Clyde Valley Flyers News

Clubman Competition Results

Round one of the clubman aerobatic competition was held on 17th June.

Thanks go to Michael Boulcott for organising the event, Bill Grimsley for his judging expertise and all the competitors for their entertaining flights :D

The winner of round one was the infamous Bruce Camelford who takes the top slot on the leader board and a rather nice bottle of wine, Len Sturrock coming in second and Michael Boulcott taking the third place.

The next round will be held on 15th July so watch this space to see if there are any changes.

It is not too late to join in the competition as you don't have to fly in every round, bring a plane on 15th July and join in the fun.

Back To Top

Bonze Awards

Congratulations go to Grieg McKean who passed his bronze safety award on Thursday 26th April and Louise who passed on Sunday 29th April (converting the club trainer into a bicycle undercarriage at the same time)

Hopefully photo's and a video will be available soon - well just as soon as I remember to take them and edit the video anyway.

Who will be next? I think Alison better get cracking on the landings :D

Back To Top

2006 AGM Minutes

In order to save me writing a report on the AGM 06 I thought I would just upload the minutes, I am unashamedly lazy.

CLYDE VALLEY FLYERS M.A.C.
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
held at
Lynnhurst Hotel,  Tuesday 6th  November 200

1. The meeting was called to order at 7.30pm by the Chairman, 28 members signed the Sederunt, including the committee

2. Apologies

Apologies were received from:  M. Boulcott, Fiona Wallace, Bryan Passey, Calum Hicks and Colin McCance

3. Minutes of previous AGM

The Minutes of the 2005 AGM were circulated for approval and were proposed as a true and accurate account of said meeting by C. McLaren.  This was seconded by W. Elliot

4. Matters arising.

The re-worded constitution with clarification of conditions of junior membership and corrected mis-spelling was adopted unanimously

5. Management reports

a)  Chairman:  Ken reported another very positive, productive year for Clyde Valley Flyers and introduced a number of new or changed committee members.   Alan Kennedy taking over the VC role because John Davis was unable to continue due to work pressure,  George Wallace taking over the secretary’s role vacated by AK, Bruce Camelford replacing Bill Elliot as training co-ordinator and Frank Ward taking over as competition director.

He further reported that the lease arrangements for the flying field had been agreed with the farmer for a 15  year period which gave a welcome stability to our tenure.  The agreement with the CAA regarding the conditions imposed on our flying at the field had also been finalised and agreement reached.  Some of the pertinent conditions were highlighted and discussed with those present.

Progress had also been made with the grass-cutting procedures due to a prudent purchase via E-bay of a small set of gang mowers.  At the field, start-up benches had been installed along with some plastic walkways and these had made a significant improvement for flyers at the field.

A trip by a group of members, including himself, to Corfu had proved to be a very satisfactory experience for all concerned, and was likely to be repeated in the future.  Alan Kennedy was responsible for the organisation and was highly commended.

The club has a new web-site, www.clydevalleyflyers.co.uk,  courtesy of Louise, which he was extremely pleased and impressed with.  The Chairman urged all who had not visited the site to do so and contribute to its continued success.  He commended Louise for these efforts and thanked Nick Reeves for his work with the previous web-site.

The chairman was pleased to report the further success for Alistair Duff at Woodvale, where he, again, won the Knight and Pridham trophy for free-flight CO2 power and was just pipped for the Eddie Riding Trophy which is for best over-all free flight.  He emphasised how success like this enhances the image of Scottish modelling in the UK and Clyde Valley Flyers as a club, in particular.  Congratulations to Alistair from the chair and all present were expressed.

The chair ended by noting that slabs and other materials for the patio extension at the hut had been assembled and volunteers would be sought in the very near future to carry out this project.

He then answered a number of questions from the floor regarding further details of the lease conditions, the ATC agreement and the affect the house construction in the adjacent field could have on flying at the site.  The last point was being actively addressed by the committee in a number of ways to minimise the potential impact on our activities.

b)  Vice Chairman:  Alan reported having taken on the duties of VC in May ’06 and in that time had concentrated on representing the club at other clubs’ events and by being in attendance at our own field as much as possible.  He reiterated the comments of the chair regarding the Corfu trip and confirmed that another was planned for 2008.  To that end a form was circulating to list expressions of interest from the membership.  This would allow details of the trip to be negotiated and finalised with the hotel and airlines so that expressions of interest would be translated to firm bookings.

c)  Secretary:  George reported that he had taken over the secretary’s duties in May ’06 and was familiarising himself with these, which mainly consisted of dealing with correspondence, taking minutes at meetings and producing periodic news-letters.  There had been a number letters of appreciation sent to members and elsewhere, but no adverse correspondence had been received.  A news-letter had recently been sent to all members on the roll and another was planned for immediately after Christmas.  Minutes continued to be a challenge he was dealing with.

d)  Treasurer:  Gavin reported that Morton Gould had gone over the accounts and had commended their accuracy and completeness.  He explained some of the details to the meeting and mentioned in particular the much improved performance of the tea bar and the success of the bring and buy event.  There had been no major, unexpected expenses over the year and this had resulted in a small surplus.  The accounts were approved by the members, proposed by B.Camelford, seconded by C. McLaren.

Gavin then answered a number of questions from the floor.  A. Taylor asked about future lease charges, B. Grimsley asked about membership numbers, this is currently 53, so income was approximately £200 down from previous year.  There followed a discussion on improving income and the chair suggested this was an appropriate opportunity for Gavin to put a planned proposal to increase the membership fees by £10.  This was seconded by A. Kennedy.  After some further discussion a counterproposal was put by B. Grimsley to limit the increase to £5.  This was seconded by C. McLaren.  A counter-counterproposal was put by S. Semple to increase the fees on an on-going basis using some mechanism linked to cost-of-living indices.  The proposal did not attract a seconder.

A vote on the proposal and counter-proposal was then carried which resulted in the counter-proposal(increase by£5) being carried by 13 votes to 11.

e)  Competition director:   Frank reported one scale competition had been run successfully and he intended to run another before the flying season ends.  He had some proposals for next year’s schedule, resurrecting previous series, and details would formalised and published soon. These consisted of a series of Sunday dates with a fall-back of Tuesday evenings where weather was inclement.  SAA had accepted the committee’s suggested dates for competition and training and testing events.  These would also be published.

f)  Safety officer: Martin reported one entry in the safety book and stressed the importance of completing these whenever an injury or incident occurred.  He detailed some issues regarding use of pilot stance/s and use of the field by helicopter and other flyers to minimise danger and inconvenience to all.  He answered questions from B. Grimsley and N. Reeves regarding some of the details of these issues, particularly helicopter flying.  The issue of parking at the flying field was also discussed generally and in particular the need to use the space adjacent to the pits only as a loading/unloading facility, except where disabled flyers were involved

g)  Training co-ordinator:  Bruce reported three bronze awards since last year, C. McCance, B. McElhill and C. Hicks.   Because of pressure on Bill Scott’s instruction time there is a need for more instructors.  To aid, this Bill had produced a guide which it was important that all new instructors should follow.  Several members had expressed an interest in being involved in this way.

A question was raised from the floor regarding Heli instruction and this would be addressed.  B. Grimsley highlighted the need for instruction and testing at higher levels and in other disciplines.  During the ensuing discussion it was suggested that this was an issue to be addressed but in part the training and testing events provided by the SAA could help.

 6. Prizes and Awards

The scale competition was won by F. Ward

7. Election of Committee

The secondees for the positions of Vice chair, Secretary, Training co-ordinator and Competition director were all elected unanimously, unopposed by the members.

8. Any Other Competent Business

1. The chair discussed the issue of Child Protection and highlighted that due to the increasing degree of legislation which imposed duties and responsibilities on all organisation in this regard, the committee had decided that is was necessary for all committee members and all those members who may instruct or support young people and vulnerable adults described within the Acts should be put forward by the club for scrutiny under the Disclosure Scotland procedures.  He described the process as simple and unintrusive, but essential if the club was to protect itself from potential litigation, as well as protect the children, etc involved.  There was no dissent from the floor.
2. The issue of field drainage was raised by N. Reeves who asked what was being done about directing the flow of water from field drains, etc., away from the shed.  In particular where the provision for this passes under the access road to the field, but also where standing water was evident in the strip.  Ken replied that these issues were under review by the committee and the contractor who installed the road and the relevant drain-pipes would be recalled to the site.
3. D. Kelly asked about the club’s intentions regarding the Air Cadet Training scheme the SAA was promoting.  The chair confirmed  that it was the committees intention to commit fully to this and this would be pursued.

There being no other business or questions from the floor the meeting was closed at 9.30pm.

Date of the next AGM is Tuesday 6th November ‘07

Back To Top

Scale Model Competition Results

The scale model competition was a most enjoyable affair let down slightly by the weather, no suprises there huh!

The usual vast quantity of truely scrumptious burgers were consumed, most of them by myself as it happens, and there was even some scale model flying taking part during the burger fest.

The results were as follows:

First place - Frank Ward

Second place - Bill Grimsley

Third place - Calum (CVF's youngest member)

Fourth Place - Steven Semple

Fifth place - Alan Kennedy

Last place - Donald (due to technical difficulties he didn't get a flight)

Bruce Camelford was scored but not flying a proper scale model due to yesterdays entry in the RIP page, if he had been flying a scale model he would have been in second place.

Many thanks to everyone who turned up for making it a successful event, and keep an eye on the website for the video which will be uploaded as soon as I have had time to edit it down to something uploadable.

Back To Top

Bring & Buy Success

The 2006 Clyde Valley Flyers bring & buy was a huge success.

The Elderslie village hall was packed to the rafters almost, people from far and wide coming to grab a bargain. There were more planes than you could shake a stick at, radios, engines galore, flight boxes, jig saws, and even a cd writer! unfortunately not one person in the entire congregation knew how to fly it to demonstrate. Our auctioneer, Bill Grimsley, preformed an admirable task squeezing every last drop available cash out of the crowd and providing some good comic moments too.

There was a huge stall of aero modeling wares on offer from Paisley Model Centre which appeared to be watched over by the xmas elf!

In the canteen the usual tasty wares were on offer, sausage rolls, pies etc. There was a slight incident at the start of the evening resulting in a somewhat smokey kitchen and distinct possibility of the fire alarm coming into action, but as I had run out of cigarettes this was just another plus point as far as I was concerned.

Collin had his laptop in the canteen running Aerofly Pro displayed on the wall with a projector. The simulator had the CVF flying field scenery loaded into it so we could all fly around the field from the comfort of close pie and beans proximity.

The raffle at the end of the evening managed the usual raffle trick of fitting prizes to winners seamlessly. A glider man wining a plug spanner, electric man wining a gallon of fuel and I won a bottle of wine (I'm practically T total)

Well, all in all it was an excellent evening, most enjoyable. I am not sure exactly how much was raised but the early indications are that it has covered the cost of the gang mowers.

Back to top

Crosswinds, Cartwheels and Bog Seat Headers

Sunday 8th October was yet another action packed afternoon at the field.

The wind was somewhere in between ludicrous and insane, and as near as dammit 90° to the runway. Ideal conditions for trying out some cross wind take offs according to Bill. More like ideal conditions to have a heart attack I would have said.

Well, a few of us had a go, and we all managed to get in the air in one piece. The club trainer, being in a temperamental mood, decided dead sticks were the order of the day to keep Bill on his toes and he managed the feat admirably right up to the point where he performed the most spectacular cartwheel manoeuvre.

CVF's dynamic duo were also on top form, flying the Bog Seats in gale force winds, see pictures above and right if you don't know what a flying Bog Seat is. Bruce performed the landing of the century, how he managed no one knows, but he actually landed on Bills head! Revenge however was sweet, as Bill had a go with Alan's bog seat which was whisked away on a gust and ripped a big chunk out of its wing.

Well, it all looked like extremely good fun, so I'm going to make one myself and join in the fray next time.

Back to top

Brainz and Bronze

Congratulations to our clever nipper Calum for being the youngest ever club member to pass his Bronze award.

12-year old Calum is a pupil at Paisley Grammar School and has achieved in a very short space of time, what many of us struggle for years to do (it must be that brain cell deterioration thing for us oldies!). His interest in model aircraft flying started some three years ago when he started going to LMA shows with his parents. He then decided he wanted to try it out for himself and had a couple of flights with Bill Scott in June of this year using the club trainer. Then during the summer holidays he spent three weeks down with his grandparents building his aeroplane and learning to fly it with his granddad. They flew at the huge Roll Royce place (2 mile long runway) near Nottingham as well as at his Granddad's local club. And so in the middle of August he proudly presented his shiny two week old plane to Bill and the rest - as they say - is history!

Calum is very grateful for all the time and effort Bill has put in - in all weathers! He thinks Clyde Valley Flyers is great, especially the dafter side (now WHAT could he possibly mean?! Landing planes in the burn? Nocturnal grass-cutting?) ... oh and he especially likes the hot chocolate.

And even more exciting for Calum – his Granddad has bought him an IC spitfire as a pressie for passing.

Well done Calum – everything’s most definitely coming up Roses.

Back to top

A Clean Cut

CVF are now the proud owners of a shiny new set of gang mowers.

Well actually, not quite so shiny and more on the used side than new, but most effective and definitely worth the price we paid.

The initial trials of their cutting ability started tonight, Tuesday 12th September, and was conducted by the clubs resident psychiatric hospital escapees who shall remain nameless to protect their privacy (see, I told you I wouldn't mention you Alan & Bruce)

In the run up to the purchase of the gang mowers it was necessary to establish some of the tractors operational parameters, namely the speed. So, after pacing out the runway to estimate its length, our dynamic duo spent an enjoyable afternoon chasing each other up and down the runway in the tractor to obtain the time, then with some rather uncomplicated calculations worked out the speed was 4.65 miles per hour and within the required tolerance.

However, Bruce was not satisfied this figure was accurate enough and came up with possibly the most insane idea I had ever heard, installing a satellite navigation system on the tractor. After being successfully directed all the way from the hut to the field, the sat nav reported the tractors speed as just short of 5 miles per hour (he wouldn't actually reveal if it was closer to 4.65mph or 5mph)

So, tractor was deemed suitable, and gang mowers purchased from eBay. They were delivered today and the trial began.

Despite one or two teething problems, such as the finely engineered tow hook made from a flimsy U bolt bent lovingly into shape by Alan's fair hand failing to perform as expected, and the mowers bouncing about a bit, they cut the grass quite effectively.

The experience of super fast grass cutting was just so great our dynamic duo couldn't get enough of it, and in yet another display of the lengths these two will go to keep top slot in the list of loonies, they spent all night cutting the grass in total darkness!

Well, we can all look forward to a much smoother strip now, and the job of keeping it that way will only take about 15 mins.

Back to top