in fact it was a very stiff breeze
The competition was the normal format with each contestant having three attempts at getting the egg which in fact were balloons filled with water nearest the centre target. Scores were allocated on how far the balloon was from the centre target and if you missed the field completely you were simply laughed at, there was one person who missed the field completely.
Secondly was a spot landing round were you had to land your plane nearest the centre spot with again graduated scoring to how far you were away from the centre spot. Me being the judge I did think that some people thought this round was ‘Land your plane near your home address’, it was windy though.
Due to the wind some people landed short of the centre target and tried to use the wind to blow their models nearer the spot. This where me as the judge had to step to penalise people, and so the abuse began.
Thirdly was a two minute timed flight, take off and fly around and land nearest to a two minute duration. Accusations were made of people having timers running on their transmitter with the volume muted and I heard a couple of pilots declare that their timers were running but they were not looking at them. Some pilots clearly did not have any timers going and in fact must of gone down a black hole because there were some stretched times !!
The scores for each round were added up by myself, checked by myself and not shown to anybody but the results were as follows.
1st Place Jason Reid
2nd Place Mark Conlin
3rd Place Jake Reid
It was a good competition all done in the right spirit of things. If you want to build up your character volunteer to be the judge next year !!!!
Below are a few Images from the day
Strange Going On’s At The Field
They thought they had not been noticed but they were.
I will leave you to decide what they were/are doing.
If you need a clue think of ‘Adrian’
New Flyer(s)
Last week we had a visit from a father and son, Paul & Jacob Waine, they liked the club paid their membership, purchased a plane.
Sunday just gone Jacob had his first flights with his discovery trainer aircraft, well done Jacob.
Charging Of Batteries At The Field
The charging of batteries in your car at the field is not allowed as per the club rules.
There are two metal tables in front of the club hut that can be used for charging your batteries.
A new addition for charging has been installed in the hut. Anthony Ollerton has done a fantastic job with a solar powered system and lots of fancy things. On the outside of the hut is now a socket which delivers a 12v output. More leads are going to be made up with various plugs on them . Please bear in mind the system is still being tweaked. You will need your own charger. Anthony has tested it out recently and charged a pair of 6s 4000mah lipos on his charger using the outputs on the front of the club hut.
Glider Event Day (11thMay)
So a new event for this year was the glider day. This event was for any type of glider and we did have a good mix of gliders there on the day.
Turn out was OK but I thought we might of got more people from other clubs.
Mark Conlin brought along his big Decathalon glider tug which enabled Anthony and Dave Hindley to scare themselves to death with tug launches with their gliders. ‘Porsche’ Tim very kindly filmed one of the launches and is on the chat line.
There were some stunning examples of electric gliders there on the day ranging from small foam gliders to full competition carbon fibre gliders which were the fastest gliders I have ever seen, the throttle is on a switch and the climb rate has to be seen to be believed, the technology in them is fascinating.
Another glider which is on my Santas list was Jakes Robbesport EVO 3.0, what a stunning glider and once trimmed out and flight conditions created will be fantastic. I wonder if Santa can come in May instead of December, I will write to him.
Returning to the glider tug launches I have to say they were uneventful, this time we used a glider trolley to aid the gliders getting off the ground, Mark did a great job of keeping a constant speed and not to fast.
Unfortunately Mark broke his propellor on a bouncy landing which curtailed the towing.
There a few of traditional construction gliders at the event but due to the fairly strong breeze at times struggled to make any head way and basically hanging in the air as opposed to making forward motion.
Hopefully the club will try the event again
A big shout needed for Jake who brought his BBQ down to the event and put a feast on of chicken wings with varying degrees of hot rubs on them, sausages and sweetcorn.
If you were at the field early some of us also had bacon barm cakes for starters.
I better mention my wife for baking us a lovely lemon polenta cake gluten free of course and with no blueberries in it especially for Jason.
Below are few photos taken on the day
Promoting Our Hobby
You may or may not be aware that the club has been involved in a nationwide entitative to promote hobbies.
Last year a film crew was at our field filming the flying wings that Anthony manufactured with flashing LED’s in them, you may well have seen them at bonfire night if you were down.
Following on from this Dave Hindley on 3rd May was invited to the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool to give a talk about our hobby and also our club.
Dave said the event was well attended and his talk went down well with potential of some new members. Also in the art gallery were some static models as well as some of the flying wings.
Secondary to this Dave and Anthony have been doing some work with Blackpool college mainly around students who are studying the Aeronautics course.
Part of this has involved the students designing and manufacturing a model aircraft, I was informed at weekend that the aircraft has flown (indoors).
Dave and Anthony continue to support the college, a great effort
Trainers/Trainees
The list of club trainers has been refreshed and their names are below.
If you are a trainee please bear in mind the vast majority of these people work during the day so if you turn up at the field on a Thursday morning for example please don’t get annoyed that there are no trainers there.
A couple of the trainers are of an age where work does not get in the way and if contacted may be able to accommodate mid week sessions.
As a trainee get to know these trainers if needed ask for their phone numbers or use the Clubs messenger group to make contact with them.
Don’t rely on the same trainer all the time, all the trainers will offer the same amount of training and to the same standard/goal.
Trainers :
Chris Vernon, Jason Reid, Jake Reid, Mark Conlin, Andy Harrison, Anthony Ollerton, Dave Hindley, Kev Watson
Upcoming events:
Keep an eye on the club chat lines, email and social media for upcoming events.
Regards Chris V