I have read many posts about people who don't want to join a club for one
reason or another. In my opinion, it is the people as much as the planes
that have made this a wonderful experience for me. I have made many new
friends. Yes, the club has restricted me in a few areas but they have
expanded my experience so much in others that, the few restrictions are well
worth it. I am way ahead with the club.
There are safety reasons, for joining a club, insurance reasons, instruction
reasons and all sorts of other excellent reasons to join a club, but the
main one is fun. The club has made a very enjoyable experience more fun
than I could ever have imagined. If you had a bad club experience, try a
different club!
Very often clubs pool their resources to buy equipment that they all share.
While you can fly almost any sailplane, up to about 4 meters, off a
hi-start, many clubs will pool their money and buy one or more winches. Our
club has 4. This give you the option of learning a new launching system and
perhaps finding you want to move to a different class of plane because the
winch is there.
Club members often sell, swap or sometimes just give equipment to other club
members. I have received 4 planes from other club members. They were
planes they just didn't fly anymore. One had been crashed and he was never
going to fix it, so he gave it to me. After several months work and
learning new skills around fixing fiberglass I now have a 3.6M scale
sailplane that I aerotow.
In turn I have given away 3 planes, a radio and other items. It is just
the nature of a group of people who come to like one another and want to
help each other. You get great advice and help with perplexing problems.
You get to see a lot of different planes fly which can help you select your
next plane.
If you are new to the hobby, I strongly suggest you seek out the clubs in
your area. If you would like to see if there are clubs in your area, visit
this link. Remember that the address shown for the club is usually NOT the
flying field, but a member's house. In the case of our club, they are
probably 20 miles apart.
http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubmain.asp
For other countries, use this link:
http://www.fai.org/fai_members/addresses.asp
Again, the address given at the link is most likely NOT the location
of the flying field but someone's home. So you have to contact them to ask
where the field is located.
Do this even if you are not going to join the club. If you are close enough
to the club field, you could run into radio interference from the club field
which could result in the crashing of your plane, or the crashing of one of
theirs. Unless you are using a Spektrum DX6, you have to take channel
control into account or crashes can result.
How close is too close?
If you are using a RTF model with a 27 MHz radio, if you are within 1/2 mile
of the club field you might interfere with one of their members flying a
27 MHz plane. If you are using 72 MHz equipment, then you could interfere
with each other at more than a mile away. This is the reason that the AMA
recommends at least 3 miles between club fields, so that they won't
interfere with each other.
When you contact the club, get the field location, stop in and chat with the
members. There is probably a club in your area that is made up of people
who share your interests and who would richen your flying experience.
Want to have more fun? Join a club!
Clear skies and safe flying!
Best regards,
Ed Anderson
aeajr on the forums
Long Island Silent Flyers |
Why join a club?
Forum Locked
Posted - 08/31/2006 : 6:43:23 PM
