CFA Committee News - Nov 2022
Almost a newsletter, November 2022
Well thats it for 2022.
So well done to Richard Herbert for winning the league again. I think this makes it 13 or 14 times. Fantastic achievement. Dave Riley came a close 2nd and chased Richard hard all year, they both gave us some incrediblly skilful combat bouts and set the bar extremely high. The BMFA dinner is coming up at the weekend so Cooko will do some pics and words on the facebook page. Other noteable performances worth a mention are Alan Bunker, 3rd place, Mr consistent and fair play for driving to every comp all the way from Scotland. Nigel, in 4th great result considering he also flew Team race, which has something to do with going round and round apparently. And in 5th place Steve Smith who flew consistently well all year. 6th place was John leggott. Excellent result, John puts a lot into his hobby, he flies regularly, never stops smiling and is always coming up with little tweaks to improve his gear.
But what about the others? Eh? What about all the other flyers who turned up, good as gold, every month, come rain or shine, and didn’t win anything? Here is a shout out to those of us that do just that, those of us that spend long winter hours in a draughty shed glueing bits of wood together, then covering it all in nylon and dope, and mixing fuel, making up lines and test flying to make sure they’re good enough, or not. We should get a prize just for that. Shouldn’t we? Here’s to us.
Next years calendar, an update.
As you all know this is my first year as a member of the CFA Committee, I’ve managed to swerve it for the thick end of 30 years but bowed to the inevitable this year. And I’ve been trying to help out with booking the calendar for next year. Emphasis on the trying.
What I was unaware of, is that the demand for Buckminster is much higher than I thought it was. I had imagined that now we have some permanent concrete circles, the Control line corner was pretty much down to us and the Stunt boys. Not so. There is demand from many different disciplines and movements, freestyle ( I might have that wrong ) radio flyers, drone racers, the SAM movement and others. Buckminster also now have dedicated “Silent Flight” weekends (whats the point?) and its been noted by those in authority, that control line isn’t compatible with some other disciplines, so even if the date is available, the site may not be. Manny is a good bloke and has been very helpful but the options are limited.
Now, if we are keen to continue flying our competitions into the future, we need to be aware of this because over the last few years, we have come to depend on Buckminster a great deal. If this venue’s availability is squeezed, what will we do? we need to think about it. Are there any other venues currently available that we are not pursuing? We used to have Scampton and Darley Moor, which were reasonably accessible to most flyers. Thankfully we now have Basildon but its a long way from Scotland. We also have the possibility of Albermarle, but that’s a long way from everywhere. As I write Mick is trying to put a date together for Bristol but that hasn’t been straightforward. We booked a competition in Manchester in May last year and let the corresponding date at Buckminster go. That date has now been taken by another organisation and we cannot get another date at Buckminster in May. Very frustrating when the Manchester site now appears to be unavailable. We don’t know for sure because no one has bothered to return my emails. Priority this year must be to try to get a date in May for next year and to hold on to everything else we have.
Here is the proposed calendar so far. Basildon is Confirmed, as are the Old warden dates and Bristol but everything else is provisional although Buckmister dattes are on the main calender waiting sign off.
April 2nd Buckminster Vintage
April 16th Bristol Gala ( Confirmed, Proper field)
May 14th Old warden Oliver ( Confirmed)
May 28th Albermarle TBC
June 11th Buckminster Vintage
July 2nd Basildon Vintage ( Confirmed)
July 16th Buckminster Vintage
August 13th Buckminster Vintage
August 26th 2th 28th Nats Hopefully
September 17th Old warden Oliver ( Confirmed)
September 23rd Buckminster Vintage ( this one is a Saturday )
October 8th Buckminster Vintage
October 21st and 22nd Buckminster Nats reserve
Building 1
How long does it take to build a combat model? I’ve never bothered timing it, but if anyone asked me I always used to say about 4 hours, sounded about right. Allowing for drying time and messing with other stuff, daydreaming, phone calls, fishing etc etc. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I got my head down and built six brand new models from scratch, with very little going on to distract me. This included everything but tanks but included everthing else like: bandsawing the balsa and softwood for the leading edges, gluing, clamping and then routing them, band sawing hardwood for the pods and softwood for the trailing edge, laser cutting all the bits, gluing the frames together, sanding,more sanding, making the controls and fitting them, covering in nylon, 6 coats of dope each, sewing on the elevators ( took me ages!) attaching the control horns, fitting the pushrods and setting neutral, finishing the pods, doping them, setting the CG the same on every model, glueing and pinning , the pods, check over and straighten any that got twisted. How long do you reckon? Just under 30 hours! And that’s without making tanks for them, which takes ages. Is that interesting? I’m not sure it is. I might not include that....
Building 2
I must admit I’m quite giddy about next year. We may actually turn up to a competition and see a variety of models being flown. Will the ice caps melt?? Why? Well, its down to Richard Herbert’s elevator rule. I reckon this will bring a fair few models into play, I’m on with four different ones as I write, I’ll maybe update on one of the Facebook pages as I finish them. Or maybe I won’t. But to me, this will bring back into play one of real joys of Vintage Combat. The fact that you can dig into the model list and come up with something that no one else uses. Wouldn’t it be great if we all flew different stuff. This is how it used to be folks. There are over 100 models on that list, have a look, if you need any info on what they look like, dimensions etc I can probably help cos I’ve built most of them. Roger always builds overlooked models and he does great. Be like Roger.
Rules and Rulehounds
Theres been a bit of chat here and there about the Centre circle rule and the DQ’s. Well, all the other rule changes we voted on at the AGM have been approved by the CLTC, Richard Herbert’s elevator rule, Richard Evans’ tip rule, Roger Silcock’s Njuuuuuurd, etc etc, but the centre circle rule amendment, as voted for by 27 of us for, to only 5 against, at the AGM, has not. The CFA’s submission of this amendment was voted down by the CLTC on “health and safety grounds”. Unanimously. Needless to say we’re still on with it. I’ll update everyone soon as I know.
Stuff for sale:
MK4 Copeman Oliver Tiger, new in box £400
Quote”But I still have the brand new, in box (with all documentation to support) Copeman tuned Oliver Tiger Mk4 (T8042) from 1975.The last person to run it was Mr Copeman.”
This is being sold by Andy Shakich, email him at andy@shakich.plus.com.
Thats it for now.
Tim Hobbins
CFA Comp Sec.
Well thats it for 2022.
So well done to Richard Herbert for winning the league again. I think this makes it 13 or 14 times. Fantastic achievement. Dave Riley came a close 2nd and chased Richard hard all year, they both gave us some incrediblly skilful combat bouts and set the bar extremely high. The BMFA dinner is coming up at the weekend so Cooko will do some pics and words on the facebook page. Other noteable performances worth a mention are Alan Bunker, 3rd place, Mr consistent and fair play for driving to every comp all the way from Scotland. Nigel, in 4th great result considering he also flew Team race, which has something to do with going round and round apparently. And in 5th place Steve Smith who flew consistently well all year. 6th place was John leggott. Excellent result, John puts a lot into his hobby, he flies regularly, never stops smiling and is always coming up with little tweaks to improve his gear.
But what about the others? Eh? What about all the other flyers who turned up, good as gold, every month, come rain or shine, and didn’t win anything? Here is a shout out to those of us that do just that, those of us that spend long winter hours in a draughty shed glueing bits of wood together, then covering it all in nylon and dope, and mixing fuel, making up lines and test flying to make sure they’re good enough, or not. We should get a prize just for that. Shouldn’t we? Here’s to us.
Next years calendar, an update.
As you all know this is my first year as a member of the CFA Committee, I’ve managed to swerve it for the thick end of 30 years but bowed to the inevitable this year. And I’ve been trying to help out with booking the calendar for next year. Emphasis on the trying.
What I was unaware of, is that the demand for Buckminster is much higher than I thought it was. I had imagined that now we have some permanent concrete circles, the Control line corner was pretty much down to us and the Stunt boys. Not so. There is demand from many different disciplines and movements, freestyle ( I might have that wrong ) radio flyers, drone racers, the SAM movement and others. Buckminster also now have dedicated “Silent Flight” weekends (whats the point?) and its been noted by those in authority, that control line isn’t compatible with some other disciplines, so even if the date is available, the site may not be. Manny is a good bloke and has been very helpful but the options are limited.
Now, if we are keen to continue flying our competitions into the future, we need to be aware of this because over the last few years, we have come to depend on Buckminster a great deal. If this venue’s availability is squeezed, what will we do? we need to think about it. Are there any other venues currently available that we are not pursuing? We used to have Scampton and Darley Moor, which were reasonably accessible to most flyers. Thankfully we now have Basildon but its a long way from Scotland. We also have the possibility of Albermarle, but that’s a long way from everywhere. As I write Mick is trying to put a date together for Bristol but that hasn’t been straightforward. We booked a competition in Manchester in May last year and let the corresponding date at Buckminster go. That date has now been taken by another organisation and we cannot get another date at Buckminster in May. Very frustrating when the Manchester site now appears to be unavailable. We don’t know for sure because no one has bothered to return my emails. Priority this year must be to try to get a date in May for next year and to hold on to everything else we have.
Here is the proposed calendar so far. Basildon is Confirmed, as are the Old warden dates and Bristol but everything else is provisional although Buckmister dattes are on the main calender waiting sign off.
April 2nd Buckminster Vintage
April 16th Bristol Gala ( Confirmed, Proper field)
May 14th Old warden Oliver ( Confirmed)
May 28th Albermarle TBC
June 11th Buckminster Vintage
July 2nd Basildon Vintage ( Confirmed)
July 16th Buckminster Vintage
August 13th Buckminster Vintage
August 26th 2th 28th Nats Hopefully
September 17th Old warden Oliver ( Confirmed)
September 23rd Buckminster Vintage ( this one is a Saturday )
October 8th Buckminster Vintage
October 21st and 22nd Buckminster Nats reserve
Building 1
How long does it take to build a combat model? I’ve never bothered timing it, but if anyone asked me I always used to say about 4 hours, sounded about right. Allowing for drying time and messing with other stuff, daydreaming, phone calls, fishing etc etc. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I got my head down and built six brand new models from scratch, with very little going on to distract me. This included everything but tanks but included everthing else like: bandsawing the balsa and softwood for the leading edges, gluing, clamping and then routing them, band sawing hardwood for the pods and softwood for the trailing edge, laser cutting all the bits, gluing the frames together, sanding,more sanding, making the controls and fitting them, covering in nylon, 6 coats of dope each, sewing on the elevators ( took me ages!) attaching the control horns, fitting the pushrods and setting neutral, finishing the pods, doping them, setting the CG the same on every model, glueing and pinning , the pods, check over and straighten any that got twisted. How long do you reckon? Just under 30 hours! And that’s without making tanks for them, which takes ages. Is that interesting? I’m not sure it is. I might not include that....
Building 2
I must admit I’m quite giddy about next year. We may actually turn up to a competition and see a variety of models being flown. Will the ice caps melt?? Why? Well, its down to Richard Herbert’s elevator rule. I reckon this will bring a fair few models into play, I’m on with four different ones as I write, I’ll maybe update on one of the Facebook pages as I finish them. Or maybe I won’t. But to me, this will bring back into play one of real joys of Vintage Combat. The fact that you can dig into the model list and come up with something that no one else uses. Wouldn’t it be great if we all flew different stuff. This is how it used to be folks. There are over 100 models on that list, have a look, if you need any info on what they look like, dimensions etc I can probably help cos I’ve built most of them. Roger always builds overlooked models and he does great. Be like Roger.
Rules and Rulehounds
Theres been a bit of chat here and there about the Centre circle rule and the DQ’s. Well, all the other rule changes we voted on at the AGM have been approved by the CLTC, Richard Herbert’s elevator rule, Richard Evans’ tip rule, Roger Silcock’s Njuuuuuurd, etc etc, but the centre circle rule amendment, as voted for by 27 of us for, to only 5 against, at the AGM, has not. The CFA’s submission of this amendment was voted down by the CLTC on “health and safety grounds”. Unanimously. Needless to say we’re still on with it. I’ll update everyone soon as I know.
Stuff for sale:
MK4 Copeman Oliver Tiger, new in box £400
Quote”But I still have the brand new, in box (with all documentation to support) Copeman tuned Oliver Tiger Mk4 (T8042) from 1975.The last person to run it was Mr Copeman.”
This is being sold by Andy Shakich, email him at andy@shakich.plus.com.
Thats it for now.
Tim Hobbins
CFA Comp Sec.
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