June has started very windy, and wet, so no one is flying, and as a result I get very little to write about. We had hoped to have a visit to the patch from Nick Clement but the weather has put a stop to this as well.
OK lets have a go at “moan of the month” mmmmmm nothing doing here, no one has had anything to moan about, apart from the weather.

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Following his visit to the club meeting earlier this year, Nick agreed to come and fly the Extra at the patch. After a few postponements due to the weather Nick and his father arrived on Sunday morning to be met with thick fog. However within the hour the fog cleared and it turned out to be a glorious morning.

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In last months blog I mentioned starting a new feature, “Moan of the month” so here is the first instalment. A few weeks ago a new member made the point that when starting and running engines other members would often stand directly in front of his model, the concern, was, that if the model should throw a prop or spinner, it could result in injury to anyone who happened to be in the way. during our discussion we noticed that, the current practice of having two lines of aircraft could also lead to an accident, because, some of the models had the props facing the other line. I think both points are very valid, and as it is in all our interests to avoid any sort of incident I would like to make a couple of recommendations.

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April came early this year, at least 5 of the fools did masquerading as a panel of experts for the first  modellers question time. Despite the quality of the Experts (drips under pressure), generally good advice was given, even the experts had something to learn, Don gave a great description of differential in reply to a question about exponential, and John got a little confused between aero dynamics and his laundry, despite these slight mistakes everyone agreed we should do it all again in the near future.

Our chairman’s skill as a model builder is never in doubt, in fact the determination to show off his supreme repairing ability by finding ever more innovative ways to crash his models is beyond most peoples comprehension, avid F1 fans will know that this season has seen the introduction of DRS (drag reduction system) which is a very complicated way of changing the attack angle of an aerofoil section to improve the cars performance in a straight line, so why did Mick believe that insufficiently tightening the wing bolt would have the same effect on the 3 Demon?

It seems the modelling gods are in a funny mood this month, that’s what Frank must be thinking, win a plane on Thursday, destroy one on Sunday, congratulations on winning the renegade and commiserations for the latter, and thank the lord for spell check !!!!!
Committee member soap box time now, Its great to see the patch so well attended, obviously this has been helped by the freaky April weather, but this also brings extra cars, so can I take this opportunity to remind everyone that we must keep the lanes and gates as clear as we can. If you have something that  niggles you. let me know, and I can include it in the blog, it seems that more members are reading this stuff, so lets put it to good use to inform and hopefully educate, I could make it a regular feature, I will call it, “moan of the month”.

We had a visit from the local police on thursday, no one was arrested, not even Chas, who we learned was a member of a local family of undesirables, first we had a Magistrate then the local bobby, who’s next, the flying squad!!!

Finally, I have had a few complaints that my blogs are biased and one sided, in fact, there is a feeling I can be vindictive and very insensitive to certain peoples misfortune, so can I take this opportunity to say to the whiners. “Life can be tough sometimes so get used to it”, especially those who supply all my material.

Happy landings, former member, Tony Tonbridge.

Hi again.
OK, by the time you are reading this everybody should have stopped laughing, never again will I call myself NO CRASH HASTINGS, I thought I was formation flying, but no one had told Don, I think he thought it was combat, after all he obviously crashed into me.
Its a funny old game is a well known saying in football circles, the same could be said for aero modelling, on one side there is my favourite granddad in the whole wide world, who in recent weeks seems to have reach an epiphany, and is taking off and landing like a seasoned pro, on the other hand there is poor old George, who found that passing the A Cert is only the start of the learning process, and as you start to push your abilities, the margin of error gets smaller, will it be calmato number 3 or something a bit different this time George ?
I would like to thank everybody who attended club on the March 17th, I am sure you all found the evening very informative. Please take time to look at the you tube link, to see what can be achieved if you fit a power box, some regulators, cheap servos that would fail the sound test, and oscillate around their centres, oh don’t forget your can!!, and apparently another very important gadget is a rearward CG. I have studied Nicks photos but I haven’t been able to identify. At one point Don  was heard to mumble that if our speaker had a forty size sport model, he could be driving a newer car and even be able to afford a new pair of jeans !! obviously Don, for young Mr Clement, size is far, far, more important than cars and clothes.
The month is coming to an end, the weather has been good, the calmatos are back, two into one, good work George . Mick has resurrected the three demon again, so remember in the words of the great Shaw Taylor “keep em peeled”, we can never be to sure which direction this one is coming from  !!!

No one, especially Mick will believe me when I tell you that the above paragraph was written before the last Sunday of this month, I know I think I am capable of many things, but seeing into the future was not one of them. On a serious note, earlier in the morning, before Mick’s model overshot the patch and required George to take evasive action, our newest member had commented that in the past there was always a much greater distance between the patch and the pilots, if this had still been the case sundays, incident would have been avoided. I think this is a warning, and we should move the pilots back a short distance with immediate effect.
One last comment to George, as I said to Woody in my past ramblings, keep the faith your luck will change, oh, don’t fly at the same time as Mick, it will help to keep the odds in your favour.

Keep practicing those low rolling harriers,
see you next month,               all the best
Dominic Dover.

Hi again.
The wind is back, and is taking no prisoners, George survived a dead stick which resulted in a landing closer to Portsdown Hill than to the patch, luckily no damage, but the blustery conditions claimed the calmato on a later flight, causing a very hard arrival, plenty of homework to be done before the next flying session George. Nick also suffered a dead stick resulting in a broken fin, Ron lost his front wheel and nose leg, no one saw it fall off but it could not be found anywhere.
My radio trouble has continued, different model, this time the rudder servo on my Kantana failed in flight fortunately it was in a central position.

To those who attended the AGM and voted for me as clubman of the year, for a second time, thank you for your support, but my vote went to Andy Palmer, who, I believe should have received the award for all the work he has done with the new members, he has completed far more training flights than the rest of the instructors put together, and because of this I feel the wrong guy received the award this year.

The large raffle was won by John Barnard, and as it was the AGM, I decided to do a double dip into the large raffle tickets, George Rose is now the proud owner of a craft drill set. Thank you all for supporting the raffle in the last year

I could not believe the level of corruption, match fixing, and shameless sucking up to the club President, as displayed by our resident quiz master at this months quiz night. After I had single handed, put the chairman’s team into a 4 point lead, John made the last question worth, you guessed it, 4 points, resulting in yet another draw, was it a coincidence that John had been awarded the presidents trophy less than an hour before? does this man have no shame, no sense of fair play, is he the sort of man who would be a great referee at a Manchester United home game !!!!

Don, a bit of advice, “put foot in mouth and start chewing” or, make sure the  dog people have left before you blame the dog people for leaving the lights on, especially when the dog people are only two feet away from you !!

Can I take this opportunity to remind you all we have a guest coming on the 17/03/2011, he will be showing us his 35% scale acro, with a 100cc petrol engine, and will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding these large models, and if there is time  will hopefully have a short indoor flying display.

Happy landings
Ron Ramsgate

Hello,  Happy New Year to you all.
The weather at the start of the new year has been kind not too cold with very little wind, so those who have been able to get to the patch have had some really good flying conditions,
such calm weather seems to make things so much easier, resulting in far less accidents, and leaving me very little to write about.
Can I remind those who do not get to club regularly that subs are now due ,and the AGM is on 03/01/2011. those of you who do attend will know that a few long standing members are giving up their memberships, we wish them all well and hope they can still continue to fly at another site, with easier access, and I am sure they would always be made welcome at future club nights if they wanted to attend.
I know that I keep banging on about the (A) Cert, but for those who seem concerned about taking, or at least attempting it, please remember we do have 3 examiners in the club, and it is much easier on the nerves if you know the person testing you, we also have a rule that says if you don’t have an (A) then you should not fly alone, so come on gents, there is no shame in attempting and failing,but there is a great feeling if you pass.
In the interest of fair play I must report that I crashed the whizz on Sunday, at the time it appeared to be completely due to dumb thumbing (pilot error) but in my defence, during the subsequent flight I appeared to suffer complete elevator failure, I even had time to say to Andy that the model was going in and shut the throttle, but before the inevitable happened the model leapt upwards as I had not let go of the up stick. the model was landed and the avionics fully checked, all plugs removed and re-fitted no fault could be found!!!
I took the decision to fly again and there was no repeat of the problem. So, is the no crash Hastings reputation still in tact, you decide. I do have a theory for the elevator problem, the model is one piece, and has been rigged ready to fly, and stored in the shed for about 4 years, this may have led to corrosion in the connectors for the elevator servo, by disconnecting and re-connecting a few times, I may have improved the connection, I will never Know.
Don’t forget, anyone can email Nick if they ever feel the need to come up with a long winded excuse why they crashed their model, especially if I have reported the crash to the world.
A few members have spoken to me about the lack of things arranged for club nights, as I have said before the committee need your input, if you have any ideas, please let us know and we will endeavour to action them.
I started this piece by saying the weather has been kind, in future I should avoid writing this blog week by week, things did not continue as they stared, the weather in the second half of the month has been quite poor, but windy weather should be seen as an opportunity to improve and sharpen your flying skills, and not as an excuse to watch re-runs of the Dam Busters.
May all your Sundays be glitch free, all the best
Stu Margate

There is a new model shop that has opened in Fareham catering for aircraft and cars.
Web site: – www.farehammodels.org

Have you ever wondered if someone is having a laugh at your expense,  after the snow in the week, then the rain on Saturday night to wash it away,  Sunday morning a bit warmer than late, very light wind and a low bright sun,  even the lane is clear but the patch is shrouded in fog. Teasing FOG, someone  is here, but they cant be seen, despite this I decided to walk up. even though  the fences on either side were drifting in and out of sight. After half an hour  of oral aero modelling with Andy and Gary, I decided to have a go, to say flying  in these conditions focused the mind would be an understatement. As the model  would suddenly disappear into the gloom. Once the clock had passed 12:00 we  decided the fog was not going to clear, so we headed off home and back to the  clear blue sunny skies over Clanfield. I think I should have phoned ahead as  arriving home so early on such a nice day nearly killed the wife!!. One last  thing, did I mention Andy decided not to fly in the poor conditions, but Bob  Hill did.
Congratulations to Rob Tonks who is now the proud owner of the Blade, the next  large raffle is now underway, its a micro stick indoor model.
Those of you who read their copy of the BMFA news will be aware that there are  a number of changes to the (A) & (B) tests, one of the changes is that you  can not stand behind the model at the end of the runway when taking off, it is  considered to be safer to stand on the pilots line and taxi the model to the  take off position, and then take off, I think we should adopt this approach  (ground conditions and model allowing) All good H&S starts by removing the  risk, so the less time we spend standing under the flight line, the less likely  we are to have a mishap, could be a good subject to discuss at club.
By the time you get to read this we will be in a New Year and I hope the club  continues to get stronger, unfortunately the year did not end well more snow  curtailed the flying, led to the cancelation of the Christmas lunch and due to  all those parties we all have to endure the last club meet only had 8 members  present.
I hope you and your families had a great Christmas and on behalf of the  committee wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

It was with great sadness that Mick informed those present on Thursday, that  Tony Hayler passed away earlier in the week, I am sure you will all join me in  sending our sincere condolences to his family at this very sad time.

I said I would try to do a monthly blog , so here we go again.
Sunday 7/11/10.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get along, but it looked like a nice day for flying, that’s if you fully understand how your TX works!!! Its funny how my Mate Mick Harper is starting to think that these blogs are all about him, I don’t know what he means.
Thursdays club night followed Mick’s new procedure and the raffle was drawn as soon as club business was finished, so why did Mick Question this decision, maybe he wanted to delay what was coming next, I find toy plane videos interesting, just like I would my holiday photos!!!
Congratulations to Peter, John and Maggie for winning Balsa Brain, I am sure Mick would like me to pass on his thanks to Peter for letting him know, he was heard to say “I had the best nights sleep I’ve had for a long time. Knowing the result of Balsa Brain is just what I needed, just a shame it started a bit later than normal.”

When the phone rings at 09.15 on a Sunday morning it can only mean one thing, its raining in Midhurst, “Hello Mick, its not raining here so I will see you up the field” put the phone down, look out of the window and its started raining in Clanfield now, the only good that comes from this, is Mick’s new plane will see another weekend!!! I still couldn’t resist driving up to spend half an hour standing under a tree looking at the horizon hoping the rain will stop.
Its sunday again, 09.15 and the phone hasn’t rung, it must be dry in Midhurst, Mick was there with the new toy. After two failed weekends it was looking good for a test flight, better just check things out, ailerons, reversed, elevator reversed, rudder, you guessed it, reversed, not the start we wanted, range check done, lets get it flown. I am glad to report it has not suffered from the electric conversion, Mick had 4 flights, all good landings, and the model went home in one piece, looks like my blogs are going to be very short from now on !!!!
Thursdays meeting was a great success, one of the best this year, so can I take this opportunity to apologies for sending you all home, I think 10.30 was quite late enough. It was a shame Mick was not well enough to attend, but every one agreed that Stan Din was a great replacement .The big raffle was drawn and the Renegade will shortly be on its way to a new home, I cant say who won, but if you were not at Thursdays meeting it may be worth coming next time.

Sunday was very cold, but for those who brave the deep freeze, conditions are good and the numbers at the patch are down, so don’t let the cold, or man flu keep you away.

That’s it for another month, please don’t forget not all of the above is factual, Its for you to decide what to believe.

Happy landings, Stan Din.