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The other point that always occurs to me when I see posts from the usual suspects knocking the BMFA is..... why? Surely, if for whatever reason you don't like or support the BMFA then simply don't be a member. Don’t endlessly pick on every negative point you can and start another debate - it gets rather tedious.

Strange reading about the cold weather, Johannesburg is in the middle of a heat wave with lots of wind and no rain. We are even having to freeze fish tank water to help cool my wife's fish tanks as as the water is now at 30c. Byron and I managed some flying at one of the local clubs who asked Byron to come and join them for some flying. We flew the Model Products P40 with a Zenoah 62 which flew very well. The Mustang had flap issues so we did not risk it, I have changed the servo's and extension leads just to be safe.

£50 to participate securely in a fantastic hobby is peanuts. Try finding a golf club with £50 pa fees 😁 Re FPVUK insurance and its 5 million cover, I'm a member of the North York Moors Ridge Soaring Assn, flying on National Park Authority/National Trust land. The NPA/NT have only just accepted BMFA insurance as they didnt regard the (then) 10 million cover as sufficient, as such we had to take out separate insurance just for NYMRSA. With the current BMFA 25M cover NPA/NT have dropped this requirement, my point being that the FPVUK figure of 5 million wont go very far in a serious accident claim and isnt considered sufficient by major landowners. I would recommend sticking with the BMFA, for liabilty insurance, legal cover, CAA representation, FAI/CIAM/WASF liaison... etc etc etc If you dig deep enough you can find very cheap car or home insurance - but you'd better hope you never need it! 🙂

If you are a model flyer, the BMFA is our national body, fighting on our behalf. If you moan about paying less than a pound a week to support that, and get the comprehensive insurance to boot, then you need to take a long, hard look at how much you value your hobby.

No you can't, you can get a vastly inferior insurance and no support for £30 or even £25. BMFA Subs is so much more than insurance though.

Richard The location of the National Centre was fully discussed at Council at the time the decisions were being taken. A potential purchase had been investigated and that was in Leicestershire but that fell through. The Buckminster Estate then approached the BMFA with the offer of leasing the current site. No other viable and affordable site was ever thrown up during the search for a location. So, the issue was very simple. If you want a National Centre, there was only one location that was on offer. One could argue as to whether Buckminster is in the middle of the country but I believe that the road haulage folk consider Huntingdon to be in the "middle" of the country as regards distribution. The entrance to the site is some 4 miles from the A1, a major trunk route that is classed as a motorway for part of its length. I don't know if you think a major road like the A1, the main north/south route along the east side of the UK gives good enough access to the facility but I think most people would say it fell into the category of giving easy access to the NFC. It is true that having a site within easy reach of a meeting of major motorways might give better access but then the land values would become unaffordable for the BMFA. I don't know where else you think would be better but we are back to the whole issue of who is available to do the leg work of finding and assessing the available options. Remember, apart from 3 full time employees who are focused on specific areas we are reliant on volunteers to do this sort of work. When people say, the BMFA should do this and should do that, try looking in the mirror as you are the BMFA. I don't see a huge number of people standing for election to the BMFA Executive Committee and, therefore, requiring a vote of all members to select them. Mostly, there is only 1 candidate. The arguments for and against an NFC were vigorously pursued at the time. It serves little use to continue an argument that has been thoroughly ventilated at the time of the decision. That decision included the use of sponsorship to be an integral part of making the NFC financially viable. So, to say that it's only the sponsorship that makes the NFC viable as Steve Too says is indeed quite correct. That was one of the issues that led to the decision being taken that leasing Buckminster for a 35 year lease was the only viable option on the table. It may be that in coming years that BMFA membership might atrophy to the state that the BMFA will no longer be a viable organisation and all organised model flying will end. Equally, by using the facilities of the NFC, the BMFA is better able to keep the sport in the public eye and thus help to ensure that new members are attracted. As ever, the gloom merchants will never be satisfied that this was the right decision. In which case, it's very simple. Stand for election to the BMFA Executive and try and convince the rest of the Executive and Council that the wrong decision was made and the BMFA should exit the lease at the next break point. No, didn't think there'd be any takers.

I believe that it’s fair to say that although other organisations participated in the negotiations, both nationally and within Europe, the BMFA were the lead organisation and without Dave Phipps in particular, we would be, at best, paying at least twice as much for far more restricted operation. Anyone watching his dignified performance against the awful arguments and scurrilous sounding comments of Baroness De Vere during the parliamentary inquiry would know how well he represented us.

Without the BMFA the rules governing our flying activities would be much, much more restrictive, that's why it's good to support them.

The CR42 Falco biplane is a scratch built own design, built for my Battle of Britain collection by my pal Jim. I supplied the 3D printed bits, namely the spats, dummy engine and pilot and Jim worked his wizardry in design and build. Built up balsa wing and fuselage, 50" span, 3548 brushless outrunner, 3s2p 4400mah lipo (2x3s1p2200mah packs), finished along the lines of the example that used to be in the Battle of Britain Hall at RAF Museum Hendon. She's flown a few times under Jim's command, but I haven't flown her yet.

Just my quick thoughts from a personal point of view. I really appreciate the national centre and the work it does and the huge effort put in by those who run it If it wasn’t for that resource I would not have had the benefit of meeting and getting advice and support from other members I have met there. A national centre brings people and knowledge together and supports our hobby. Yes you do have to make an effort to go there . Being in the middle of the country it is a long hike for many and takes me over 2hours by car , but it’s well worth it. Going there has widened my perspective of the hobby and and given me an incentive to improve plus allowed me to gain a B certificate which would have been difficult locally.

I don't know fellas, 5 pages, 108 posts, a £2 rise, I feel like jacking it in, my word you do go on.

During the covid lock down, if you had family members visiting, the police could come around and force entry to remove them. Does anyone know if this service is still available for Christmas, and do I need to book?

I thought this was a funnies thread ? Speaking for myself I'm tired of reading this drivel, from where I'm sat the permenantly offended, are the very ones posting this stuff, give it a rest eh. Or does the request offend you ?

DH Dragon, nicely built and very light.

Never mind the snow, I've been out for a bit of fun with the Skipper! Such a versatile model, everyone should have one!

Hi all, I just picked up this beautiful machine today. It's an ex F4C aircraft built by a very talented local builder. The prototype is the Swedish Sk-25 Bücker bestmann. The 2 meter span model is powered by an O.S. 30 cc fourstroke petrol engine. The details are really nice. This will be a back up airplane for next year if anything happens to my regular F4H airplane.

Which seems to be a constant issue on here… With almost everything. Brian.

Another grand day out flying waterplanes at Kitridding, combined with a delicious Christmas lunch at the farm cafe. Just 8 of us, as my usual partner in crime @Merry Mark had work commitments unfortunately. First flight of the day with the venerable Skipper was cut short as the motor mount came loose and, interestingly, the ESC shut the motor down momentarily causing a quick dive down to the safety of the lake. Here it is on the way out as Peter taxies his Cub back to the shore. Out came the Valiant but, about a minute into the flight, the motor shut down and I lost all control. The Valiant dropped its nose and dived onto the grassy bank from about 50ft. After retrieval, the cause was traced to intermittent contact on the XT60 connectors on the ESC. These connectors rely on the springiness of the male pin and these relax after extended use so all tension in the connection is lost. I'll be replacing them with EC3 connectors in future - a much better design in my view. I managed to bodge a fix for the Skipper motor mount using cyano which allowed me to keep that flying up to lunchtime at the cafe. Christmas lunch was roast pork with all the trimmings, accompanied by mulled wine, and followed by Christmas pudding, mince pies and even some Christmas cake. I could barely move afterwards! We staggered back down to the lake about 2 hours later to find the wind had picked up, and from an easterly direction, which always brings jeopardy due to the hill and trees on the upwind side of the lake. I managed a quick flight with the LED-equipped Tundra as the light faded before a light drizzle sent the few remaining flyers back to our cars and we headed home. Despite losing one of my favourite models, it was another great day out at Kitridding. As Mike had commented earlier, where else in this country could you combine a day's flying with a fantastic Christmas meal on the same site?

I don't think it is. OS don't make clockwork engines.

Baltic up here - minus 3 degrees C but managed a couple of hours at the field. Three of us in attendance and I noticed again that the EDF jets perform so much better in the cold, denser air, notwithstanding the effect of cold on the batteries. This might belong more in the Dark Nights Fix Up Thread, but the culmination of it was today's flying whatever the weather. This was the status of my spare Parkzone Spitfire back in January, following a catastrophic crash. The wing had three splits across the whole chord, the fuselage was in eight pieces and cowl in about five pieces. Having fixed the wing a while back, I've been putting one piece of fuselage back together at a time, with Gorilla glue, making sure everything comes out straight, Reglued the wing mounts front and rear and, through taking my time with the eggshell bits, was able to get the cowl all back together, save one small triangular piece. I cut out that to a more regular shape with clean edges and spliced in a piece of styrene card. With the model all together I repainted with B&Q sample pot emulsion, which was a good match to the original. Raked the retracts forward a bit, repaired the plastic U/C doors and cut some masks to repaint the squadron codes. Thought I was all set yesterday, but the vibration on running the motor was horrendous and it turned out it had a bent shaft from the crash. Replaced that and the motor mount this morning and on a frosty day took the model back out for a test flight. Here she is in more or less the same spot as the first picture this morning. Phoenix risen from the ashes. 🙂 The test flight went very smoothly. The frozen ground was a bonus for the ROG without any sign of the ground pecking that sometimes afflicted this aeroplane and she was away. Not a click of trim needed and she flew just like before with everything that the Parkzone Spitfire does so well. It was -3 degrees C at the field and after a five minute flight the motor was sounding a bit different so I opted to land the Spitfire, Nice smooth landing, but the rutted frozen ground whipped the air intake off cleanly, with no damage - that'll glue back on no bother. The motor note change was due to nothing more than the battery struggling with the cold and EN398 has now returned to active service.

Guess where we are

I am relieved to report that we managed to test fly the DC3 and managed a landing! It was a short flight as the wind was not great and we had an old set of lipo's for the test flight as we did not want to risk a good set! The repairs seem to be good a very little trimming was needed.

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I'm sorry but the CAA requirements, thanks to the BMFA, are negligible, and unless blown out of all proportion by existing modellers, are surely not going to put anyone off......

Galahad finished. Found some retro waterside transfers.

Freezing cold this morning, the ground was like iron, the thermometer read -2 degrees C in the car, the overnight temperature in the greenhouse had been -10 degrees, so a hard frost. Not a breath of wind though, big blue skies and a little scattered, very high clouds. Definitely a big suit, foot and hand warmers day, but once out there. properly wrapped it it was vey pleasant and perfect flying conditions. Just three of us at the field, treated to a maiden flight of the other Bob's new 70mm sports jet, which went brilliantly. I took the opportunity to have Bob fly a few of my wee fellas for a few circuits whilst I grabbed some pictures of the ones that I didn't have any piccies of and had a decent couple of hours at the field into the bargain. Thought it best to get some flight in, before Storm Bert arrives overnight and wipes out the weekend and the whole of next week, if the forecast is anything to go by.

Lovely evening here after an afternoon of fence repairs, the horizon had that look of being a long long way away. Had my ancient Mercury Matador up for a couple of flights, pic of it just a dot in the sky under the con trails of airliners departing to or arriving from the Americas. Just one downside as it left my hand my thumb went through the side as I launched it away. Ah well it is 52 years old and rather brittle, just one more patch/battle scar.😁