Do you actually take note of the magazine

[SRH990]

Maybe the BMFA committee's are lacking in young blood because few young people aren't interested in being on committees? I'm not involved in the BMFA at all but serve on a number of committees to do with fostering and education, these are also sadly lacking young blood - because young blood isn't interested in giving up their time or doesn't have time to give.

[kamikaze]

It seems to me that some old twonk can glue a prop,2ft of his wife's knicker elastic and a roll of smartprice greaseproof paper together,get it to fly 20ft and get more coverage than the masters winners. I tend to just look for safety bulletins and manual updates and then it's off to the bin.

[fatmantom]

mine heads straight for the bin.. would rather they offered cheaper joining fee's with no magazine and the option of paying extra for a magazine..

but otherwise i think bmfa is pretty fair..

[Kwickkwack]

Always browse through the magazine and read what catches my eye. As for the BMFA in general, like most organisations it isnt perfect but as in most organisations those who happily complain also wouldnt be prepared to make a difference.

[kevinh]

last issue off the magazine is on my front room table still in its plastic envelope which it arrived it.

sometimes i read it sometimes i dont not that fussed really

[Sesame]

Iv e so seldom found anything in there of interest to me that usually it ends up in the bin still in its plastic envelope.

Every now and then Ill open it and flick through but usually with the same result.

[Tom Burgess]

Maybe the BMFA committee's are lacking in young blood because few young people aren't interested in being on committees? I'm not involved in the BMFA at all but serve on a number of committees to do with fostering and education, these are also sadly lacking young blood - because young blood isn't interested in giving up their time or doesn't have time to give.

Nah, whan I was in school many years ago I remember being a member of a plank only club. I was kind of embarassed to say what I was doing at the weekend when asked, as I had been givin the impression by my peers that grumpy old gits fly toy planes.

Some of my mates today think I'm a geek for flying toy helicopters come to think of it!

That is the real problem, the stigma attached to the hobby and the BMFA do nothing to correct that. Going into cub scout groups and building "BMFA darts" is not the way to do it!

[Nicolasgreening]

I thumb through it when it comes and it is handy for events (not that I ever get to go to any) but that is about it...

[dandeman]

I think in the last one there was something about a club going to scouts or something, and bringing along a IC plane to look at, and they all built paper planes...
If people did this a bit more, maybe more children would get into the hobby?! Still though it is a lot of money... Might be better to go places like, army, sea, and air cadets, as there aged around 13-16! Bet theres 100's who would love to try it, but if you go into a hobby shop and look at a model kit for £150 you then told you need loads more things to buy, its a bit confusing. Maybe it is better to start with planes? A lot less setting up.

[trillian]

I pretty much always read it but not always as soon as it arrives.

I guess the question is, what is the breakdown of disciplines among the BMFA membership. If it is truly dominated by rubber power freeflight then it makes sense that the mag represents the membership.

But as for more heli stuff, it's probably just down to someone writing up a few articles with photos and submitting them. The writing needs to be competent obviously, with good coverage of an event or some other viable subject.

Perhaps we need to compose an article just about the thriving heli 'scene' and an appeal to members to write up artiles about their various events for the mag, 'not sure if such a thing would get published but if it's done well enough it might.

[waveydavey]

Why don't some of us write a few articles. Roundups of flyins etc. Maybe there is no heli content because there is no one writing it. It must be hard with a few pages to get across what you think the readership may like/want. Let them know if your that bothered and contribute. They do have the old planker stigma borne from the balsa and knicker elastic but there are some fantastic 3D plank flyers. Not my cup of tea planes but let's not fall down the criticise and not be prepared to do anything about it hole.

[MrKev]

@dandeman

I organised a 'scout' traing session last year. It was bloody hard work getting everything organised in the short space of time between getting the go-ahead from the scouts and the event itself, but that's a whole other story.

Myself and a team of dedicated club members, interestingly most of whom are primarily heli flyers took time out of there weekend to come and train interested young people - ages about 10-16 years to fly fixed wing models. We chose this for the shorter learning curve. We had 5000 scouts and guides attending the event, and managed to get between 100 and 150 of them a 5-10 minute go on a buddy box, and they all loved it.

What's my point? Well, we not only did this, to futher the hobby to the next generation, but I spent several hours after writing an article (ok, 200 words, but as asked for) for the BMFA and RCM&E magazine. I also sent what I deemed a selection of suitable photos of kids learning to fly. To be fair, the BMFA sent me a bunch of badges, 12 BMFA darts and about 200 copies of the BMFA rag. We gave away as much as we could, unsurprisingly, a lot of copies of the rag were left behind after, and we put about 50 in the bin and a further 100 in the recycling.

My events were not mentioned, the words I wrote not printed and the photos not used. So why should I feel motiviated to write more for the BMFA rag? I'm no journalist, so wouldn't expect the copy to be used as is, but I included plenty of info which could have been edited and used, and in my humble opinion quite relevant to the future of the hobby.

Finaly, @Mike W: The BMFA rag is not free, an awful lot of the annual budget gets spent on printing it.

[waveydavey]

That's a shame MrKev, you would think with that much effort you would have had some interest. I reckon bombard them with heli content and they won't be able to refuse

[Disc]

I wouldn't miss it if it wasn't offered

I'd take a cheaper BMFA Subs any day because little is worth reading BUT then it's down to people to send stuff to them!

It would just need to send a flyer out with updates for safety bulletins ?

IOh wait thats all on the websites anyway....

[MrKev]

Wrong Question?

Sorry Stuart, I don't know how to answer. I always open it as soon as I get chance after it arrives, usually get disappointed of course...

If there's something to read,I'll read it. I read the editorial, look to see if there's a chopper column, if so read it, but seldom find anything I want to read the other pages.

This months I've only read the editorial and the page headings on each page, and found nothing there that I want to read further. The insurance stuff looks like the same stuff that's been doing the rounds elsewhere, in other mags and websites recently anyway.

Kev