|
Spring Newsletter 2007
Dear Members,
After all the rain we have had, the patch at
last is starting to dry out, so it will not be long before the
club is back into full swing and the winter rules will be
relaxed for yet another year.
December 06 ended with the club’s traditional
Christmas dinner and the AGM. The dinner was held at the
Blackwell Grange Golf Club and the AGM at Hurworth Grange. Both
events turned out to be a great success and will almost
certainly be held at the same locations in 2007. The AGM took a
new format this year in the form of a presentation. The
presentation received lot of positive feed back from the
membership and guests with regard to how professional the DDMFC
have become. Let’s hope we can maintain this standard for many
years to come.
Our new membership secretary is now starting
to gain experience with regard to the membership process. The
new membership sticker seems to be working well along with the
new club folder which contains all the information about the
flying operation at Cowton Moor. The BMFA will hopefully be
quicker off the mark for the 2008 season as administrative
problems caused a frustrating delay in 2007.
A couple of updates have been added to the
clubs flying rules with regard to the 2.4GHz operating frequency
and the flight line. You will notice that the peg board has a
section for the 2.4GHz flyers. Just place your peg in the area
marked and all other rules remain the same as to the number of
aircraft in the sky and the transmitter pound. Remember your
black ribbon. The flight line has also been made easier to
understand. We only have one traffic cone marking the flight
line which will be placed off the patch according to wind
direction. The cone stands over 1m tall and has points to hang
your transmitter when recovering models that have landed out.
The committee and helpers have also been at
work in the pits area and the track leading to the club house.
We have managed to fill some of the pot holes and keep most of
the mud away from the front gate. We have also laid a large
number of paving slabs which run along the side of the access
track to the pits. This is a great improvement allowing more
members to set up safely.
Most members will also have been made aware
of our recent security issue. I will not elaborate on the
incident as this letter will be posted on the website. All I
will say is that the membership must be vigilant at all times
and report any unusual activity to the committee. The police
have been made aware and you will have also noticed the warning
sign about CCTV.
The most exciting news is the patch extension
from north to south. When I was discussing our proposal with the
landlord and the increase of landing fees, I also asked about
future plans with regard to cattle on the moor. Peter said he
had no intensions to fill the field with cattle for this year
and he would give plenty of warning if things would change.
Therefore we have no need for the fence and it will be recovered
from the patch. This will solve many problems with regard to
models running over the wire and members getting caught up in
the wire.
The patch is now a “T” shape, an extra thirty square meters
giving you sixty metres north to south. East west will remain
the same at just over fifty meters, but the long term plan is to
reverse the “T” shape moving the east to west strip further into
the field keeping those low passes away from the pits. The sheep
will now play a part in keeping the grass short - we only have
to put up with what is produced from the rear end! Not a great
problem hopefully!
Looking forward to the season, we have a fun
fly coming up 13th May and the Castle Howard fly in
19th 20th May which is the week before
Longhorsley. The club barbeque 9th June and a Whitby
fly in the last weekend of June. Check out the calendar in the
club house for some more useful dates
Finally a very warm welcome to all our new
members that have recently joined the club. It is great to have
you all aboard and I am sure you will have loads of fun and
spend many happy hours enjoying your hobby with the DDMFC.
Certificate of
achievement:
Bob Wasson “C” Licence
Well done Bob the
first “C” at DDMFC.
That’s all folks until the summer. Let’s hope
it’s a good one.
Safe flying,
Neil Dixon
Chairman 2007 |
