National Model Flying Centre

Not sure whether to laugh or cry!

Download the PDF for all the comments.

**LINK**

Edited By Cuban8 on 10/08/2014 10:15:57

Yes enlightening reading. I have to admit to not being a member - I really have no problem being one, but my club is not affiliated so membership is not a requirement.

I did look around - what was the definition of the "National Model Flying Centre" and what would we gain?

Lies, damned lies and statistics?

I particularly like the way Q4 is presented. A healthy majority of people "skipped" answering this, which presumably means they opted for no increase but looking at the graphical presentation gives the impression that the majority of the responding members supported a subscription increase of £5 - £10!

And nearly 4% wanted a £50 increase?!?!?

It felt to me that those members with an open mind but who were not prepared to indicate support for an unspecified idea were excluded.

Edited By Martin Harris on 10/08/2014 10:49:18

Well Martin, those 4% are at complete liberty to donate a further £50 on top of their current BMFA membership fees  now if they so wish......

A national model flying centre is an interesting concept, but in reality is probably not workable. For example, where would it be sited for a majority of BMFA members to benefit from it?

I'm sort of with Stevo here. What would be the tangible benefits?

Edited By Percy Verance on 10/08/2014 11:36:12

A pity that only just over 1800 members could be bothered to respond, and out of those, nearly three quarters were over 50 years of age (including me at 57!). Hardly a true representation of the membership, but if people don't get involved what can be done? Had to chuckle at one comment saying that "flying was expensive enough at £100 a year with club fees and BMFA"

Quite sad that many said that "just because I won't use it I'll vote against". If the site is centrally based, naturally many will be too far away to benefit at all, some may be only able to visit a couple of times a year (a good campsite could help here, and raise revenue from other visitors) but those within say an easy drive will be seen as winners.

In the case of 'the winners' I'd expect them to be charged a daily fee of around £10 or an annual sum rather like joining a club. If the facilities are that good, it's a small price to pay - wouldn't include me, unfortunately, as I'd be too far away, but would probably benefit from being able to stay with the caravan (for a charge of course).

As I said earlier C8, it's a nice idea but......

The fact is if the weather is nice enough to fly, most will fly at their respective club fields rather than drive miles to a national model flying centre. Sorry if it sounds like I'm putting a huge downer on the idea, but I simply feel that's the reality of it.

I do believe such things exist in the US, but they have a rather different take on many things.

£100 a year for BMFA including club fees is expensive? Jeez, good job he doesn't fly up here then. There's a club near me who charge £120 per year plus BMFA fees........ And you need to pass an entry interview before they'll let you join........

Edited By Percy Verance on 10/08/2014 12:06:01

I said no 3 times...

perhaps we could do our own pole on her..

Could not the bmfa host events in different parts of the entire country. It has regional delegates etc..etc..

We are seen by many outside the hobby as grown men playing with 'toy' aeroplanes, creating noise and nuisance, and very few are even aware that the BMFA exists. Competition for recreational space in some parts of the country, over-zealous 'elf 'n' safety rules, and the threat of terrorism, mean that minorities like us are likely to come under increasing pressure for control and regulation, or even being banned altogether by knee-jerk politicians who have no knowledge of, or wish to know, what we do and why we do it. Fanciful? Well, hand gun shooters never thought it could happen to them, until 'Tony couldn't see why anyone would want to own a hand gun' - so they were banned. Although a national model flying centre may not be a panacea, or the only answer, it would raise our profile and give us a focus to promote our hobby and fight off the sort of insanity we see in the modern, socialist desire for the state to control everything we do. I think a few quid on my annual membership fee for the BMFA could be money well spent.

my view is that it would be better to spend the money needed to fund a national Centre would be better spent on funding improvements to local clubs.

some clubs are losing their sites, why not fund the purchasing permanent fields from local councils.

or even set up county centres rather than one central one.

Edited By Tony Bennett on 10/08/2014 13:05:24

Good points PN but the outer reachs of the uk may be left to fend for themselves. I do think that the bmfa should be reaching out more to local clubs. There is no national movement against model flying but some clubs have been closed or moved to electric due to local backlash not screaming public headlines. It may be the slow drip, drip demise of clubs.

Local clubs must and should encourage local support among people. Nimby's can hardly raise a stink if they fly as well.

How about a poll on this site? National flying centre or county centres?

By coincidence, in a casual conversation just the other day, it was said that there had been some recent idle mutterings in the pilot’s lounge yet again about the National Model Flying Centre, and the word on the street now seems to indicate that it could at least most likely double the BMFA subscription.

Although I too am very suspicious that perhaps such news might not be best received in every quarter, either…

I also remember reading somewhere a while back that the average age of the BMFA membership was 60… … and rising…

PB

The bmfa survey highlighted by Cuban 8 at the top of the page confirms your suspicions PeterB. 47% that answered the survey were 61 and over.

Agreed - what an utterly depressing read.

Yes indeed, cymaz, I did see that, it’s what drew the remark. I’ve also just done a ‘best guess’ on our club, some ages I know, and trying to take a sensible estimate at the others. Excluding juniors I arrived at an average of 59.7; including the youngsters, whose ages I do know, reduced it to 56.5. It’s all in the same ballpark, as they say...

I seem to remember that once upon a time a ‘Centre of Excellence’ was being mooted, that was back during the time when Graham Lynn was the General Secretary, and that apparently didn’t even include a flying site; I seem to remember Graham comparing the situation then to a football club without a pitch..

I felt at the time that a much better idea would be to concentrate on local sites, but after I’d given it some consideration I soon thought better of that, too. Many folk seem to be quite happy to be members of a club which is largely influenced by the BMFA, with many seemingly incomprehensible rules and regulations, but I’m afraid that’s not really for me.

So just imagine a site actually controlled by the BMFA. Again, I’m sure there are are those that that would embrace this, but on a personal basis it’s something I’d definitely be steering well clear of; I’ve always been a SMAE / BMFA member, simply for the ‘safety in numbers‘ angle, but as in many cases, it can also have it’s drawbacks.

With regard to any / or protection afforded by the BMFA, I’m not quite sure how much influence they would be able to bring, however high their profile was. Not a million years ago, someone, (not me), was phoned by a policeman, wishing to discuss at length all about quadcopters and the like and their ability to potentially be used as weapons and so on; so the awareness is of course ever present. But I’m sure it will take some sort of trigger to start any actions in motion, though, let’s hope that is still way down the road a’piece…

PB

Interesting how statistics are (mis) used to make a point. There are around 36000 BMFA members and only 1728 members voted.

I've used the same statistics to make my own point. Here's my poll results:

Are you interested in a National Model Flying Centre?

Yes = 4.8% (1728)

No = 95.2% (34272)

Hardly a mandate for going ahead with the proposals.

Glad to see you discussing it, the figures they give don't reflect the feelings amongst our clubs members.

Doodsons are funding the survey...whats the best way to see what BMFA members think ? ASK them.

January 1st each year insurances are due, include a form for each member to complete and return, don't put a survey on a website few visit and call it representative. I don't see it raising our profile either, the locals will notice it few others will.

John

my view-it will be the masses paying for the minority.......who will use it-very few.....it'll cost more to get to it than to make it worth the trip-----and of course it will be at the southern end of the country...and if it was passed that the fee's went up to help pay for it would not that make all who contribute a shareholder? ........... fair enough air the idea and invite comments.........my opinion..

ken Anderson ... ne...1 ... no way dept.

I have to admit that my take on this topic is a bit different to most on here and other places I have seen it discussed. Sorry in advance for the coming rant but I really think there's a lot of short-term and selfish thinking out there...

Firstly, I get annoyed when I see all the comments saying that" it's too far away to benefit me so I don't want it."

I then laugh when I see all the threads on fora various about everyone getting excited about travelling to Barkston for the Nats or to the RCM&E Greenacres fly-in. There is undeniably an appetite out there for model flyers travelling to attend flying events. If these events happened to be held at the national flying site instead of on an RAF base then I think you would still attend?

Also, over the last 5/6 years I've travelled to fly-ins for electric models at various excellent venues all over England as well as more general events at Old Warden. The large numbers of attendees at events like this leads me to believe that many modellers ARE interested in travelling to events to meet friends old and new, see something different from the usual down at their club, buy special materials etc from traders and so on.

Perhaps what might not be so appetising is popping down to a National Flying site for 3 flights with their Sunday flyer, but to me that is no reason not to grab this opportunity with both hands.

I also note with interest the survey results show the largest cohorts of the age of modellers to be approaching, at, or past retirement age, with a dramatic fall-off in numbers towards the younger members. Lets assume that this is representative of the wider BMFA membership. That should be a huge worry for those concerned with the future of the hobby and in my opinion if we as a body of modellers do not secure a site for the future then our hobby may not last another three or four generations. Dramatic? possibly yes but what if I'm right?

One of the whole reasons I felt that a site like this was needed was to hold the Nationals on if the worst should happen with access to MoD property due to financial pressures etc. This has now come to pass and there's no immediate solution on the horizon.

I know that most will say they are not interested in competing themselves, but one of the reasons that the BMFA has tried to raise the profile and standard of the Nationals in recent years is that this is their shop window to show that our hobby is indeed a sport and is worthy of a place in the minds of government (national and local), the media, the military and the general public. If that opportunity disappears to showcase the best in one place then our hobby might fade from the collective conscience with disastrous results.