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 New Year News

When I sat down at my computer, being cut off by a foot of snow, to update club news for the website, I realised that due to the weather there wasn’t really enough news to justify a website update. This little note therefore is a belated happy new year to all members and comes with best wishes for a good flying season. The weather also has prevented the committee from getting together to decide on how next year will go, but the message we got from the agm was that you wished things to continue as before with the accent on informality and fun and this is the route we shall follow.

We will continue with Thursday club nights starting on the first Thursday in April and continuing through until the end of September.

The BBQ seemed a good idea so we will probably run that again one weekend too.

That apart we will be pretty much as was but all events and happenings will eventually be put on the website when we have updated it.

Traditionally winter is been the building and projects time but the ARTF boom put paid to this for a lot of people. I have had a WW2 fighter held back for some time now for just such an event and the weather since the new year gave me the incentive to get stuck into it. Fortunately I have a heated workshop so I can work in relative comfort and it is now complete apart from the motor which is out of stock at Hobby King and has been for over a month... It has retracts and is to run on 6 cells and all will be revealed in due course.

Due to that being held up I am now building a small EDF projectile for 2 fans from a plan. I decided to carry out an exercise to see how cheaply it could be done so I’ve had to modify it a bit depending on the scrap wood I have in my stock. All the motive power I got from Giant Cod. The 65mm EDF units were £6 and the Black Mantis motors £10 each. I must admit that I baulked at the £8 esc’s and spent a bit more. The motors run beautifully and smoothly, and on a 3S Loong max pack give 235 watts each at 22 amps. As the planned auw is around 2lbs 8oz with 470 watts on tap it should be quite potent.

It must be down to age I think because I find time in the workshop quite therapeutic and with the weather we have had so far this year I could easily slip into hibernation mode and not surface until spring. The longer you put off doing something the less inclined you are to want to do it. However I did venture out yesterday and although it was cloudy and only 4 degrees there was virtually mo wind and Pete Walker and I enjoyed some relaxing flying. Truth to tell I wasn’t too keen on flying, I really wanted to see how the site had fared after the freeze up but when Pete got his aeroplane out of the car and obviously intended to fly he shamed me into it.

I was surprised how good the runways were. There were some pools on the parking area but the runways were good and the only really wet area was at the stream end of the west runway. If we don’t have too much more rain it should dry up well, but in any event it is fully flyable. The track is dry all the way down and there are a couple of small puddles by the bridge but all is good and firm, so the work that Craig did at the bottom end of the approach road have paid dividends. If you want to go flying please park on the winter hard standing area and don’t take your car into the field.

At the time of writing we have not yet received our BMFA certificates but we do have the BMFA temporary receipts if you desperately need verification in the meantime. Just contact Pete out membership secretary and he will send you what you require. The certificates will be sent out as soon as we receive them.