Well well after a miserable run of horrible weather we have experienced what might technically referred to as an ‘Indian Summer’ and good flying was had by all. More on this later.
It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that I have to report the passing of John Higgins. John had experienced a spell of illness post his fall in the bathroom which lead to heart surgery and what then seemed to be setback after setback.
John had been chairman of our club for many years and recently was president of the club.
If I was asked to summarise John it would read as follows.
A fantastic modeller and I mean a modeller, John had the ability to pick an aircraft drawing/sketch, draw it out on his trusty roll of wallpaper backing paper, build it and fly it. John would openly admit he took to long to build things but the finished model was up there with the highest standard of building I have ever seen bar none. In the vast majority of projects John undertook they always flew ‘spot on’ a lot of this was down to John’s flying skills. Never every model was a success and John and I would laugh about a term he used when something did not turn out like he wanted, John would refer to these as ‘Hangar Queens’.
I first met John in I think 1982, this was the time the club was transitioning to fly on the field behind the zoo in Blackpool. I had built from a kit a trainer and had attempted to cover it with solartex, I thought it was not bad. John had a low wing aircraft also covered in solartex except his aircraft the covering was tight as a drum with not a single wrinkle or bubble !!!
I decided to pluck up courage and ask John how he managed the covering, sixty minutes later I thought to myself this is somebody who knows his stuff as they say.
That first conversation was the catalysis of a great friendship I had with John.
John became an instructor and later examiner for the BMFA achievement scheme which was in its early stages then. I always had the opinion if John taught you to fly you knew you were of a good standard.
John was an excellent instructor very methodical, calm, always gave feedback to pupils and never judgemental an approach adopted from his teaching role at Blackpool sixth form college.
John was one of the early adopters of using expoxy glass cloth on his models and he became a master at it and only recently was offering advice to Dave Hindley about the process. I myself have used the process on a couple of my models. Many of these models were sprayed and John once said to me ‘The wife is to impressed been spraying in the kitchen and the pans have stuck to the shelf’
It was John who introduced me to gliding and electric powered gliders. John would take months and months trimming his gliders out. I often wondered what was the point until one day I realized that his glider was staying aloft for thirty minutes longer than mine. I will be forever grateful for the knowledge he passed onto me with regard to setting up and trimming gliders, in fact any type of aircraft.
During his time as club chairman John is one of the only few people who could stop big Dave in his tracks and also end the hearty discussions between big Dave and John Protheroe.
Talking of JP John always said that JP knew when he was mixing epoxy resin and or paint because he would ring John mid stir and John would politely tell JP that he had thirty seconds to get his point over.
John would help anybody when at the field, I lost count of how many test flights he did for Carl, many of these were only one circuit and normally concluded with words akin to ‘Carl take it home and think again’ but you know what when Carl turned up again with the tweaked model John would always try again for him.
John was a very good cook and would often give me recipes to try. The recipe would be written out like a Haynes manual for a jet fighter which was John all over.
John loved his cars and indeed motorsport. Those of us old enough to remember will recall that Toyota brought out a sports car called the MR2. John waited ages for his to come but when it arrived it was a thing of beauty.
One Wednesday evening John arrived at the field ( our current field) all flustered and beside himself. Several people asked him if he was OK, John told us that he had in his own words been driving ‘spritely ‘ around the bends at Weeton and spun the car through 360 degrees. This was evident due to the amount of grass and debris around the car, no damage just muck everywhere.
Everybody asked if it was damaged to which John replied ‘No but my model which is in the passenger seat has broken its prop, bugger that was £3.50’.
John was from Yorkshire !!
I could write pages and pages about John all positive. John you were a thoroughly nice human being, a great friend, one of the best modellers I have ever met, a great flyer, a great help to anybody who asked for help and will be sadly missed
Fly high John RIP
Field News/ Activity
So as I mentioned briefly in my first paragraph we appear to have had an ‘Indian Summer’ this is not a type of curry from the takeaway but a weather condition which I wont try and explain, google has several descriptions of what it is, all different I might add !!
Now I am not superstitious but on the day John Higgins passed away I had the best day of gliding I have ever experienced at our field. Every flight I had my vario told me I was 700ft plus and one of the flights required air brake deployment as the glider was getting very very small in the sky and still going up. Dave Hindley was there with a three channel glider which in Dave’s words ‘does not normally go up’ went up in fantastic lift. The lift was very localised and once out of the lift the mushroom effect of the lift was pushing the glider down at a far old speed not a pleasant experience.
That weekend turned out to be a great weekend with plenty of flying with great weather. The turn out at was great with lots of models flying.
Jake turned up with a new camera which he then thrust into his dads hands to take some photos. I have to say the photos are brilliant even if there a lot of them, and I mean a lot of them. Now just like they do on Country file TV programme when they are selecting the photos for next years calendar I have done the same. I looked at them all whilst drinking a can or two of Vocation beer and came up with the photos below.
If I did not select your model I am sorry ‘better luck next time’ as many TV quiz hosts tell you.
Wednesday last week there was a spur of the moment BBQ called by Jake followed by some night flying.
What a great night it turned out to be, chicken, burgers, sausages and MrsV pulled the stops out and made an apple crumble with custard and cream, I know some people missed out on said crumble but you have to be on your starting blocks when it comes to cake etc;
The night flying was very good with perfect conditions even if the little flies came out in force and bit people including me.
The evening was that good that Pete and his parachute squadron made several drops with all of them achieving an on field landing
I do have to report that one of Jakes parachutists has been missing in action (up a tree) for a few weeks now and is assumed not active anymore.
Club & Fylde College Project
As many of you might now our club has been working on a collaboration between Blackpool & Fylde College and our club. Dave Hindley and Andy Moore have been doing a lot of the leg work.
Dave has produced a report on the activities which is enclosed below
The College Challenge
Around this time last year the committee discussed the issue of attracting new younger members to our club and to the hobby in general. This has been a national issue identified by BMFA, with the hobby, and in general club memberships becoming predominantly an older age profile further exacerbated with what appears to be lack of interest and uptake by young people.
Knowing that our local college, Blackpool & Fylde College, has courses in aeronautic engineering, both at further and higher qualification levels, we decided to propose a project whereby our club would support the college in a design, build and fly activity.
We discussed the BMFA Payload Challenge, which is intended to engage schools, colleges and university students, however the challenge is quite complex and we thought a simpler approach would be a better introduction.
We contacted the college to explain our idea and to ascertain their level of interest. The college took us up on the offer and identified two groups of students best suited to undertake the project. Both Andy Moore and I visited the college to make a presentation to the students and the member of teaching staff who would support the students. This visit went very well, following the visit the college identified a timeslot at the end of the day on Wednesday. Andy and I attended each week to provide support as students made progress with their ideas, this was slow going at first, the support from the college was less than we expected. We provided a list of build materials and equipment required, the college quickly obtained all the required components.
As the year progressed some students dropped out of the project leaving the higher level students to progress. During the summer term this year the students moved over to the workshop for the weekly session, and construction commenced. At the end of the summer term only one student remained, Andrew Lamb a first year degree student (Aeronautical Engineering), Andrew worked hard and with our support eventually completed his construction.
The committee discussed the project development at each of our meetings, early on in the project it was discussed that on completion of the test flight prizes would be awarded to students based on different aspects of the project outcome, along with club membership for the winning student. As this now amounted to our one remaining student the judging of performance became easy.
Due to a spell of unsuitable weather coinciding with the build completion, and then the holiday period occurring, we eventually undertook a test flight on the morning of the 6th September. It must be said that we all had some doubts that flight would take place, however to our surprise and Andrews delight two short flights were made. It was obvious that many design aspects would be need to be improved if the build was undertaken again, but it did fly and we have video evidence.
Andrew and his father returned to the field that evening to a healthy gathering at our bbq, to be awarded with his prize, a RTF trainer and our offer of club membership which he accepted. We look forward to Andrew taking up training with us. Below two photographs, Andrew and Andy Moore with a pre-flight moment and Andrew receiving the prize later that evening.
During the period of the project we attended the BMFA NW meetings and kept them informed of the project throughout. The BMFA NW group further encouraged us to complete the project, and kindly supported the cost of the prize. We will report the conclusion to this group, and other clubs attending were keen to know how we undertook the project.
In conclusion, the committee agreed that we will approach the college to offer support if they wish to run the project again this year, many lessons have been learned by all parties, and a more effective approach would be in place if we repeat the project.
However, we now have a young person very interested in flying radio controlled model aircraft and in our club. And we have a good working link with our local college which we wish to develop further.
Aeroshow Trophy
Sunday coming 17th September is the annual Aeroshow Trophy at the field. You should have by now received an email from Dave Hindley with the details
Try and make the effort to attend
Club Trainers
Below is the list of current trainers for the club. Get to know these people if you are learning to fly. Ask them for their phone numbers so that you can ring them to check availability. This save’s wasted journeys which can lead to frustration for trainees.
Jason Reid, Jake Reid, Anthony Ollerton, Dave Hindley, Mark Conlin, Brian Holdsworth, Chris Vernon, Andy Harrison
The vast majority of these trainers are in employment so their availability is governed by their work. Please bear this in mind when arranging a flying session
Don’t forget the main training session during the summer is Wednesday nights, weather dependant of course
Chris V