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Congratulations to John Carter who achieved 3rd place in F1A at the European Free Flight Championships in Turkey. F1A is always the most strongly contested class and John’s success is a great result.

The new 2010 BMFA Free Flight Forum Report has just been published and it’s still only £10. Now in its 26^th year of publication, it’s full of articles on the developing technology of today’s free-flight. An innovation is the Models of the Year feature in which Phil Ball has drawings and articles highlighting eight of 2009’s most successful aircraft.

To whet your appetite, here are the contents.

• All About Flying F1A with a Circle Tow Hook – Per Findahl
• A Bodger’s Approach to SLOP – Dave Limbert
• The Important Aspects of Successful FF Scale Models – Andy Hewitt
• Testing Coupe Motors – Peter Hall
• More Classes or Fewer, Separate or Combined? – Chris Strachan
• Controlling Electric Motors for Free Flight – Trevor Grey
• Machining an F1J Front End – Simon Dixon
• F1Q – A Power Flyer’s Approach – Tony Shepherd
• Different Ways with D-Boxes – Trevor Grey
• 50 Gram Open Rubber  – John O’Donnell
• CADCAM for aeromodelling – Leon Cole
• 2009 Models of the Year.

Prices are again being held to last year’s and are as follows:

UK – £10.00 including postage
Airmail to Europe – £12.00  inc. postage
Airmail elsewhere – £14.00 inc postage

Cheques should be payable to ‘BMFA F/F Team Support Fund’, in pounds sterling only, and drawn on a bank with a branch in the UK; you may also order by credit card.

Copies are available from :   Martin Dilly
20, Links Road, West Wickham, Kent, BR4 OQW

or by fax to: (44) + (0)20-8777-5533, or by e-mail to martindilly@compuserve.com

Airsports.tv is an online TV channel dedicated to all air sports disciplines.  Airsports.tv are looking for competition pilots and enthusiasts to write of their passion for, and experiences, in Aeromodelling.  Why do you do what you do?  Training, competing, teaching, flying: whatever it is you do, why not write about it and get it published on Airsports.tv?

Don’t forget about new techniques or technologies emerging  across all disciplines, the Airsports.tv audience wants to know about it!  Let’s hear it for Aeromodelling!

If you would like to write for Airpsorts.tv or upload your aeromodelling videos please get in touch with Zoe today: zadjonyoh@airsports.tv

For Grantham club member Phil Ball the last of three trials to select the British team at the 2009 World Free Flight Championships in Croatia was very special. Flying at Sculthorpe on October 12th, Phil gained a place on the F1A glider team and as a result is one of only three Britons ever to represent this country in all three outdoor free-flight classes, F1A glider, F1B Wakefield rubber and F1C engine-assisted glider. The other two are the late Jack North of Croydon & DMAC and Ray Monks of Birmingham MAC, with Ray even adding F1D indoor to his list of team places.

Phil recently retired from Rolls Royce at Derby, where he was a development engineer working on advanced turbine blades and has been national free-flight champion several times. He trains at Barkston Heath and competes at contests all over the country. His previous team places have taken him to Germany, Italy, USA, Hungary, Romania and Portugal; he was part of the gold medal-winning F1C team at the last two. Phil also managed the British team at the World Junior Championships in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and has served on the free-flight technical committee for several years.

November 23rd, the day after the AGM and dinner, sees the twenty-fifth Free Flight Forum at the Holiday Inn, Coventry CV2 2HP. To mark the quarter century of what has become, along with the Forum Reports, one of the highlights of the free-flight year, a wide range of topics will be covered by speakers who really know their onions. Tickets are £8 from the BMFA office, or you can pay on the day. The Forum starts at 10 a.m. in the Walmesley Room, with Mike Evatt again in the chair.

To whet your appetite this is what’s in store:

• Roger Wilkes – Balsa and Carbon Rod Structures;
• Trevor Grey – Brushing Up (Brushless Motors);
• Chris Strachan – Sharing Flying Sites with General Aviation;
• Mark Croome – Rohacell D-boxes; John O’Donnell – High Tech Where It Fits; Phil Ball – Contest Analysis;
• Ray Monks – Fabricating Carbon Booms;
• Roger Wilkes – The Torque-Back Trimming Technique and Variable Pitch Props;
• Lindsey Smith – Small Rubber Scale Models;
• Phil Ball – Cutting Ribs from Block on a Lathe;
• Trevor Grey – Radio Dethermalisers – the Policy;
• Chris Edge -Radio Dethermalisers – The Practicalities;
• Mike Woodhouse – A Day in the Life of a Team Manager.

Martin Dilly.