Rant! Club rules.

[Gate88]

You need to do what we did! At the AGM vote heli flyers on the commitee having been plank flyers we know their needs and ours, We have such a good relationship with the hardened plank gods some of the old duffers have purchased msr's

Same here!

When I joined my club there were only a couple of heli members, we were very much a minority & generally frowned upon. We had a rule that if you didnt have an A cert you had to be accompaied by someone who did. At the time we only had one heli A holder and if he wasnt there we werent supposed to fly, then the rule was changed slightly so that we could fly with a FW A cert holder next to us.

It soon became apparent that having an 80 year old gimmer that flies a 10 quid bit of balsa doesnt actually offer much in the way of guidance to someone hammering a 600n about, so this rule was soon overlooked. But in the interests of harmony we took our A certs anyway and proved that we actually knew a bit about what we were doing. They soon realized that heli pilots are a far more dedicated & committed bunch than their casual FW flyers, we are more careful/safety concious as we have £1000's of pounds in the air compared to someone with £20 quids worth of polystyrene.

In the past 9 months we have had 4 of us heli fliers elected onto an 8 man comittee and have a very pro heli chairman, so we get to make the rules now!

As a result all the new members of the club are heli pilots and things are going from strenght to strength.

In these modern times all of these mixed clubs have to accept helis in order to survive. Without us our club would have little or no turnout, a dwindling membership and no solid future. I think that 99.9% of our FW members agree now and there is no animosity between the camps other than good humoured banter.

[Tripler]

Sonds to me like the W**k flyers are a bunch of old Gitts
As has been said ,if your club is affiliated to the BMFA and a "proper" club
It has to have a commitiee with elected members
The minutes have to be available to club members at anytime.
Any rule change has to be propoesed and seconded.
Then put forward to the club members for approval at the AGM
If you don't have a heli flyer in the committee you will find this sort of thing goes on
Put yourself up for election to the committee,
You don't have to have A or B cert to do this, (in normal clubs)
If all the heli gus vote for you you're in a better position to confront problems.
BTW at our club you just need an A heli holding pilot to stand with you to fly on the patch,
A good club rule imo
Good luck

[Stuart]

I doubt you need 3 guesses to know the answer to that Stuart I will eat my humble pie if I'm wrong of course

I only ask as I'm led to understand that more claims for personal injury come from fixed wing than rotary. That being the case the fixed wing rule should be equally as draconian.

[Smoothound]

I only ask as I'm led to understand that more claims for personal injury come from fixed wing than rotary. That being the case the fixed wing rule should be equally as draconian.

Yeah I can believe that!

Sorry if my above post appeared to aim the at you, it wasn't meant that way, it was aimed at the club in question Just my poor emoticon useage

[ddracer]

Plank flyers can fly on the main field without an "A" but must have a person with a "A" standing beside them. They can use an suitable training craft (high or low wing) but can fly loops rolls stalls inverted whatever as well as practise for their "A".

Don't get me wrong the "A" and "B" are a great idea and I will do both. But come on lets have the same rules for both planks and heli's.

[Mark_T]

Don't get me wrong the "A" and "B" are a great idea and I will do both. But come on lets have the same rules for both planks and heli's.

Would it suit you if you did have exactly the same rule though?

Do you have anyone there with an 'A' who could stand beside you?

[ddracer]

Personally It would suit me down to the ground as we have to teach ourselves so learn bad habbits, whenever the "A" guys are there we pretty much jump on them for help and tips. LOL

The other side to that coin is we would never fly on the main field. I'm trying to organise some one to one training so I can get my "A". That way there will be an "A" pilot there on a regular basis and we can get the same rule for everyone.

[Mark_T]

It seems to me that in the light of now knowing the full rule for the fixed wing guys they have actually cut you some slack by not insisting on an 'A' person standing next to you when using the main field, but just limiting what you can do while you are there.

This may be a case where it is better to take what you've been given rather than argue for 'parity' which would pretty much stop you flying on the main field until you get the 'A'.

[ddracer]

So again this causes problems, So I'm ok to fly FFF and 3D with a "A" standing beside me like planks do? But we are getting off the point which was no where is this rule written or even explained, yet all of a sudden it appeares.

[Mike W]

I would ask to see the rule in writing and the minutes from the comittee meeting as pretty sure they can't just slide rules in without voting for them ??? .. One of my old clubs changed there rules to " no low passes with helis down the runway " now me being me I asked if this applied to planes as well and was told yes ... Well for certain reasons alot of us left the club and started our own . We dont have any rules on needing an A to fly solo as some people just dont want anything to do with the bmfa and certs which is fine with us.. order of the day at our club is have fun and be safe ...The people who founded the club also are mixed flyers both planes and heli's so nothing gets favouritism over the other and everyone is happy

[POLAR BEAR]

I think its sour grapes from a bunch of p*ss stinking old t*ssers that have nothing better to do!! If it comes to the crunch a heli is more often flown a lot closer to the pilot than a plank and how are you going to learn 8s and what not if you cant do more than hover on the hover patch?? Take a broken 600 blade and shove it up the whining TW*TS ARSE!! And no im not a plank basher as I try to fly them too!!
Kev.

[Mark_T]

So again this causes problems, So I'm ok to fly FFF and 3D with a "A" standing beside me like planks do? But we are getting off the point which was no where is this rule written or even explained, yet all of a sudden it appeares.

I think the point I'm trying to get across is to be careful what you ask for as you might get it.

I can very easily see one of the fixed wing flyers or the safety officer pointing out that you are being allowed to fly on the main field without an A and without anyone standing beside you which fixed wing would not be allowed to do.

Someone displayed a resonable approach by noticing that an exact match of the fixed wing rule wouldn't work very well due to a lack of 'A' heli pilots most of the time and instead of hitting you with an mirror of the rule just asked you to limit yourself to simple stuff until you do get an 'A'.

Sure, you can go all 'legal' on them and ask for copies of the minutes etc. but it seems to me that you've actually got a more favourable situation now than if you were a fixed wing flyer so do you really want to push the point and perhaps have them fall back on the exact same rule for heli's and fixed wing which would be more locigcal, but very much to your detriment?

[Mark_T]

...and how are you going to learn 8s and what not if you cant do more than hover on the hover patch??

Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant

They seem to be perfectly happy with him flying 8s on the main field it is just the early signs of 3D which are getting them nervous before he gets his 'A'.

[ddracer]

Good point but its not just 3d its circuits as well whats safer 8's at 6' high and say 10' at its closest point to you, or flying a circuit at 30' up with plenty of room for mistakes? Even with a plank you fly circuits before 8's.

As said before if the hover patch was big enough for 8's the problem would be gone we could get our "A" first, but when we suggested that (Even used google map pictures and red marker, very profesional.) we were told no.


Can I also add this is not a heli v plank thing as i'm also an instructor for planks at our club..

[Si_B]

If it's not in your club rules, I would challenge it. If he sticks to his guns, I'd be looking for a refund of my fee's.

Was this idea put to a vote ??.

As said previously, I'd be looking for another club.