The period since the last newsletter has been a sorry one for the Club. Two of our oldest members have sadly died.
Hugh White
Hugh, who had been in hospital since a stroke earlier in the year, died on 5th May. Chalkie was 83 and was a founder member of this Club. He was our first secretary and we still have the original hand-written minute book He had been an active member of Newent club in recent years where he was a life member and had rejoined HMAC only last year. A donation was sent to the RAF Benevolent Society in his memory.Bill Reynolds
Bill was almost 90 years of age when he died on 12th July after several bouts of ill-health, although he had been quite active right through to the end of last year. Bill and his family (Alan, Nicki, wife Mary and the grandchildren) have all been very much part of HMAC over the years. Bill was a member who got stuck in when things needed doing and he was made a life member some years ago to recognise his contribution. The club is making a donation to the County Air Ambulance in Bill's memory. We will miss both of these remarkable gentlemen. They did much of their aeromodelling in the days of balsa cement, tissue paste and dope and it certainly did them no harm!
The Field
After the Steam Rally the field will get a few weeks to recover and then the sheep will be back.I am very sorry to report that we have received a COMPLAINT from a person who lives beyond the north-west corner of the field, beyond the Steam Rally container.His property was allegedly overflown on Sunday 5th July. The flyer concerned apparently lost orientation and the model was immediately brought back by the superviser. The complainant, Mr. Page, subsequently told me that this is a frequent occurrence throughout the year. He also said it happened at the Show, which we will be addressing at our next committee meeting.
As far as our day-to-day flying is concerned we must be very careful not to generate complaints of this nature. Mr. Page complained some years ago about noise and that resulted in our current restrictions. It would take very little to start the whole thing again. There is no reason to fly beyond the trees at the north end of the field. Anyone doing so is putting the future of the field at risk. We must NOT overfly property.
Gerald Matthews is making an extension to the peg board to take more black pegs for users of 2.4G. This does not of course mean that more than four models can be in the air at any one time but it will accommodate the increasing number of users of this system.
Competition
This again was cancelled through bad weather but there had been little apparent support in any case.
The SHOW
Just over a month away now! We really need good weather this year to make up for the disaster of 2008.Attached is the usual request for help. Please let me know as soon as you can - just as important if you are not able to help. Most support is needed for the gate on both days. Also, Hilda Davies will again be running the hospitality tent so she would appreciate some help from male or female volunteers. Other fairly critical times are the afternoon of the preceding Tuesday (putting out fence posts), the Friday for last minute jobs and the following Monday for clearing up. If anyone wishes to camp over the Show weekend please say so early.
That's it for now. Let's hope the weather improves because at the moment it is raining hard!