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As
we approach the end of 2007 I can report that the GMFC
is in the best shape I believe it has been for a few
years. While there is still the occasional member who
expresses dissatisfaction at the direction the club is
going, the large majority seem happy and just get on and
enjoy their flying and all that the club has to offer. Twelve months ago I expressed my concerns that we would struggle to get past the break-even mark of 50 members. This we have achieved by a good margin, I will let the membership secretary/treasurer give details in his report of the numbers. But I will say that I am very encouraged to see a large number of new members to the club and hobby. It also gives me great pleasure to see two or three youngsters flying models regularly at the indoor sessions. The major factor of 2007 was undoubtedly the weather. Living in Gloucestershire there can be few who escaped the effects of the downpour of Friday 20th July and the “hardships” of the following weeks. The
year started well with very few days lost to the
weather. The winter and early spring was dry, relatively
warm with light winds. A cold northeasterly persisted
through much of April and into May that rather spoilt
things. However worse was to come as when the high
pressure causing the cold northeasterly collapsed?
Frontal systems moved in and it rained on and off for
the next three months, culminating in the floods in late
July. I cannot remember a year when I flew so little in
the month of June a time when traditionally one makes
the most of the long evenings. The weather improved through August with the best bank holiday weekend for many years. The autumn weather has been very benign with some good flying days. However wind and rain has spoilt the last couple of weekends. This time last year we had just started indoor flying and I reported that seven turned up to the first event. Twelve months on we have more than doubled the numbers participating and are now running a weekly Saturday evening. I am pleased to say the indoor sessions have attracted a number of new members to the club. The standard of flying at the indoor events has improved greatly. From tentative hops with less than suitable models to most, flying very competently with purpose built models many of them own designs. The cheapness and speed at which these simple models can be produced as brought out several new an innovative designers. I have to thank my son for editing together a ten-minute video of our indoor antics; under the heading “Depronman the movie” it’s approaching 4000 viewings on U-tube. Part is currently in shooting stage. With the numbers now attend the indoor evenings we now need to review where we go as we are on the point of outgrowing the current venue. This is on the agenda for discussion during the meeting. I can report that there have been no major incidents outdoors or indoors during 2007. Any incident needs dealing with as they happen. The entire committee are safety officers, they are regular fliers and usually on the field especially at weekends. It’s no good reporting it to me a couple of weeks later, because when I chat individually with those present one gets very different views on the alleged events. Sadly since I started writing this report there has been a “shooting down”. The guilty party was an experienced modeller and very active member of the club. He has to his credit taken full responsibility for the incident and the matter has been I believe resolved. However the circumstances of this incident are based on pure stupidity and lapse of concentration, which no rules could have possible prevented. All I will say is don’t lend your membership card to another member, you cannot have two people using the same peg. During 2007 I have had several meetings with the Mike Potter and discussed many matters with him. There have been no reported incidents of models over flying the farm during 2007. This has a lot to due with the poor summer weather; the decline IC fixed wing activity, and encouraging people to fly to the northwest of the strip. Work on the flying site has crept along slowly during 2007 with the main jobs being completed. The realignment of the strip did not take place the reasons being reported elsewhere. The main task outstanding is painting of the containers, this was scheduled for the summer months but with such poor weather was not completed. The club notice board also needs completion I have the basic materials but need a volunteer to complete this item. Many thanks to Clive who has worked tirelessly to keep the strip mown. It has been in great condition all summer despite the rain. Sadly the rain prevented the farmer getting his second cut of hay in, leaving the surrounding field uncut for many weeks but is now back to a suitable length for out landings. The members of the club continue to operate a large range of model types, but the move towards electric models still continues. Yesterday (Monday) I visited Slough Radio Control models and of the fixed wing aircraft piled up for sale 80% plus were electric. While the helicopters were split 50/50 between the smaller electric types with IC still dominating the larger models. I think this reflected in the spread of modelling activity within the club.. Great to see a few getting their old control line models out and giving them an airing. Even here electrics are creeping into use. I am pleased to see other club members exercising toleration and giving these models time on the strip without complaint. Last AGM the club website had just been published, and on the 21st November it celebrated it’s first birthday and on that very day we registered our 20,000th hit. The total number of 21750 as this afternoon. An average of 60 hits a day. The website is on the agenda for discussion so I will not go into detail now, only to say it has been a great success bring much interest in and several new members to the club. However technically the website has been a lot hassle and I must thank my wife for spending many an hour queuing on the phone waiting to harangue Fasthosts technical staff.
The cost of the web site is just under £10.00 month, to put that into context the cost of sending a 2nd class letter to each member is £15.00 for the stamps alone. I am still concerned that some members are totally left out due not having a computer/internet access and would like to find some way of keeping them more informed. I am also a little disappointed that few others have contributed items to the website and hope this will improve in 2008. May I wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year, and safe and enjoyable flying in 2008, the weather next year just has to be better. Chris Bishop Chairman GMFC.
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