Tonbridge Radio Flyers

 

Email Newsletter from Alastair Ramsay

No: 7/07 – 8th August 2007   

Club Website: - Tonbridge-flyers.co.uk

 

 

Hello fellow flyers,

 

I have not contacted you for two months because I wanted to wait for the bad flying weather of June and July to pass.  That appears to have happened while I was on holiday last week, but the better weather has now been spoiled by the outbreak of foot & mouth disease which will impact our flying in the immediate future.

 

Please be advised that, as of this morning (8^th August), access to Leigh Park Farm has been closed.  We will be unable to fly on the farm until further notice.  The better news is that Mr Bastable, the farmer, has suggested we use the alternative field which I described to you in my last Newsletter (6/07).  Until further notice, will you please use that field on normal club flying days.  The directions and map of this alternative site were given in Newsletter 6/07 which is still available on the club website under “News Updates" No: 6/07. Some members flew there this morning and found it good for electric flight and promising for bungee launching, especially if the wind is from the south or north.  I have obtained agreement from the farmer to retrieve the club bungee from our box in the oast house and plan to keep it in my car until we can return to Leigh Park Farm.

 

Our webmaster, Ken Dean, is going to place a notice on the home page of the website, regarding the closure of farm access.  This will be updated as soon as there is any change in the access situation so I would ask you to check the website before coming flying.  In the meantime please come and try the alternative field, which we are able to use because it never has farm animals on it.

 

The foot & mouth outbreak has also caused cancellation of the Kent Interclub event scheduled for this coming Sunday, 12^th August at Sheppey (hosted by Bromley).

 

As mentioned earlier, the poor weather in June/July caused cancellation of the scheduled Open/Interclub competitions with the exception of the Gravesend Open and our own Tonbridge Open on 29^th July.

 

In the Gravesend event our members featured in the top 7 places with Shane Alce in 4^th, Alan Twine 5^th and Phil Ramsey 6^th.  Congratulations to each of them!

 

We were slightly less successful in our own Open at Leigh Park Farm on 29^th July but, Chris Foss was 4^th, Peter Sainsbury 6^th, Shane Alce 8^th and Keith Fisher 12^th.

 

For those of you hungry for detail I will forward the full results for posting on the website.

 

We have several new members that have joined the silent flight section in recent months.  What a pity that the weather and now Foot & Mouth has blighted their introduction to the club.  Nevertheless, we welcome them to the club and hope that conditions return to normal for them to start flying soon.  The new members are:

 

Peter Landman, Alan Landman, Alan Parker, Paul Warren and Colin Owen.

 

One more bit of news on the competition front is that the Kent Cup, scheduled for 7^th October at Sheppey, will not require entrants to have competed in one or more of the Kent Interclub competions this summer.  This is for the obvious reason that most such events have had to be cancelled due to weather and now foot & mouth.  Let us hope that flying will be possible again at Sheppey before October.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this occasion.  I hope the news will be better by the time my next Newsletter is due.

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair Ramsay - Secretary, Silent Flight Section - TRF

(Email: AandJRamsay@aol.com – tel: 01892 534532)