Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
Sloping Off - our newsletter

Chairman’s chatter by Terry Antell

Days & Meetings in our 50th Year

2016

January to April was abominable weather. Rain Rain & more rain which contributed to us having to stop using Strawberry Field. Through a club member we obtained Hurst View for the intervening months. A wonderful site that even had the facility for flying off water. Rather large puddles actually. We, your committee, gave a wine hamper to the owners for allowing us free use of the site. Then in April it was back to Strawberry Field.

January

Club meeting Quiz hosted by Peter Jones and won by Mike Roach. A Christmas lunch supplied by The Walkford F.O.C.

At the training section of the meeting Alex gave a good demonstration of cutting & sanding different grains of balsa wood.

Alex continued his talk/demo at the Tuesday afternoon session.

 Wednesday 27th Skittles Evening at The Walkford. 20 people attended and all enjoyed a basket meal, with chips. All put £1 in the hat. The winning team of 5 won £2 each and £10 was put in the staff tips box. A splendid evening.

February

Club meeting saw Trevor Hewson, Jon Couldridge & Martin Lucas present a marvellous talk about small helicopters & small multi-rotor models. 1 1/2 hours of the differences in various types of models, plus where to buy them.

Thursday 11th Feb was to be the club Slope Day out. As the forecast was light & variable wind it was decided we would have a day at Strawberry Field. Nine members turned up on the frosty morning and found cows were still on our patch. Jon Goddard rang Hurst View site and obtained permission for us to use the site. It was a superb day with plenty of sunshine and almost no wind. A relaxing day of power flying AND the first club aerotow of 2016.

Wednesday 24th February — This was the Slot Car racing evening at Millstream Slot Car Club, Ringwood. 18 members & guests arrived on time. Martin Burr took all on a tour of both floors and advised when the food & drinks machines were and personal facilities. 9 teams of 2 people per team started racing at 7.30pm, ending at 10.10pm. Hard fought races all evening. I’m sure all went home tired out with so much concentration on their cars flying around (and off) the 8 lane tracks.

March

Club Meeting had Dave Smith showing his simulator for Drone Racing. Many members had a go with one of the three computers he had brought along. I’d call it Aeroflying for the Young.

April

Club Meeting saw a large turn out of members to watch the DVD about flying boats AND to view Mike Roach’s Saunders Roe “Princess” 1/26 th scale model. This is a LARGE model with over £200 worth of balsa wood used to build it. Mike also produced his own drawings to build it from.

April 12th saw 17 members attending Strawberry Field to work at regenerating the field after the winter. The sunken land drain was levelled with 1 3/4 tons of top soil, plus many holes caused by cows over the winter repaired. The Cow sh*t was cleared enough for our mower to be driven out from the barn.

May

Club Meeting 6 members again came to SF. 5 cleared the cow poo (3 tons) from the barn entrance. Alex reseeded part of the flying patch and added more soil (donated by 2 members). 2 weeks later we hired a twin ride-on roller and levelled the lumps on the patch. Tues 31st May 9 members arrived at SF and spread fertiliser over the patch. Malcolm Bird spent time adding recycled tarmac to the gate entrance we use.

June

Club Meeting had Terry Adcock giving a talk about “Flying the Lightning”. Terry gave a wonderfully entertaining and informative talk, with slides. All agreed he was a star. He presented us with two copies of his book, “Luck Is My Shadow”, which will be loaned out to members. This is a magnificent read, so please ask to borrow it F.O.C. The improvement to the flying strip at SF has meant mowing twice a week as the grass has improved in quality & quality. 

July.

On the 4th July I ordered our new tractor/mower. The aim to improve the flying strip by collecting all the grass when mowing, thus speeding up the work by our volunteers, plus have an improved facility for all members. Our July Club Meeting was quite well attended although euro foot ball & Wimbledon tennis reduced the numbers by a few. Manny Williamson & Ken Gale both gave an informative talk about the BMFA, particularly on insurance. Saunders-Roe “Princess” flying at Longham Friday 15th July. Builder & pilot, Mike Roach achieved a flying success.

The Jubilee Fun day Comp & BBQ was extremely well attended on Saturday 23rd July, 35 enjoying the dry conditions. It was almost too hot! The burgers, sausages, rolls & sweet corn went down well with the home made potato salad & coleslaw which John Scott supplied keeping the meal moist. Both BBQ’s were kept busy for an hour or so. Oh yes, the competition? Trevor Hewson convincingly won the day with Alan Butterworth the runner up. Me? I just made 4th place. Ten members took part in the flying.

During August we had our first member take & pass the Multi-Rotor “A’ test. Congratulations go to Martin Lucas.

August saw plenty of members using SF and enjoying the beautiful sunshine. The Scale Day was quite well attended at SF. The Water Fly scale day was on Sunday of the bank Holiday. As usual, the weather let the group down and it was cancelled.

Our September Club Meeting at the Walkford received many entries in the Construction & Finish Competition. Mike Roach took the Trophy with his “Princess” 6 engine flying boat. He had taken some old photos and sketches of the original aircraft then produced scale plans. The work involved designing a model that hasn’t been modelled before is enormous and working out the C of G position, motor thrust required. Well done to a VERY worthy member. Oh yes, the Trophy has been in club use for 46 years!!

At the October Club Meeting two members

 (one seen here—Ed) gave a presentation of the history of the club over the last 50 years. I cannot comment further as I, along with 5 other club members were away in South Devon on a weeks slope soaring holiday.

November has seen yet another pub manager at The Walkford and I do hope we can continue to use their facilities. Time will tell.

Over the year there has been plenty of activity at Longham. Slope soaring has also seen more members taking an outing, usually to Win Green as we have had more than our share of North, North West & North East winds.

Indoor Flying has continued twice monthly at Durlston Court School, Barton-on-Sea. We reduced the cost to club members (£2 to fly). This is September to March so it spans two actual club years.

Martin Burr & myself have attended the Christchurch Borough Sports Council representing our club and aeromodelling.

Membership is now around 125. Let’s have a GREAT 51st Club year.

Terry