In search of a decent club...

 Well, I got fed up with being treated like a piece of shit on Betts's foot for absolutely no reason and when he started spouting BMFA rules at me when I raised a point on the club's facebook page I lost it and, calling him a rule-loving arse licker publicly, sort of ensured I would not be welcome back at Station Meadow, Haha!

So, I went to Downham club, where I'd been going a few times a year for a look and a natter for, believe it or not, over 30 years, but had never joined as I was told they were very expensive. It actually turned out they're a few quid cheaper than Emneth. I was told there'd be no objection to my joining, especially as I was yet another refugee from Emneth (they had a few already, all quoting problems with Betts/Ball).  But when I went back 3 days later, the geezer who runs the club (damned near owns it!), John Langridge told me he'd called the BMFA and they'd said not to allow new members till the new year. Now, that is not in their power to say and John wouldn't use his precious pennies to call the BMFA to save his life. In fact, he just didn't want me to join because he was jealous of my friendship with his co-founder. But Peter had developed dementia and I'd been asked not to visit as it might upset him. This ban has been like a death for me as Pete and I shared a passion for the hobby and I just wanted him to know I'd finally taken up the hobby.  When I learned that John had been visiting I realised he was behind my ban. Unlike him I am not after all Peter's wonderful models. I'd have nowhere to put any of them anyway. They're all big ones.

However, while I sat chatting to other members of the Downham club, without Langridge, I was told of a small club in the Thetford Forest.  I found the club online, 'phoned their Secretary and was given such a superb welcome I went over there, with my wife and our wee doggy and paid them a visit.  Well, what a fantastic place and what a wonderful welcome from Secretary and Chairman.  They made my wife just as welcome and if our dog were friendlier they'd have welcomed her too!

They have electric, I.C. fixed wing, helicopters and even FPV and drones. In fact the secretary is a licenced drone pilot for aerial photography (now so much used in TV).  They even have a 4 foot concrete patch in middle of the field for helicopters to take off and land.  The site is surrounded by huge trees on three sides, a river behind and a railway line in front, all topped off by a small chicken shit-powered power station to one side. Basically, if you can fly there you can fly anywhere.  The club are in the process of buying the site, but they have to retain access to the public on the footpaths that run round it.  But that's not really a problem. The public tend to stop and watch and ask questions.  Naturally I joined immediately, paying their incredibly low subs sum, itself halved as I was joining over half the year through  and I have now flown with the instructor three times on the club's Bixler trainer, even getting as far as looping and landing last time up, despite the cross wind.  Then the weather broke and I've not been back for three weeks, but Sunday next is forecast as good weather.  We must see whether Boris shoves us all back in lockdown for November, as is thought likely.

Here's what the site looks like...

Yes, that's a tall chimney on the extreme right of the top photo. It's a good way off, but a chap hit it with his large stunt 'plane last time I was there and never found the front half of the model.

The lower picture is where we all park and behind that is the river. Fast flowing alas, but somebody did once get a floatplane off it!  Couldn't get back on though!

A gingerish return?...

Well, the plague is still with us to some extent, but things are a little more relaxed and training flights began again last week.  I had to book in for a slot, but got one easily and another booked for this coming Tuesday.  I flew as well as last October, so I haven't forgotten anything. I'd like to push things along some and start doing low passes and landings.  I could try the playing fields in the village where the guy who runs things said he'd welcome me there with small electric 'planes as it would "make a change from bloody dog walkers"!!  As long as there are no kids playing ball games I may well sneak some stick time in there. As long as I have his permission, I have insurance.

I have had some plans for a Vulcan reduced to a more manageable size for me. I can't transport or store big models and frankly I have always been a four footer fan. They're what I grew up with and what I like to see. The huge things, which OK, may fly better, just strike me as willy waving.  "Look at me, I can afford a huge £400 petrol engine in a £500 kit which someone built for me. I have Futaba RC costing £2400", even though the infinitely better AND beautiful Jeti Duplex is much cheaper.  "I had to buy a special van to put it in and fit it out so I can only carry toy aeroplanes on racks".  No, thanks, not for me.  If it won't go in my Suzuki Swift, it don't happen.  So, the Jetworksonline Vulcan plans were reduced at some cost by a fearsome Polish lady in a local print shop.  Actually she was very pleasant and did a good job. It must be that missing indefinite article in her speech that makes me think she came hotfoot from a James Bond set!
The Vulcan is now just over a metre wingspan, instead of the big 55" it started out at. It will still take a pair of 50mm EDFs and should sound fairly jetlike. My son, Mike, 3D printed a couple of components to check the drawings and they fit like a glove.

As it was my Birthday a couple of days ago he also bound the instructions into a booklet at work. Much easier to refer to.
I shan't be building this one until I've flown some of the other aircraft I've built during the plague.
I still have my wee Pietenpol, a kit from Flite Test in foamboard. Bernard at the club already flew this and loved it.

And I managed at last to get a couple of Lidl's gliders a couple of weeks ago and converted one to power, using pitcherons, which is where the wings themselves pivot to act as control surfaces.
I also have the trainer all finished and fitted out with an Enya 40, waiting for when I'm allowed to fly my own aircraft at my own risk.

I also built a Flite Test Spitfire from free plans which I scaled off the PC screen as I'm too tight to print 30 odd A4 sheets with the price of ink.  I finished it with some mods to make it a little more realistic looking and in First Flight zinc chromate and bare metal as I detest cowshit cammo. But you just gotta have that shape in the sky and the FliteTest version has undercambered wing tips so no nasty tip stall, which is normally the bugbear of Warbirds and Spitfires in particular, so it should fly in a beginner's hands.

There are more, but they'll keep for next time. I'm fast running out of ceiling!

Did I say still flying?...

Ha!  Forget it. I see I haven't blogged since October last year.  And, coincidentally, I haven't flown either. I managed to walk to the field when the track was boggy, but didn't get to fly as it was too windy.  So I made a trolley to take stuff on foot, but then this virus shite hit and they closed the field anyway.  So effectively I will have paid a year's subs for a couple of month's use and frankly I think the club should give us some free months next year. I may even chuck it all as, having got interested, keen even, bought gear, built aircraft and planned others, it's all fallen to bits. I'm back on the slot racers.  I'm seriously considering pulling the yachts out again. There's a river up the road with nobody on it and nobody near me.  Model boats...there won't be anyone else!

But it struck me that one of the main reasons that so many people are having a hard time with staying in is because they have nothing in their lives that fulfills them.  They've spent years poo-pooing hobbies, pretending that they're too busy and now, when a hobby is exactly what they should be able to easily fall back on, they have nothing.  Going out, having friends round, travelling, sport?  They are NOT hobbies. They may be interests in some small way, but a hobby is something that really absorbs you.  Because I work from home and always have with few exceptions (which I hated!) having to stay in is no different to me.  I have usually worked at my hobby and raised a family and paid a mortgage on it.  But there are many aspects of that same way of earning a living that are purely hobby elements.  I can switch between them.  Model yachts (for me only), model scenery ( an artistic for me aspect), model railways (now client only), model cars (bit of each). Over the years I have also done static model aircraft, model furniture, even model firearms (which worked!).  I can also turn to restoring an old Seagull outboard motor, repairing and rejuvenating ancient pond yachts and repairing all manner of stuff for others.  I could do that Repair Shop programme standing on my head! They clearly have no idea how to paint anything for a start!

If people had absorbing hobbies, they could do the chores then turn to the shed or the spare room and be in another world. The time flies.  Why not buy a model kit (online if your local shop has shut, like mine) and build it. Really try to do it well, maybe if your kids are home do it with them. Buy what appeals to you both and make that. Never mind school stuff. That's all pointless crap, as this enforced absence will eventually prove.  Use their time and yours to learn about and build something interesting. A plastic kit maybe or a balsa wood and tissue model you can actually fly with the child.  Make a point of watching youtubes about it (and there WILL be a youtube about it) and make it something enjoyable and absorbing for both of you. And when it all goes back to normal, you will have something far more fulfilling to do than watching some bunch of overpaid pansies kicking a bladder about or going and sitting in a grossly overpriced caff of dubious cleanliness drinking coffee you can make better yourself.