club scene

DAVID SIMMONDS has recently returned from a holiday in Majorca, and what did he find?

Club d'Aeromodelisme Campos, Majorca

My wife kindly organised our annual holiday this year; we were to go to Majorca. Nice and hot and not a model aeroplane in sight were some of the thoughts behind her planning!

Imagine then, arriving at our rented villa late on Saturday, breakfast in the sun outside on Sunday…when…I heard a noise. "It's a model aeroplane engine", I squealed with the delight of one suffering a whole day's worth of model flying withdrawal symptoms. "It can't be," cried my incredulous spouse, "it's got to be a scooter, out here." I listened again, looked and then I saw it wheeling in the skies, bright sun glinting on it's wings. Probably about half a mile away I thought, so hastily donning shoes and shirt I went in search of the source of my joy and her dismay.

Eventually, I found not a lone aeromodeller, but a club. Not just a club but a very well-organised club with facilities! Not just a few facilities either, but included a well fitted out club house, air conditioning, heating, frig and freezer, barbecue and model benches just for starters.

Add an artificial grass runway (the area is just scorched earth), and a huge substantial sun-shade, more model benches made of stone and marble-like bench tops at the edge of the car park. Club members back up to them and place their models on the benches in the shade. Add a permanent windsock and a sign at the entrance to the 1Km track leading to the 20 acre plus flying site.

I was welcomed with great hospitality even though I do not speak Spanish. Fortunately one of the members living in the capital, Palma, spoke fluent English. My new friends told me that their club (55 members) is only the second largest club on the island. Another club with over 100 members is very well equipped with concrete runways and arrester nets for the very fast gas turbine jet scale models which they fly.

I was presented to the club president and their most experienced member, Jeroni Salas, who is also a member of the Spanish R/C aerobatic team. He flies a beautifully prepared "Axis 2000" model with YS 140 pumped four-stroke engine. He transported the model in a specially prepared Transit type van fully fitted out for him to drive anywhere in Europe to attend international meetings. He will be in Ireland later this year for a competition.

I was presented with a club cap, complete with embroidered club badge, for which I exchanged British R/C magazines, which were hastily studied to compare prices versus their own source of supply - one shop in Palma.

Training is done without the aid of a buddy box system, but the standard of model building and flying is the best I have ever seen at club level. I was offered a trainer to fly, but as I fly mode 1 and they fly mode 2, this would be difficult and I didn't want to let the side down! They insist that I return next year and bring a model! (Hope my wife doesn't read this!)

Whilst the weather in Majorca theoretically permit's them to fly virtually every day, the sun and heat is actually a bigger hazard to them than our (UK) rain! In fact, their club day is Saturday evenings, 6.30 pm to dark. It is too hot after 10.30/11.00 am. The Spanish way of working means that they have a long lunchtime to 4.30/5.00pm and then start work again until 8.30/9.00 pm. So no weekday flying! Students do get out early in the morning though!

My photographs were taken on another occasion as I forgot to take my camera in my rush to find the source of the noise!

Nice people, wonderful facilities, perhaps I will take over the holiday planning next year!

David Simmonds

July 2001

The clubhouse

Club member flying on his own at 10 a.m. Sunday morning - note model bench

The field to himself - and just look at that artificial runway

New Model Flying Club to open on former ATS site

JB Model Flying Club is expected to open around mid-August when ATS, the professional model flying school, move from their site at Dunnings Farm, Thruxton, near Andover, UK.

The Secretary of the new club is John Simpson, known to many as the guy who runs JB Aviation. John was formerly a partner in ATS before he left the company two years or so ago to launch JB Aviation, taking over the manufacture of the ATS range of kits, to which he has since added further models (see catscorner #10 and 37 on the ModelFlight archive).

The site is magnificent - it's only a few miles away from where I live and it's where I took my helicopter instruction! It is some 500 yards off a country lane, down an unmade road, and there are no near neighbours. It comprises a main grass runway, 850 feet long, laid out on the east-west axis. It broadens to over 150 feet at one end, permitting smaller aircraft to take off and land into wind from other directions. There is an offset area set aside for helicopter operations.

There is a large Dutch barn adjacent to the pits, where pilots and models can shelter from the usual English weather and a club caravan on site where members can take the weight off their feet or make a cup of coffee. The caravan is equipped with toilet facilities and a first aid kit.

The flying site will be open seven days a week from dawn to dusk - or even after dusk, if you have navigation lights, John says! - and members will be free to use it at all times. Maintenance, grass-cutting, etc., is all attended to. Large models are welcomed - the site is ideal for them. For a small weekly charge, the club can even arrange secure insured storage where large models can be kept fully rigged. Grass-strip-capable gas turbines are also welcome, but pulse-jets are not permitted.

Novices will be welcome, and an ATS Kite club trainer with a buddy-box system will be available for fixed-wing novices. Trainee heli pilots are required to provide their own machines - I wonder why!

JB Aviation is moving its manufacturing operations to the site and there will be an on-site shop for fuel, props, glow-plugs, cyano, etc. Balsa, hardwood, plywood, liteply and assorted hardware will be available for sale from JB stock and members can enjoy substantial discounts on kits, engines, radios, etc which can be ordered through the shop. JB also offer CNC machining at reasonable cost for those awkward bits, and can arrange production of personal graphics and one-off foam wings.

And the final touch? There is a bonfire pit for the disposal of rubbish, shrapnel, etc., so if you don't want 'er indoors' to know you've crashed again, you can get rid of the evidence and say you lost your model because some other twit started flying on your frequency - but you'll probably only get away with it once!

The club is to be run by the partners of JB Aviation, with club officers being appointed by invitation. There are a number of improvements planned, including sorting out the access road, installing tables and seats in the pits, clearing additional parking areas and sorting out the caravan. There is a one-time joining fee of £50 (which will help pay for those improvements) and a monthly subscription of £15 for adults (19 - 64), with special rates for 18's and under and those of 65+ years.

The launch of this club is clearly quite a major undertaking and a bit of a gamble, I guess, as JB Aviation moves up a gear to this permanent site. I take this opportunity of wishing John and his partners every success in their new venture.

http://www.jbaviation.com

info@jbaviation.com

Things that get in the way (or why can't we see where we're going?) . . .

Pete was having a practice flight before he took his BMFA 'A' test last Saturday and was doing fine. He was bringing his Fun Fly in for a landing and the undercarriage just touched the top of a tree on the edge of our field. It was enough to flip the model forward and as it somersaulted to the ground, this was the damage he sustained.

Just ten minutes or so prior to Pete's accident, I, too, was doing exactly the same in readiness for my test, but my landing was brought to a premature end as I ran into a goal post - another hazard of our field. The wing hit the post just a few inches in from the tip, the plane spun round, hit the deck and turned on its back. The damage was less photographic - a crumpled section of the foam wing leading edge, a broken aileron servo horn and a couple of cracks in the tail feathers. The end result was the same, though - both of us were grounded and will have to crank up the confidence to have another go in another week, subject to repairs having been carried out!

Any way, congratulations to Colin and Jim, both of whom got through their tests (lucky blighters!).