Times article on Model Flying 5 Apr

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Did anyone see this report on 5 Apr. It highlighted the shortage of young people joining clubs due to the new young persons policy.

What did you think ?

[Allan Jordan]

Hi. David, I didn't read the article myself
( too many big words in that newspaper)!
Seriously though this is a problem in all
hobbies etc.PC and all that nonsense have
made life rather difficult for club officials. I heard sometime ago that one
club had seriously considered dropping the idea of junior membership because of this.
I think it will take a better brain than mine to sort this out. Have you noticed in this forum that a lot of the new flyers are
not young people? PC and the fact that this
is not a cheap hobby may also play a part in the reduced number of juniors making a start as well. Regards Allan J.. TTFN

[001]

Allan, I agree that this is not a cheap hobby, but have you see the price of Playstation 2 & 3, X-Box, Wii and the games associated with them? One console can cost as much as a GOOD complete trainer, radio & starter outfit, one games disc can be £30-40 so I do not think that the cost is the only factor.
General lack of general publicity and positioning of model flying as a sport, lack of support by well paid sports & recreation officials and a sense of aimlessness in many young people would seem to be major reasons here.

[Alistair Taylor]

David

I found the article a depressing read, as I was introduced to this hobby by Ray Malmstrom, a passionate advocate of aeromodeling as a way to channel the energies of young people into constructive activities.

Whatever we think about the act, it is law, and clubs will get clobbered if they breach its rules.

It sounds like the paperwork involved in getting a child welfare officer appointed is probably going to be prohibitive for most clubs, not to mention the disincentive of club members having to undergo CRB checks if they want to provide any kind of training.

However, without new members, clubs will increasingly become the domain of the temporally advanced, and will cease to be once the oldest member has popped his clogs and switched the lights off.

I wonder whether we can avoid the more onerous obligations uder the act by collaborating with those clubs that are dedicated to working with young people (e.g. Scouts, Air Cadets, schools) and getting into some "training the trainers" type activities.

i.e. Organising aeromodelling workshops for teachers or scout leaders, so that they can provide the advise/support that aeromodelling clubs are unable to as a result of the act.

My experience of the young people that are already members of such organisations is that they are interested, polite and (shock horror!) respectful.

Alistair T

[Jonathan Lewzey]

I am a junior member of St Albans MAC, one of only about a dozen in the 100 members of the club. I agree that there need to be more young people in the hobby as it is great fun. If there was any way to publicise the hobby then I am sure there are many others, like me, who are interested. I have already introduced a friend from school who has nearly competed his ARTF trainer and another friend is showing a serious interest in contra rotating helis. It was not until my cousin got a Hobbyzone Commander for christmas that I even realised the hobby existed! I would support the idea of introducing aeromodelling in schools, scouts and air cadets indeed I did my GCSE speaking and listening presentation on Aeromodelling and suddenly found that the class were very interested and hanging on to every word I said! My teacher must have thought it was good too because she gave me an A*!
The world of junior aeromodelling is not all doom and gloom!
Jonathan L

[Antony Wright]

I thought Id just add my pennys worth. As an ex-teacher this area of law is more hype than fact. Unfortunately its the hype that is drawing the attention. Control of kids at school is becoming increasingly more difficlut as children seem to be being given far more powers than the adults in charge of them. I know from experience that even a hint of correcting a child has become a touchy subject. however most kids are not that way orientated thank goodness.
However I also know that we are not the first group of folk in the modeling world to discuss this matter. On another forum last year it raged backwards and forwards for sometime until a couple of resepected memebers on the forum decided to read the law through properly. They came to the conclusion that there would be no problem in having junior members of the clubs. All we need to do is find a way of promoting the hobby. Maybe if some of the well known people in our hobby visited some schools with the intent of putting on some displays and discussed the hobby from a science point of view it might encourage some youngster to investigate it more seriously. It would need to be done right across the country though to have any real impact but I know from experiences in school that kids would be willing to move away from computers etc if there was something different to offer.
I recall in a magazine sometime in the last 6 months or so that this was done in Australia using EPS models to great success as the kids were allowed to fly them under instruction (not all - if any - of them were on a buddy system either).

[leccyflyer]

I've read the report and first of all would have to say that I am saddened that some model flyers somewhere saw fit to deliver model flying unto a political lobbying group such as the Manifesto Club and to have them asking questions of government functionaries about model flying that would be better asked, if needed, by our own national body.

That model flying is able to be be used as a political football by an organisation that has nothing to do with model flying, and especially with them having been approached by model flyers in the first place is very disheartening.

The report is inaccurate in matters of fact- in stating that BMFA policy is that child welfare officers are obligatory appointments for all clubs, which is not the case and there is significant doubt about which aspects of this new legislation apply to model flying clubs at all.

In my opinion the report is also biased and extremely selective in how it paints child protection issues in our model clubs. The Times online article describes a collapse in the number of junior members and yet presents not one shread of evidence that this has occurred.

My understanding is that the BMFA CEO has been asked to look into this and will revert with an answer in due course, after consultation with the BMFA's legal advisors.

Call me old fashioned but I'd be prepared to wait to see what the situation actually is, specifically regarding model flying, before running around like a headless chicken and predicting the end of model flying for youngsters in the future.

[Angus Simpson]

I am a junior membor of a model flying club in scotland that has around 30 members I think, and there are only 3 junior members, one of which I encouraged to join.

[Antony Wright]

Good for you Angus - keep it up

[Malcolm Fisher]

I am a retired teacher and during my career I tried to start an after school modelling club and stayed behind on two evenings each week.

At first the response was reasonable - 20 of the 1300 pupils turned up to the first meeting where I had plans and materials for simple chuck gliders to whet appetites.

We went on to build several simple control line models and a few built R/c models gliders and power models.

Sadly the numbers dwindled as pupils left school and no matter what I did I couldn't recruit replacements.

I believe that some of those who stayed with me until they left school continued their modelling.

My greatest pleasure was helping one who designed and built a model with which to take aerial pictures using a Kodak disc camera and I still have some of the airborne pictures taken while flying in the school playing fields.