SLOPING OFF...
...the Newsletter of Christchurch and District Model Flying Club for...December 2023
AWARDS EVENING AND THE GREAT SWAP MEET
Alex Bush was awarded the BMFA Certificate of Merit for his work on Strawberry Field and Oldfield. For those who could not be there, his citation is attached below.
Jon Couldridge and Martin Delaney were joint winners at the Club Fun-Fly
The Swap Meet seemd to be a great success and the models donated by Ken Spokes raised over £500 for the Club
Citation sent to the BMFA for Alex’s award
Alex Bush has been a key member of Christchurch and District Model Flying Club for a number of years. At our original grass site he took charge of the field condition, organising the filling of a badly prepared drainage channel and marking out runways, taxi zones and pits area. He then did the mowing with a team of club members who he trained and supervised. The grass and ground, despite being used by the owner for car boot sales on Sundays was always in good condition and a pleasure to fly from.
The loss of this field forced a change of location to a leased couple of acres, part of a much larger barley field on a local arable and fruit farm. The farmer ploughed and rolled our patch and sowed it with some grass seed, but it was soon clear that much more work was needed before it could be anywhere near good enough for flying. The surface was stony, rough and slightly rutted and the grass didn’t germinate well.
Alex took charge of this very disappointing result and in the space of 18 months turned it into an excellent flying site. His first aim was to have a shed on site so that the mower and various tools could be safely stored. He sourced it, built the concrete base and arranged for its delivery and erection, all the time liaising with our landlord over questions of suitability and the shed’s place in the farm environment.
Once he had a base to work from, he badgered Club members into work parties for de-stoning, re-seeding, marking out runways, mowing and clearing debris. The surface of the field was still rough, especially after the frosts of the early part of the year. Although the farmer had agreed to roll the patch, Alex was concerned that the rutting left by the previous tractor work would just be made worse. He persuaded the committee that the hire of a vibra-roller was the only way to get Club authority over the process. He then arranged the hire and reception of the machine and with a small work party rolled the field diagonally both left and right and then longitudinally over the high spots left by the original tractor wheels. The result is a flying field as flat and grassy as one could wish.
Alex’s strength is in having a vision of what the end result should be and the determination, drive and energy to see the process through to a successful conclusion. Without this neither our old field nor this new one would have been anywhere near good enough to support our thriving Club with its large membership of enthusiastic fliers.