Cuban8

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.

The Nats were reinvented to mix comps and show flying quite a few years ago. I'm fortunate to have experienced it at it's very peak probably around ten or twelve years ago when it was a huge social jamboree for everyone. It's gone now along with much else that's been affected by changing times and economics.

That's a real pity John - scandalous that a covenant should be ignored, but where greed and profit are the prime mover, expect more of the same. 😠

We don't require members to pay their CAA through the club as a condition of membership - we offer the option of doing so with their annual renewal and 90% avail themselves of the offer. Why wouldn't they? A few pay through other clubs and one chap prefers to remain as a 'country member' and does BMFA and CAA himself for some reason. As much as I loathe the whole CAA nonsense, in order to fly legally members are required to comply with the regs and I do check those few that don't pay through our club via the membership portal. A matter of a few seconds to check and a friendly email or quick phone call reminder if needed. Things do get forgotten and I wouldn't want the club or a member put in a difficult position should a serious incident occur and a member involved was not registered for one reason or another. My other club's committee makes it very clear....."not legal, not flying" and if we catch you then watch out. I like to avoid agro if I can rather than assemble a firing squad for a transgressor over the field 😉

Exactly how I do it for our club members. Easy to ensure that members are all good to go - far easier than chasing people up who do their own as and when they feel like it. Far better if the whole charade was scrapped but that's another story.

Never could really get into YM for some reason......much preferred The New Statesman. Alan B'stard spot on.

£25K per edition when posted? - simply not feasible. So far only 1500 members requesting a hard copy so the change should have been made years ago and would have saved a fortune. Well produced as always, but not what most members are interested in and want to read in detail. Having said that I do hope everyone at least reads Ian Pallister's somewhat sobering article. A shame but that's the fact of the matter.