Dave Mason
It is with great sadness that I have to report Dave passed away in St Clare’s Hospice on the 8th October after a long battle with Cancer. Our sympathy goes out to his wife Margaret and Mark, Dean, NHeil and Sara.
Aircraft with model aircraft predominating were his main interest. Like a lot of aeromodellers of his generation, he was very aircraft minded and discovered Fairlop Aerodrome in the late 40′s that was the mecca for model flying in the London Area up to the mid 50′s. He was a member of the Chingford Model Flying Club, his local club for many years and Anglia MFC at the same time. Who can forget the dinner and dances he organised for the Chingford Club at Chesney’s in Chingford into the early 90′s.
In his late teens he aquired an MG TD, which he later changed to his pride and joy an MGB Roadster with red wire wheels that he was driving when we first became friends. All who flew at Wanstead Flats or Chingford Plains in the 60′s remember him turning up on in the MGB packed with models in the dickey seat wearing his peaked cap to keep his hair immaculate after a trip to the barber. Very suave and debonair but a less likely modellers mode of transport is hard to imagine.
He worked in the model trade over some years at Hobbies Store in London, Aviacolour in Gants Hill, Saturn Models in Colchester then finally for Crescent Models in Burnham on Crouch. He then drove busses for LT until his retirement.
I never saw anything get him down and he was a great person to count as a friend. To this end we shared a set of radio control gear when it was very expensive (approx 6 months wages) in the late 60′s, never having a cross word over who would fly next with it at any given time.
His cheery demeanour to all and sundry will be sadly missed by those who knew him especially his friends in the Essex Quiet Flight Association and Chelmsford MFA plus his many acquaintances in the modelling world.
Brian Austin