We welcome new members, whether you are a full blown BMFA ‘C’ level pilot or have had no experience whatsoever!

The Committee made a conscious decision some time back to invest heavily in both time and equipment to train newcomers to the sport, because the long term future of the Club depends upon it. Our experience has shown that the vast majority of people that approach us cannot fly, and therefore we are willing to put in the time and effort to train you.

Having said that, we are very up front about the fact that we want people in for the long term. We would much rather fly our own planes during our precious flying hours! Unfortunately, there have been a few cases in the past whereby we have trained members who have then moved on elsewhere, which is very frustrating !!

So, we are prepared to invest in you so long as understand that we expect a reasonable long term commitment to the Club. Past experience has shown that we can fill each spare membership space, year in, year out, and we have a large number of “home grown” members, so we must be doing something right. . . . !!

If you are still reading on at this point, then you are obviously still interested in joining! We pride ourselves on being a small and friendly group, and we can guarantee that you will get help on any aspect of the sport from any club member.

Meeting Us

We like to meet you for an informal chat – at the patch is best so you can see how we operate. That gives you the chance to walk away if you don’t like what you see (and vice versa of course!).

We do not publish the location of our site for a number of reasons. If you wish to visit, then contact any of the Committee members (see the contact page for details) to arrange this and for directions. Don’t worry, we won’t bite your head off and we don’t mind what (to you) might seem the daftest of questions.

Tuition

We have a number of club Futaba transmitters and buddy leads so that training using this system is easy. If you have other equipment, then you will have to talk to us. (Futaba is the world leader by the way – that’s why we chose it!)

Club Spectrum DX6I Transmitter – the Club has acknowledged the popularity of this radio gear and has splashed out and bought two Mode 1 transmitters. This will enable our instructors to train people with Spectrum radio gear. FYI a standard audio cable with mono jack plugs works as a buddy lead = much cheaper than the Spectrum cable – and we have two of those too!

We will give your new trainer the once over to check for airworthiness and often, small problems can be put right in the pits. If there are major issues, don’t be surprised if we ask you to take it home for further surgery!

Training takes place on most flying sessions. We have evolved a method whereby when the main instructor(s) are flying, we inform all the trainees under tuition by text. Note that the weather, family commitments, DIY, holidays etc all have to be considered, and decide when we fly. If you can make the session then fine, otherwise it will have to be the following week. The most popular session is Sunday morning of course, followed closely by Saturday afternoon (see the flying times page). So the more flexible you can be, the more air time you will get. . . .

So how long will it take to get your ‘A’ test – answer – how long is a piece of string!

Still interested? Then give the CHAIRMAN a call – see the Committee page or go to the ‘Contact Us’ page.