propwash

The News Letter Of
The Bury Metro Model Flying Club

Edited by Warren Sherman Photos by: Rob Tomlin, Eb Swarbrick & Olivers Mum

December 2009

To Enlarge any of the photo's, Just Click On Them. To Save Images, Right Click and Click On Save As

Members Please Note: Printed copies of Propwash are No Longer Being Posted Out.
Printed copies will now be available in the Club House for any members who whish to have one

Fine weather for Ducks!

Unless you’ve been abroad for the last six weeks you couldn’t have helped noticing that it’s been a bit damp of late.
Rains of biblical proportions have been dumping themselves upon us for so long that some modelers have been arriving at the field with canoes.

In fact with puddles as deep as Lake Windermere on the track to the fixed wing field that I have considered taking up Hel*cop*er flying!! Still some hardy souls have been down if the picture right is anything to go by, but what exactly they are up to under there I shudder to think!

…and now for another weather related item

We’ve had Wincey Willis, Ulrika Johnson and Andrea Mclean now we have Rob Tomlin as our glamorous new weather girl.

Having recently taken delivery of a brand spanking new weather station Rob has been desperately trying to overcome a deficiency in software knowledge to get the results up on our website.
However, this has now been achieved and we have our very own weather reports available in real time and from within 1km of the field! How good is that?!!!!

For those of you who face up to a thirty mile round trip every time you want to commit aviation, this will be an absolute godsend.

To take advantage of the information visit our website and click on the weather check button and you’ll see the screen shown here left.

It takes a few seconds to load and then you will see all the information you need including wind speed and direction, temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, rainfall as well as icons indicating cloud cover and cloud base level.

If you check the header you will see the last time the data was updated and usually you will find it is no more than a few minutes ago.

Like I just said HOW GOOD IS THAT!!!!!

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From Cradle to….well, Field I suppose!

At 3.39am on 15th October 2009 Oliver Andrew Watson entered this world to become our youngest ever paid up member!

Son of Andy Watson, scale modeller extraordinaire, we are looking forward to great things from this youngster as there is every chance that he will be inculcated into the magical world of model aeronautical engineering at the very earliest opportunity.

I am sure we will see him down at the field as soon as his dad can organise a baby changing facility in the “Tin Hut” (that’s for changing nappies NOT babies)

Andy did actually make it to the Autumn Auction but was seen nodding off on several occasions due to lack of sleep. Don’t worry Andy, its all downhill from here on in!

Under the Hammer!

Talking of the Auction, once again we had a full house with nearly 200 lots going under the hammer and club funds benefitted as a result.

I was please to receive a several e-mails from visitors who took the trouble of thanking us for putting on a good night, it was a shame however that only a handful of those in attendance were club members!

The committee worked hard and long to ensure the success of the auction and it must be remembered that it was a completely new team running it and they did remarkably well under the circumstances.

Special thanks to noncommittee members Declan Collins, Bill McElroy and Maurice Ogden for their valuable assistance on the night.

Container Mania or Welcome to Hell’s Kitchen!

Over the last few weeks improvements to the “Clubhouse” have come on a treat.
We now have a kitchen area that would make Gordon Ramsey green with envy. “F**k me, that’s F****ng fantastic” he would say as he tucked into one of Rob’s king size all-day breakfast barm cakes!

As long as you tidy up after yourselves you can take advantage of the facilities on those freezing but bright Sunday morning sessions.

Oh, but you will have to bring your own comestibles as we don’t have a fridge!

We will be keeping our brand new mower in the container and to facilitate its easy use we
(I say we, I mean Rob) have erected a ramp, this also could be used for wheelchair access for when we kneecap persistently bad pilots so as to show no hard feelings.

The new mower has made a tremendous difference to the condition of the patch as it mulches the cuttings and this prevents the build up of grass we experienced with the previous mowers. Jock is like a dog with a new bone!

All hail to the Master
Those of you down at the field on the day Austin Ogden’s Pitts Python bipe went in due to the failure of the ESC, will attest to the damage caused to the front end and in particular the lovely black radial cowl.
On inspection it appeared that the airframe was certainly repairable but a new cowl although available would take ages to arrive and would cost in excess of £30. Austin turned to seasoned builder/repairer John Light who after some persuasion offered to “have a go” at fixing it.

As it turned out John’s repair was something akin to a miracle! Have a look at the before and after piccies and I think you’ll agree; a fantastic job John, well done. Now if you’ve got a moment, could you knock me up a new set of foam wings for my Tucano it’d be much appreciated!

Trick or Treat!

Well it was definitely a treat! The Halloween Night Fly-in was blessed with flat calm, clear skies and of course the obligatory full moon. Well attended by both fixed wing and helicopter enthusiasts along with their friends and family it made for a really great evenings entertainment.

First up was Austin Ogden with a model which was lit up like Blackpool’s illuminations, re-fitted with a Kontronics Brushless motor this stable high wing pusher flew for what seemed like hours at a time.

To be honest I think an absolute novice could have learnt on this model, even in the dark, as the differing colour LEDs made orientation a doddle, easier than in daylight methinks.

During the first flight Rob Tomlin set off the first of a number of Chinese Sky Lantern which Austin found an irresistible target and yet with all his undoubted skill and determination he failed to nail one mid air.

Not to be left out the Heli guys descended upon us well equipped for night flight with a couple of 450 size ‘leccy jobbies and dazzled the assembled crowd with a fabulous display of stunt flying.

The LEDs in the rotor tips really show up the disc and the tubular lights wrapped around the canopy, boom and landing skids completed the effect.

A fantastic night out and once again we can only say if you missed this you missed out on a great evenings entertainment.

Praise once again to all concerned for thinking up the idea and making it happen, you know who you are!!

UFOs over Simister

Following on from the story above we could help chuckling at the various UFO sighting websites that reported a record number of sightings over the Prestwich area both on the evening of our Fun-day Fly-in and our Halloween Night Fly-in.

Take a look at this website to see the comments and one or two of our responses. Like I told ‘em, sorry to burst your bubble guys, but it was just the lads having fun again!
http://www.uk-ufo.co.uk/2009/09/whitefield-manchester-18th-and-19th-september-2009/

Boxing Day Barbie-fest

This year the calendar offers us a three day window for our famous Boxing Day Barbie.
The festivities will commence on the first of the three days that our weather station informs us of good flying and eating conditions. So that would be either Saturday 26th December or the Sunday or Monday following whichever is fine. Of course should all three be fine then we will be having a whale of a time with flying and eating throughout the week-end. So if you’ve had enough of the family and need some fresh air then come down to the field and show off your new Christmas/Chanuka/Divali/Ede/Pagen/Druid prezzies. (apologies if I’ve missed any faith of the list) Flying starts at sparrow-fart for ‘leccies and 10.00am for Oilers. Food at 12.30pm.

As usual Heli Pilots will be welcome at the fixed wing field throughout the week-end,
their models will also be tolerated:-)!

Heads Up

Just when you thought it was safe to go flying another hooligan has been awarded an “A” certificate.

Yes it had to happen eventually our “Acting” Secretary Dave “pegleg” Wilson has been acting like someone who can fly a model airplane and on 29th November 2009 he flew the BMFA test and passed.

Who’d have thought it eh! Only joshing Dave, well done!

Annual General Meeting 3rd December 2009

Following the Annual General Meeting the election of officers and committee members yielded the following results:

Honorary Chairman: Warren Sherman

Honorary Treasurer: Ian Watts

Honorary Secretary: David Wilson

Honorary Auditor: Chris Tarrant (yes, that really is his name!)

Committee members: Gerald Black, Robert Tomlin, Jock Lindsay, Peter Futers

Awards were made to the following members:

Most Improved Flyer (fixed wing) Eb Swarbrick

Most Improved Flyer (rotary wing) John Durkin

Instructor of the year (fixed wing) Andy Monks

Instructor of the year (rotary wing) Richard Budd

Clubman of the year (joint winners) Dave Wilson & Austin Ogden-Wild.

A fuller report of the AGM will follow in the next edition of Propwash.

For lots more photos visit the website and follow the link to

Flying Photos then Bury Club.

Visit our website at www.bmmfc.com