[ClubSpecial]

Being a bit lost for a project or main interest lately I got a bit keen on the idea of model flying, the only aspect of the game I've never really been into.

Then I got to see how much they charge for membership!!

There wasn't one under 80-odd quid a year, some of those were PLUS BMFA membership for insurance at £29 a year. So you could be spending more than a radio gear set or a smaller engine every year for the use of a bit of grass somewhere!

Model boat clubs aren't far behind, either.

Then I added up what a keen slot car member would be paying and even at a fiver a week, that's £240 a year for a 48 week year!!!!

No wonder the general direction of model making is downwards.
I guess the guy who spends £2000 on a gas turbine engine and upwards from £700 for the aeroplane isn't bothered by £80 for membership, but if, like me you fancy a bit of sport flying with something you've made and using stuff that's around the shed, it becomes untenable, as does slot racing on a regular basis.
Another nail in the hobby's coffin, I dare say.

I won't be pootling round the sky with my Tiger Moth too soon!

Martin

 

[ClubSpecial]

I make everything and still couldn't afford it!
Obviously if you're on a nice pension, fair enough, but many youngsters and older people aren't able to justify the costs.

We do have a home track which one day we'll finish! That cost very little and both my son and I make almost everything and buy motors and such on the cheap.

Fuel costs are the killers now. Even at 50 mpg from my wee 850cc van I couldn't justify the travelling on a regular basis and would never buy RTR "because I had to" anyway!

I'm not complaining, just observing. I would indeed find a field and fly there till somebody got the hump, then move on.

I can do that with model boats too as we're surrounded by useful bodies of water. And I will NOT pay for insurance for a bloomin' model boat. How am I going to kill you with a Keilkraft Sea Urchin or a handmade Victorian yacht? What tosh.
Aircraft, that's different, They are seriously dangerous potentially, but I think £29 for annual insurance is a rip-off. It used to be very cheap when it was MAP insurance, now it's BMFA which seems to have replaced the SMAE somewhere along the line.

Maybe I'm lucky. Not being very gregarious, I can do without the company of others, but it would be nice now and then to chat with like souls. It's just that anyone who pays out that much for club membership isn't really a like soul!

I shall probably get just as much fun flying the chuck glider I made this evening for the 4 year old Grandson. Cost 38p in balsa as far as I can calculate and the plans came from a 52 year old Eagle Book of Balsa Models I've had since new.
Tomorrow the neighbour's barley will get a wee bit of trample!

Thanks for the responses, guys.

Martin