Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
 

EDITORIAL

The chance meeting and chat that led to the agreement to use our new flying field must be the most serendipitous (?) in the Club's history and all of us fliers owe a huge debt to Terry Butterfield and Keith Young. I have been there a dozen times since we were allowed to fly and have immensely enjoyed the great big open space and the freedom to make mistakes in the air and on the ground. We have been inhibited for far too long by the constant and worrying presence of random dogs and people at Stanpit and the other public sites we have used. That ever-present nagging concern that one day, while we were not looking, a head would appear just where our plane wanted to be rather took away the simple pleasure of flying. Even getting there at 7 am or late in the evening was no guarantee that you would have the field to yourself.

When flying on my own at Strawberry Field I give in to the self-indulgent urge to fly round and round myself like a control line model, or do inverted touch and goes* on the grass with a flying boat. Such childish amusement is part of our hobby I suppose, and makes a thrilling change from practicing “better flying.”  My flying standards have improved 100% since I started using our new field, and I put this down to the lack of restraint we have there.

But when flying with others, we must use best practice, as urged by the Chairman and posted in the rules on our website and in this Sloping Off. The BMFA recommendations and Club Rules on safety must be followed as closely as possible, or we will one day fly into one another, with predictably bloody and litigious results.

Please fly safely at Strawberry Field!

* an editorial exaggeration - for now

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