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It's true!

You can either e-mail your information from the post-box at the foot of this page or use the Response Form below - and if you've got a picture of yourself, so much the better!

has joined the ModelFlight mailing list and kindly responded to my invitation to tell me a bit more about himself

Meet Ian and Margaret, married 43 years and looking so delightfully happy, if I may be so bold! They live in Craigie, about 26km north of Perth, in Western Australia. Ian is now retired, having served 21 years in the Royal Australian Air Force as a Telegraphist and then several other jobs since then. He now works as a volunteer at the Bullcreek Aviation Museum, and as a volunteer bus driver for the RAAF Association, driving their pensioners out on shopping trips and sightseeing tours about 5 days a month.

Ian has been a member of KAMS (Kalamunda Aeronautical Model Society) for over 20 years, and considers it to be the best club in West Australia (he admits he could be a tad biased, although the fact that it is the biggest club in WA suggests he's not the only one!).

The club owns 52 acres of perfect model-flying country (i.e. flat and no trees) in Mundijong (about 40 kilometers from Kalamunda), and in the past 15 years has developed it into a premier location with all facilities. They were the second or third club in Australia, and the first in Western Australia, to purchase their own land, and it took many years of hard work by dedicated members, together with some financial assistance from all member (fees being the highest in the state) to get the facility they now have. "Yes," says Ian, "we are very proud of it."  KAMS has over two acres of mown grass to fly off, and the club is very active in supporting state events, as well as pylon, scale, old timer, aerobatic including IMAC, gliding, and fun flying. The club has just held the inaugural RC combat event in the state and this seems to be developing quite a following. Ian reckons that RC combat qualifies as the most appropriate for the saying "You don't have to be mad, but it helps!" He says that West Australia is blessed with some brilliant facilities. There are at least four clubs in easy reach of Perth that have facilities equal to KAMS - but all have trees to worry about if you have to land 'outfield', and some of the country clubs are equally as well developed. Other clubs have good areas for take off and landing but no facilities on the flying site - in one case it would be underwater when the tide came in - or just a simple (and in one case SOLID - i.e. 12" I-beams - to hold a corrugated iron roof up) shelter for shade.

Ian is editor of Windsock, the official magazine for Aeromodellers of Western Australia (or AWA) and claimed to be the oldest, continuously published, model aviation magazine in Australia. Ian has kindly sent me a copy, and you can read more about this great little magazine on club scene.

Ian doesn't get much opportunity to build models - when he does manage to get time in the workshop, it is mainly to repair/manufacture something for the house. He currently flies an ARTF that he says looks a bit like a Cessna aircraft with a tired OS40 up front ("well it is old, but it keeps turning"), and he has two projects currently on the bench. One is a 'combat' model and the other is a small pattern ship, but both appear to be months away from completion.  

Mark is 37 years of age, married and in the Police Force. He reckons I wouldn't want a photo of him!

Currently, he has about 15 aircraft of various types, ranging from a 48ins Electric Cub to a T-240 which he will be starting on soon so as to do some aerial photography. Also amongst his fleet are a Goldberg Cub, Spacewalker, Thunder Tiger Fun Fly, Flair Bird Dog, Thunder Tiger Trainer ("One of the best", says Mark, "I fly this in 25mph winds! Great for hovering"), Precedent T-180, a Prangster and a few others.

Mark has been aero-modelling in plastic models since he was 'knee high to a grasshopper', winning local and regional modelling competitions until about three years ago. Then he entered radio-controlled modelling and now wishes he had done it sooner. He feels he is progressing quite well and looks forward to some decent weather to complete his BMFA 'A' test. Mark belongs to Folkestone and District Model Aero Club.

The nature of Mark's job means that he does not get the time he would like to spend on the hobby, but he remains interested and fascinated with the innovations and new technology that are so much part of the sport nowadays.

Mark says he will keep us posted on his T-240 project; he intends to follow some of the advice recently published in the 'Big Stuff' column of R/C Model World. By a happy coincidence, he has just found a Super Tigre ·75 2-stroke for it and swapped a spare OS61 for it that he happened to have lying around!

Leon Janeke, Pretoria, South Africa

Leon lives in Pretoria and flies with Irene Radio Flyers.

He works at Kumba Technology as a Project Engineer, mechanical, and says he's '42 years young'.

Leon has been model flying for three years and has a Harvard Texan AT-6 (OS ·91 FX), Mustang P51 (Irvine ·53), Chipmunk (Irvine ·72), Piper Pawnee crop sprayer (Magnum ·46) and a PT19 (Magnum ·46) - a very interesting collection, I must say!  I put Leon on to a source of plans for a Miles Magister or a Moth Minor, so he plans to further extend his fleet. There's a couple of shots of Leon's Harvard on photo gallery.

Irene Radio Flyers' website is at http://clik.to/irv - we will visit the club and site on the next issue!

Join in the fun, send ModelFlight an e-mail and tell us about yourself, your family, hobbies and interests, what you do for a living, how long you've been model-making, what club you belong to, etc. - in fact as much or as little as you see fit. Include a picture of yourself if you can.  

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If you want to send me pictures by conventional mail, my address is

Reg Heath, 60 South View Gardens, Andover, Hants, SP10 2AQ, UK

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