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The Royal Aero Club Trust, as part of its Flying for Youth program administers a Bursary Scheme for young people.

In 2010, the Trust intends to award one bursary to the value of up to £1000 (The Peter Cruddas Foundation Scholarship), two bursaries to the value of up to £750 and a number of further bursaries worth up to £500, to suitable candidates.

The scheme is divided into two categories of Bursaries:

1.Flying Bursaries/Grants for those wishing to advance from one recognised level of air sport to the next higher level and wish to upgrade their existing qualifications;

2.FlightSim Bursaries/Grants for Computer Flight Simulation enthusiasts wishing to gain practical experience of flying or an air sport.

The scheme and the bursaries comprise all types of air sports and aviation-related activities including: paragliding, gliding, hang-gliding, parachuting, microlight aircraft, helicopter, fixed wing aircraft and the designing, building and flying model aeroplanes. Applications from BMFA members have been successful on previous occasions!

Applicants for these grants must hold British Citizenship and be permanently resident in UK and aged 16-21 years.

The terms and conditions for the award of bursaries in 2010 and application forms are available from http://www.royalaeroclubtrust.org/bursaries.html . The closing date for applications is 31 March 2010.

The Aeromodelling Commission (CIAM) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) the world –wide governing body for airsports, has recently established an Aeromodelling Scholarship worth 2,000 € that it will award annually. This will be awarded for the first time at the 2011 CIAM Plenary Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The Scholarship is a one-off payment and has to be administered by the National Airsport Control which, for the United Kingdom, is, of course, the BMFA. The Scholarship is intended to help with school, college or university tuition fees, educational books or other educational needs. Payment will be through the BMFA to the successful candidate’s educational establishment.

The maximum age of any applicant is 21 years in the nomination year and only one candidate per country may be submitted to the CIAM.

Nominations from any young flier interested in being considered as the UK’s candidate must be received by the BMFA office no later than 10th August. All the nominations will be considered at the September Full Council Meeting where one nominee will be chosen as the most appropriate to be submitted to the CIAM.

A specially established CIAM Scholarship Selection Group of world-wide education experts will consider all the nominations submitted to CIAM and rank them in descending order of merit. This list will then be presented to the CIAM Bureau who shall recommend a single candidate to the following year’s CIAM Plenary meeting for approval. Scholarships may only be awarded at the CIAM Plenary meeting after due process.

The BMFA application form may be downloaded here (BMFA Application Form for CIAM Scholarship) or contact the BMFA office to request a form. Telephone: 0116-2440028 or email: admin@bmfa.org.

Following the recent formation of the Radio Control Helicopter Association we have been contacted by a number of BMFA club committees and event organisers enquiring whether they should accept RCHA membership for insurance purposes at their club or event.

Following investigation into this matter we advise that at this time RCHA insurance is not recognised due to the level and scope of cover provided under the terms of the policy.

Should a member of the RCHA wish to fly at your event or club site then it is recommended that they become either full or temporary members of the BMFA for insurance purposes.

5th February 2010

Dowload the revised CLTC 2010 Contest Calendar here: CLTC 2010 ConCal J - Rev 1 (50)

It is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you of the death of Mike Goldby on Friday December 4th. Mike had been fighting cancer for the past twelve months and passed away peacefully at home with his family around him.

Mike had spent some thirty years in the Royal Air Force entering as an apprentice and working his way up to the rank of Squadron Leader in the engineering branch. On retiring from the RAF he worked for a short time in industry before joining the BMFA as Development Officer and the increase in affiliation and the consequential increase in membership through the first years of the twenty first century, was very much down to his drive and enthusiasm.

On his retirement he remained active within the association and was about to become our Honorary Secretary when his illness forced him to stand down although he continued to serve on the Scale Technical Committee. Mike’s other great interest was in sailing, a sport that he and his wife Kim enjoyed together.

His interest in aeromodelling was right across the board from Free Flight through Control Line to Radio Control but his abiding passion was for Scale in which discipline he represented his country as team manager and competitor at both World and Continental level.

Mike will be greatly missed throughout the aeromodelling world for a long time to come.

Our thoughts and condolences are with Kim and the rest of the family at this difficult time.

Please contact the office if you would like details of the funeral arrangements.

Robin I Gowler
Chairman