David Ashby

Just to revive an older topic but did any meet-ups happen chaps?

Saturday was a day for the second Kent Interclub ‘2M Glider Free-4-All Challenge’ competition. It’s a very relaxed format designed to attract new flyers to silent flight thermal comps; Radians, bitsa models and F5L machines all flew. The weather just about came good and a very enjoyable day was had by all, so more dates will no doubt be allocated for some 2025 events.

Wow, very nice indeed.

Thinking about the above, I should add that cultivating good relationships with parents is just as important. Portaloos, tea making facilities etc. all help. You really do need to go out of your way to make people welcome so visiting isn’t a chore for the non-flyers. Every Saturday is for training, that way people can plan ahead, although we ask beginners to say whether they’re intending to visit so the two instructors know if their services are not required.

We attract a steady stream of younger flyers but retaining them isn’t easy. They rely on parents to bring them to the field, fund their hobby and help them with repairs. We do have 3 club trainer models and help wherever we can of course. It’s easy for them to drift away in winter when poor weather prevents flying and they don’t have room for a workbench that can be used to build something on and help them retain interest. Club nights can help to some extent here. In some cases we hope the countless hours spent helping and training have embedded an interest that they’ll return to in the long term. It’s not easy though, especially as we only have two instructors who are prepared to help out of a club of 60 members.

I thought I'd pop this in Dave B's thread for a change. It's something I came across this week when looking at books in a charity shop. This is a birdwatching book where you can record your sightings. I just had to buy it...

I flew my recently restored 1990s Krick Chicco this week. T'was donated to the club by a family who'd cleared out their late father's house. The model contained a nice selection of 'vintage' bits - brushed 550 motor, Westbury ESC, standard servos etc. and now weighs a fair bit less. 😉 Did anyone have one of these back in the day?

One of the He-111 models used in the film resides at Headcorn Aerodrome these days where it’s undergoing restoration. I grabbed these shots of it last year. I was told it was used in the blitz scenes.

Another to consider. It might stretch your budget a tad but the Arrows Bigfoot is a rugged thing that flies well. We’ve been using them at the RC Bootcamp all summer and they’ve come through very well despite lots of hard use and hundreds of flights per airframe.

Fantastic, thanks Robin.

Ah, yes, thanks Colin, that has to be it.

Hi all, I’m just sorting through some of dad’s bits and pieces. I’ve come across this little diesel engine but can’t seem to establish the maker etc. Can anyone help please.

Several late night flying sessions this week both on the hill and club field. It feels as if we’ve earned these few fine summer days this year.

A couple of recent projects, a Lidl glider of course and a Limit EX from the old RCME free plan. Maidens await both.

Good weather and a busy weekend at the RC Bootcamp here in Kent. The instructors gave flying lessons to 11 Scouts and 2 leaders on the Saturday and 10 people (a mix of kids and adults) yesterday. Over 100 flights on Sat and 70 flights yesterday. With the 8 laptop simulators providing constant back-up training it was satisfying to see how quickly people started to fly (real world) circuits and figure-eights by themselves. Flight demonstrations at lunchtime were well received too. The 4 Bigfoot trainers were worked very hard indeed but have stood up well.