Shane Fielders life of Model Flying.

I have been flying model planes for just over a year, I always wanted to
take up this hobby in the past but never really had the money. So when my
job moved me to Stratford I met up with Mark Averill who had been flying for
a few years on and off, after chatting to him about my interest in flying
models, we decided to start.

We both went on the internet (at work of course) to find a model shop that
did mail order, after looking at many sites we found Addlestone models, who
at the time had the best deal on a training aircraft and all the bits, The
model was a VMAR Challenger which is a good little trainer ( This model is
now the Lea Valley Model Flying Club trainer) with a few repairs.

After a week of building the model was ready to fly, but being safety
conscious I wanted to take it somewhere where people were already flying,
but I was not sure where to go, so Mark piped up and said " lets go to
Wormwood Scrubs" so off we went. When we arrived there was nobody there, so
we waited (about 3 hours) then round the corner came this bloke with what I
regarded as a huge plane (later I found out it was a Giles 202 120 size),
this guy put fuel in the Giles a took it up, Wow what a performance. By this
time a few more people had turned up so I started chatting to them, they
told me that he was Paul Skinner the current UK National Fun Fly Champion,
so I thought that's who is going to sort my plane out.

When he had landed I approached him and asked him if he would check over my
plane then fly it for me, which he very kindly did and the plane flew very
well according to Paul, so then he asked me if I wanted to have a go, I
re-fuelled the plane started up, got connected to a buddy lead and Paul took
off, he did a couple of circuits then said "you've got it" and I was flying,
to Paul's and my shock I took to flying very well, Paul didn't take the
controls back until it was time to land, I flew round doing left and right
hand turns, then Paul told me to do a loop, so I did, with the wings level I
pulled back on the stick and the plane went up and over, it was not the
perfect loop but I managed it, after about 15-20 minutes the plane started
coughing so Paul took back the controls and landed the plane under dead
stick, I thanked Paul for his time, from this moment forward I was hooked on
model flying.

When I got home I told the wife of my day and she showed some enthusiasm but
not much, at this point I started looking around for a local club, There
were a few, but they didn't appeal to me, so I stated looking further a field,
whilst at work I had to go to MY Hobbies in Leytonstone to get some fuel,
and they told me about the Lea Valley Model Flying Club, so the same week on
the Wednesday I took my plane to work, at about 16.30 I made my way to the
field, I was greeted very well by Tony Madrugo who took me up (On buddy lead
of course). I stayed at the field until about 19.30 I wanted to stay longer
but all the lads at the field were going to the clubs monthly meeting, but I
was back the following Saturday where I joined the club, and had my first
solo flight.


I a now the Club secretary for The LVMFC and have a few more models which
include, a Giles 202 120 size with an OS 91 FX up front, a Swallow with the
same engine as the Giles, a P51 Miss America Mustang and an SAS Venom for
slope soaring.

I hope you have enjoyed my article. If you are interested in talking to me
about flying or joining the club I can be contacted by E-Mail at
spfield1@ctrl.co.uk or by phone 01622 754559 or mobile 07929 635220.




Hows that Rob. (Superb thanks Shane)