So I had decided to embark on a new hobby, but where did I start? I visited my local model shop and after some amiable banter, I was provided with a contact name for Ramsey MAC, having been reliably informed that this was the Club to be a member of. Telephone number clutched tightly in hand, I headed home to make that all-important “first contact”. After a call to the Club secretary, he suggested that I came along to the AGM (2005) to find out whether aero modelling and the Club were for me. The decision was an easy one to make and I suddenly found myself parting with my hard earned cash to join…. my life-changing journey had begun!
Not long afterwards, I received my shiny new membership card and within a few weeks I received my BMFA membership card to add to this.
Having joined the Club at the start of the year and discovered that the Club training programme didn’t start until later in the year when the weather improved, I thought it prudent to purchase my first aircraft. I have always been a keen modeller and thought that a nice traditional kit would be very satisfying to build. So I ordered a Junior 60 kit from Ben Buckle kits, and few days later a large box arrived!
Building a kit can be very slow and if you want to get in the air quickly then an ARTF model is a good solution, a subject that I will return to later. After several weeks of diligent construction, I started to see something that resembled an airworthy aeroplane and decided it was time to contact the Training Officer of the Club. He suggested that I attended one of the training sessions that are currently held on Sunday mornings and Wednesday afternoons so that I could have a go with one of the Club training aircraft. Sunday morning arrived, a little cold but bright. I arrived at the airfield ready for my first flight! After making contact with the Club Training Officer, I was shown around the aircraft with a guide to what sticks do what. The instructor then handed me a transmitter that was connected via the buddy box system to his own transmitter. After a short walk to the Tardis we were ready for take-off .The instructor got the aircraft to a safe height and then passed control to me. This is when things started to go wrong - for some reason my frantic waggling of sticks was having no effect on the aircraft! The instructor took control again and landed the aircraft for further investigation, and we discovered that the buddy system had an intermittent connection problem. So we decided to try without, once again the instructor getting the aircraft to a safe height and then passing the controller to me - wow! After a few circuits it was time to pass the transmitter back to the instructor and allow him to land. So that was it, I was hooked and needed to get my model finished so that I could fly my own aircraft.
This is where I revisit the subject of ARTF. I had a model but not finished and I didn’t want to rush it, so I made a decision to purchase a Ready 2; this was the same aircraft that
I had flown that belonged to the Club. A couple of days later I visited my local shop and exchanged some more of that hard earned cash for a large box, and those extra essential parts that make it, fly such as an engine, servos etc. I already owned a transmitter so I had everything that I needed. I would say that it took me a week of evenings to assemble the model and a day to spray it yellow. So it was ‘Ready’ for the next Sunday morning’s flying.