Dear Member

I can't believe it is a year since I wrote my 1st club newsletter having been elected as secretary at the 2005 AGM. As some of you attended the 2006 AGM you will know who the elected officers are for the 2007 year, for those of you who did not attend the positions are held by:

Chairman, Peter Bennett; Vice Chairman, Tony Rogers; Treasurer, Dennis Paul; Safety Officer, Terry Hall; Chief Flying Instructor, Phil Crouch; Auditor, Colin Homes; Secretary, Dennis Paul. Look familiar? Yes, they are the same as last year.
Now the boring bit. Renewals for membership are now being taken and your application form is enclosed. Membership fees have been reduced for senior members to £23, but there is a small increase in your BMFA fees to £27. No changes to junior fees. Please return the form with your fees during January. Any memberships not renewed by 1st February shall be deemed to have elapsed. Members are required to be a member of the BMFA as a condition of club membership. On payment of the fees, a BMFA receipt will be issued along with the amended club rules.

A few points from the AGM regarding changes to rules. We now have a defined flight line which is the 18mtr line on the football pitch. No aircraft to be taxied either to or from the flight line under it's own power. Wherever possible the aircraft should be carried. Flying behind the flight line is not allowed at any time.
All aircraft must be flown with the pilot at the flight line, not from the pits. If you are using the new 2.4ghz frequency you must display a black pennant/ribbon/flag on your transmitter and place a peg with you name on it on the new 2.4ghz section of the frequency board. It was also suggested if you wish to fly on an adjacent channel to someone else who is at the field, a ground check is carried out between the two pilots to ensure there is no "bleed/cross over" of frequency. There were also comments made on the possible interference between the 23-channel spacing. E.g. channels 60 and 83 may experience a problem due to the 23-channel difference. This appears to be a concern on any channels, which are 23 apart. Worth checking if this applies to you.

Several awards were handed out by our Chairman and he received one as well! The Chairman's award went to Terry Hall. Terry has been the most regular member at the field and at our social gatherings at the Braitwayt. For those of you who are not aware, Terry went into hospital for an operation just prior to the AGM. Robin, Terry's son attended in Terry's place and reported Terry was now back home and doing very well. So, come on Terry, have a speedy recovery. You are being missed already. We all miss your help and humour.

The Most Improved Junior went for the second time to Peter Short. Well done Peter. I am sure Peter will be taking his A licence soon.

And last but certainly not least was the Matchstick Award for the greatest contribution to the matchstick collection. It was a close run contest between Chairman Pete and myself. After a late flurry of activity (some say 3 in a day) from Pete and a final attempt by me after a brand new 2500mah Rx battery went down on it's 2nd flight. The award went to Pete Bennett. The superb trophy was constructed by Terry Hall. Terry's son Robin presented the trophy to Pete. Well done to all 3 of you!

If you didn't come to the AGM then you missed out on the chance of winning one, or two or several of our grand raffle prizes. We gave away an I.C. ARTF kit. An electric ARTF kit, A 40 size I.C. Motor, LiPo battery, speed controller, Brushless Motor, DVD player, Wine, Whisky, Fuel, Receiver and loads of tools and car care chemicals. I would like to thank the people who donated some of the prizes and gave discounts. In no particular order, Metro Products, Car Plan, Tetrosyl, Simoniz, Holts, Model Discounts W-S-M, CH Supplies, Ian Harper (Fred Coulson Models), thanks again.

We have an offer of the use of a school hall for indoor flying on a Sunday Morning. Do we want to take the offer up? It's FREE and available for free flight, electric flight and rubber power. If you are interested let me know and we can set it up for end of January. The school is in Weston, Bath. If you haven't got any indoor planes, don't worry I can tell you how you can get flying for about £25 and that includes a plane with radio gear! For £15 then you can (if you want) buy a sheet of Depron for £6 and make your own foamy from a plan. The plane can be bought from Maplins for £15 Reduced from £29.99 to £14.99 X-FLYING CULB MINI RC PLANE. Code L37bk Similar to this the plan is downloadable from http://aatoolbox.no-ip.org/ If you have not got t'nternet access I will download and send you a plan. Then you need some YUHU glue. Then you can make these.

I did ask at our AGM for contributions for the newsletter. It would make my job a lot easier and it would give you something different to read rather than my ramblings. Following that request I received an exceptionally well written and informative article from our Mr Electric, Tony Rogers. Tony has written the 1st of several (I hope) articles on the "Black Art" of electric flight. The article is attached. If you are thinking about electric flight it is a must read and read again article. It will, without doubt save you ££££'s by not buying the wrong gear.

Watch out for our new website updates in the New Year it's at www.lmfc.co.uk.

Well, that's all I have for now. May I wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas and a Happy, healthy New Year. Fly safe and enjoy it.

Don't forget, if you have anything you want to send for publication, just post or email.
Anything to sell? Any hints, tips, jokes (clean), website links?

Best Regards

Dennis Paul

Secretary