The club AGM was held on the 2nd February 2011.
The committee reported on the previous year, which has been a good year for the club with new members who have been active fliers and club members.
The old committee then retired. With Geoff standing down the only change, Ron was elected Vice chairman. Mick thanked Geoff for all his help and support and for making him the chairman he is today.
Mick also thanked Roland for all the patch mowing over the year and maintaining the mower.

I would also like to thank Steve Montague for all the work on the website update.

No big raffle prizes this year, so there was the prize giving for 2011.

Andy Palmer was presented with the club man of the year.
Jim Hobday won the most improved flyer and was presented with the Green Column.
Ron Vears was presented with The Nail Man for winning the Chuck Glider for the second year running.

Don then presented Andy Palmer with the Presidents Trophy.

Mick also presented A Certificates to:-

Bob Hill
Jim Hobday
Ron Vears

Well done chaps.

The 3 New A Certs.    photo by Andy Palmer

NickS

On 19^th January we welcomed Squadron Leader Rod Jarvis, our guest speaker for the evening.

Rod’s career with the RAF spanned a total of 50 years. He first enlisted in January 1956 and retired twice. When he rejoined he became a flying instructor including four years as a “Trapper”, that is an instructor of in-flight refueling. 

Rod gave a history of in-flight refueling backed up with a selection of photographs and videos. The first recorded use of in-flight refueling was in 1924 in the USA. A “Wing Walker” transferred five gallons of fuel in a can from one aircraft to another whilst they were both in flight. Later experiments used a weighted line dangling from one aircraft so that an airman on another aircraft could grab it and then haul across a hose. This was fraught with danger because the weight used was around 70lb. 

In 1928 the Americans did manage to keep an aircraft in the air for 27 days with the aid of in-flight refueling. 

The RAF began their first trials in 1929 using Vickers Virginias. 

Rod continued his presentation until nearly 10 o’clock and was thanked with a warm round of applause. He offered to return to give a talk on spinning aero planes.

Our PRO Steve Hastings introduced Steve Prideaux who began his talk with a potted history of his modeling career. He started out in 1985 and has continued pretty well continuously since.

At the start he flew a Hi-Fly glider then moved on to a Hi-Boy trainer. Since then he has flown more gliders, Helicopters and then moved on to electric powered flight. Now his main interest is gas turbine powered aircraft. He began with a Kangaroo Delta Jet and then in 2002/3 he bought a BVM Super Bandit. The models first flight was in August 2005 and has now amassed 243 flights. The total costs of the model was approximately £7500 which was not surprising when the motor costs £2500, the undercarriage was £1000 and the 11 servos were £75 each. This model has been flown in Florida on a couple of occasions securing 3 trophies. Best Sports Jet & Critics Choice were won on.

The first trip and Outstanding Graphics on the second visit. Steve continued for an hour and a half before being thanked by the members for an eye opening, very enjoyable evening.

Happy New Year !!
Just to remind you all, Woody has kindly organised for Squadron leader Rod Jarvis to visit the club to talk on air to air refueling and his time flying Victor tankers in the RAF

Hi All,
 
Just a quick line to remind you all of a few things.
I have had confirmation from Steve Prideaux, that he will be with us on the 8th Dec, you really don’t want to miss this chance to see a fantastic piece of model engineering, if you saw this model flying at Blackbush earlier this year you will know it’s a special plane.
 
As you all know we have been running a membership raffle this year, the final amount of tickets sold will be more than the cost of one full membership, in fact it’s not far short of two full memberships. Ian and I have taken the decision to make up the shortfall, so I am pleased to announce  we will be drawing two tickets on Thursday.
 
The new web site is up and fully functional, thanks to Nick and Steve for all their efforts.
 
For those who were not at the last club night, the decision was taken to cancel the meeting on the 22nd December 2011 as it is so close to Christmas, so that means the last meeting of this year is the 8th December I hope you can all come along to finish the year on a real high. Give Steve Prideaux the traditional PAM welcome, and you may even win your 2012 membership.
 
Hope to see you all next Thursday,
 
Harry Horndean

Nick Clement was at the club meeting on 27 October giving a demonstration of 3D flying using a flight simulator.

Quiz time again, thanks to John, and I was on the winning side, got a question right too.
Nick

Question Master John in action.

Ron Vears gave a presentation of his 70th birthday present His daughter and son-in-law bought Ron a Battle of Britain Anniversary flight with a Spitfire and Hurricane.

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Our chairman Mick gave us a demonstration of his own designed foam cutter which he bought to the club with the help of Chas.

Mick designed this rig from scratch with numerous modifications to produce a current rig.

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Andy Palmer gave a presentation on the Sally B, B17 Flying Fortress.
Sally B Supporters club link
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