Cuban8

Welcome back - all of the recent 'new' flyers to the club that I administer the membership stuff for, have been returnees after often quite lengthy periods away from the hobby. Very few over recent years have joined as complete freshmen with no previous knowledge or experience. A slippery slope.

You're not alone Toto - I find even the very best simulators extremely tedious and boring after only a few minutes of messing about......pushing the limit etc. I've had a few goes on the big BMFA sim when it's been at a show and of course it's very good and kids and those looking to have a go love it, but even if I had full access, I reckon I'd soon get tired of it. However.............without my Phoenix sim I'd never would have been able to learn helicopters and get my AH without a hell of a lot of bother, expense and busted models. Not saying it went without incident but that's heli flying for you. Shame really, I got so far with helis and have sort of lost interest - the journey was far more absorbing than the destination if you see what I mean. I find sims useful when practising specific things to train one's muscle memory, like knife edge loops and knife edge circuits, that sort of thing. 10 minutes of tootling round with a sport model and that's enough for me. Modern sims are fantastic and a world away from the first rather crude matchstick type display ones that came out like IIRC Aerochopper. Not really a computer games person TBH. Going to the MCN Motorbike show at Excel this weekend and apparently they're giving goes on this......https://www.mototrainer.it/en/home

If 'flying outside of one's comfort zone' means operating a model beyond ones safety limit, then no, not a good idea. I've seen flyers who seemed to always love going for broke and with little regard for whether their model gets wrecked or not - sometimes they'd get away with it, sometimes not - it never mattered, just laughed it off. Not my M.O. at all - every crash or damaged model is a failure in my book - not something I'd be celebrating Quite different to a planned and incremental advance in one's skills, with plenty of opportunity to 'bail out' if things go wrong. How do full size aerobatic pilots train? I doubt if many go about it by taking a chance, getting close to soiling themselves and hoping for the best.. Each to their own, of course.

Smaller and lighter doesn't actually automatically mean easer to learn on and fly. Don't know the Bigfoot, but it looks to be a reasonable modern trainer and quite a good size for training at 1300mm wingspan. Very small stuff can be overly challenging to fly as a beginner - hard to see - can be twitchy - and difficult to keep up with especially in less than perfect weather. Your experienced flyer friends have given you good advice with the bigfoot, use their expertise to get you flying as well. Going it alone and giving it a go even with electronic stabilisation gizmos and panic recovery buttons etc isn't the very best way IMHO - still far too much risk of a wreck or even losing the model - maybe even winding up finding yourself in bother if the model winds up somewhere it shoudn't or worse. Good luck.

Keep it simple as a very wise old engineer one advised me.............is the airbleed actually bleeding? Edit. sorry just rerread your post and the motor runs ok on the test stand.........hmmmm fuel level? Where's Jon when when we need him?

Oh, we could have fun with this......I always tease my friends who have taken to reliving their youth by buying Lambrettas and Vespas by asking them when are they going to try some real motorcycling? Aeromodelling? According to the Collins Dictionary.......... noun 1. the making and flying of model planes adjective 2. relating to the making and flying of model planes I suppose the key thing is the making of a model rather than just the flying part. When I build an Airfix kit aeroplane I'm not aeromodelling , but when I do a bit on one of my R/C models I am aeromodelling because the aim is to get the project to fly...........or should I become an aeromodeller only when I'm actually flying it? What defines making? Design and construction? construction only? High level or low level construction i.e ARTF or scratch building from raw materials? This really does need to be investigated by the BMFA and discussed at length at both regional and national level and a fully endorsed definition of aeromodelling agreed upon. Only joking.....I think....

It is hard to believe just how huge the Sandown Symposium was - every floor including the basement stuffed with modelling or model engineering goodies. Crowds six deep around every trader at the busiest times, and the spectators packed into the outside stand for the flying. My daughter (now almost 40 with two kids of her own) as an eight year old, one of dozens of kids waiting for the 'Toffee Bomber' to make its run over their heads and the mayhem of them all scrambling to get a sweetie after the drop. We really were a lucky generation to have experienced those shows as they were in their prime.

A friend and his missus had a very ornate four poster bed.............after a while he added extra struts across the top and took to storing all his very large gliders across the top! Lost contact with him ages ago - don't know if he's still married.

I am running into storage problems myself. Keeping airworthy model inside the house is becoming less of an option for me - so I've had no choice but to store some in my fairly large garden shed. Not 100% ideal, however when I built the structure a couple of years back I ensured it wouldn't suffer from dampness as much as I could and provided plenty of ventilation with a good draught underneath it and off the wet ground on a concrete base. Simple guttering also helps and stops water splashing back when it rains. Heating is out of the question and spending a small fortune on proper insulation etc is also a non-starter. It faces south, on an open aspect with no overhnging trees, so in winter it benefits from the sun when we get some, and in summer when it can get very hot, the ventilation seems to do its job, especially if I leave the doors open during the day. Just a matter of keeping an eye on things and so far after three years of use, I haven't noticed any problems with my stuff. A leaky old structure that's half falling down and sits in constant shade under trees wouldn't be much good though.

Commercial model shows aren't and have never been charity events - if they are no longer offering what people want or they fall foul of other pressures as the Nats have, then they'll fail as we've unfortunately seen so many do recently. The younger generation don't seem to like spending a day watching models and wandering round stalls as we liked to in the past - just not their thing. Learner's list of 'moans' are simply highlighting very succinctly why model shows are falling by the wayside. Nothing to do with being miserable or moaning for the sake of it (you'll always get a few) just an unfortunate state of affairs that are being mirrored in many other once successful and popular enterprises. Think your local high street shops - some pubs and restaurants, many local theatres etc if where I live is anything to go by.

I wouldn't recommend storing kits, models etc in your loft. The temperature swings can be enormous and that alone will do balsa and other materials no good at all. Foam veneered wings are particularly prone to complete ruin after being stored this way.

Should have mentioned that both clubs do have WattsApp messaging but it's just something that's been set up between a few members who tend to fly together during the week etc. Saves wasted journeys when other things get in the way etc. Quite a few years ago a good friend of mine made an excellent point when we were talking about club magazines, social events and club comps etc....... " most people join clubs as a means to an end, in our case, a nice flying field to fly their models and that's it - everything else passes them by" I think that's very true, not all clubs will be the same, but essentially it'll be the usual folks getting involved with club activities etc more than others. Perfectly OK, they pay their subs and get from them what they need.

Neither of my two clubs produce a newsletter as such, hard copy or otherwise now. It was tried in the past and I had a hand in producing a twice yearly booklet over twenty years ago that was posted out to members. Difficulty getting material from members to include and feedback that indicated to me that it was actually a waste of time and money put paid to it. We now just put out an email as and when members need to be made aware of important club matters.

Henry Cole of 'Shed and Buried' and the Motorbike Show etc is an aeromodeller..............https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw6UJTyQVdo&t=455s Fast forward to the last couple of minutes if motorbikes aren't your thing.

Poor old David Jason is just not suited to this type of programme IMHO - his other efforts outside of comedy and drama I find very irritating and although not wishing to be rude he really should give it a rest. This latest show is terrible and although I did sit through the awful aeromodelling bits 'for research purposes' I really couldn't stand any of the other stuff.

Ditto Jon......one of those screw apart coarse metal filters as a clunk in the fuel bottle and a Sullivan Craptrap dual filter in the feed to the model. Nothing else.

My wife and I first met DB at one of the early (pre Modelair) flying days at Old Warden during the 1980s - just a friendly hello and quick chat for a few minutes about nothing in particular. Amazingly, DB never forgot us and if he happened to spot us at later meetings he'd always acknowledge us with a cheery " hello again, how are you? - enjoying the day?" A really lovely man.

Same with something similar for car sparkplugs that all seem to be buried deep inside cylinder heads these days.

Store my CA bottles in a sealed plastic container in the fridge (small tupperware type thingy) keeps the glue fresh for ages.

There are quite a number of posts on the bmfa Facebook page this morning about giving up the hobby because of regulations, boring forms to fill in, and complex tests to sit. Although on FB, these folks are presumably bmfa members, so quite where they are encountering all their issues I haven't the faintest idea. I loathe the regs that we are saddled with - the rights and wrongs are quite something else - but it's not difficult to jump through the hoops.

Fair enough, but from what I've heard from quite a few clubmates, the mag does go completely unread. As for the on-line edition, we get email notifications about renewals and CAA etc so I guess a heads up about the mag will come the same way.

To claim that one simply bins the mag without even a cursory glance is, with the greatest respect, rediculous. True, I don't read it all from cover to cover, but following on from my comments regarding 'News', a lot of important stuff that we as members pay the BMFA to act upon on our behalf is covered and needs to be read by everyone.

Seeing as the publication is called 'BMFA News' I'd expect its main remit to be news of the BMFA, its doings, clubs and associated stuff. Anything else is pretty much covered by RCM&E, Aeromodeller and a few other remaining specialist mags for those that wish to read other general articles. I don't see the need for duplication. Thrice yearly should be plenty to cover it. The single 'free' hard copy idea I dont think is a good idea considering the considerable cost. Perhaps an option to request it at renewal time? Art photography using drones or even conventional models seems an odd thing to include to me. Although I do read and enjoy the Scale content, it's not really news.

Old Warden seems to me to be a good choice to expand their model related activities. The current Modelair events are excellent but nothing on the scale(!) scope and attendance of those that I recall attending in the mid 80s. Just a thought.

Post on FB BMFA page just now saying W&W cancelled, all advance tickets to be refunded. That's a great shame.