Is it Biased

[SRH990]

Yes, the BMFA is very biased towards fixed wing but how do the percentages of each discipline stack up? I'd expect a bias towards fixed wing as the largest percentage of membership are fixed wing flyers - maybe we should be looking at some sort of proportional representation

[Stuart]

Yes, the BMFA is very biased towards fixed wing but how do the percentages of each discipline stack up? I'd expect a bias towards fixed wing as the largest percentage of membership are fixed wing flyers - maybe we should be looking at some sort of proportional representation

Every club has to give to the BMFA the order of preference for the disciplines flown at thier field.

If you do the no's which I did and took me ages to grab the info from the BMFA site - heli's as a discipline covers over aprox 30% of all the club's preferences throughout the member club's.

[SRH990]

I'm surprised it's so large, then again heli's have been growing faster than fixed wing which seems to be pretty stagnated at the moment.

[Mike W]

The clubs I was a member of where biased towards fix wing and one time me and a m8e went up with 2 helis at the same time , you could the see the look of the plane only fliers when we both started to fly around together , it was one of shock .. or awe as they never seen it happen before lol ... TBH Unless we get new blood in the BMFA to see to the heli/younger fliers , then I think it will stay the same ...

[SRH990]

If heli flying is now such a large discipline how about a heli only national body? I appreciate we have the AHA but this has a fairly narrow focus. Of course, another option is to get the heli flyers together to vote heli flyers onto the committee

[xygax]

It would seem that the olde boys club for areonautical entertainment in gods waiting room has formed a club.... and reluctanly condecends to let us futureistic modernists persuant of the rotary wing subsidise their entertainment fund by selling (all be it reluctantly) insurance.....

But by way of some compensation they make available a tabloid to coax us into the same state when eyesight fails and parkinsons takes over (Told you i could crack) to the large model assiocation that can lumber around the skys but be visable to all....

Mumbleings of an aged biker

Steve....

[Disc]

Of course the BMFA is biased there's more Plane flyers than anything else,

the only way to change anything is put yourself forward and try to make the changes from within....

bit like politics..... Which is a nasty thing to be in

[Mikee]

Sadly BMFA run by Plankers for their exclusive club The w*****s flyin section

[Mikee]

Biased ??? Do wild bears shit in the woods

[Steve]

As far as I'm aware, the people who write articles for the BMFA mag do it for free. It seems to me that either (a) only one person (i.e. Nigel Fraser Kerr) can be bothered to write well balanced, literary columns for the magazine and in his writing he tries to strike a fair balance between sport, 3D and FAI flying in the limited space he has to use, or is prepared to subscribe to, or (b) maybe many people write articles but the BMFA editorial team are only prepared to consider Nigel's texts for publication.

I suppose if the heli fraternity represents 30% of flying aircraft hobbyists then we might expect that 3 pages out of 10 be dedicated to helis, and then those 3 pages should give equal weighting to 3D, scale, FAI, sport, lecky, nitro, indoor, outdoor etc etc. Equally the other 7 pages of planes have to equally cover sport, scale, free flight, pylon racing, slope soaring, thermal gliding, control line, FAI aerobatics etc etc.

To say control line is in a minority doesn't sound right to me. I've never done it, but there's always loads of circles at the Nats which suggests to me that it's a popular and inexpensive side to the hobby. Are helis stuck in the corner or the field at Barkston Heath? Well no actually - they're usually right in the middle of the airfield. If you want to find a discipline out on the fringe then go and try and find the pylon racers (they are tucked away at the furthest corner from the entrance) or the scale plane aerobatics (who are on the opposite side of the main runway and have their own separate entrance to the field and you can't even walk over there to spectate from the main field), or the silent flight who are a few miles away all together on a completely separate field.

I suppose a fair comment regarding the BMFA's support of heli flying would be that they don't really promote or support 3D flying, with the nationals being an obvious example, but then they don't do that for the planes either. And if you want to enter a scale heli into the competition, I'm sure you could do so in with the planes, as let's face it, a scale model is a scale model regardless of whether it's a plane or a heli.

[fatmantom]

i agree.. it is biased

but i think it should be

stuart whats brung on all these BMFA polls!?

cheers,

[SimonV6]

we need to know what percentage of heli pilots there are to Fixed wing, to know how biased to really is though

[Steve]

whats brung on all these BMFA polls!?

Stuart's a mole......







.. and he's moleing.

[Stuart]

The unwritten understanding is that the heli content is aprox 10 to 15%. However, the BMFA is extremely poor in actually gathering data on its members in such detail.

It stemed from me looking to host an event, asking the BMFA for assistance. Getting just about nil help other than a couple of BMFA committee members - pointing me to others in the BMFA but even some of those proved as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

You'll not believe the phone calls, attitude, non responding e-mails, zero acknowledgement of letter even after 4mths.

So all this led to ask myself what do I pay for ??

Now I'll take an acceptance of the issue of 2.4ghz - protecting our interests but only for a small portion of my £28.00 what's happening with the rest to benefit our interest within the bigger picture.

So far I personally see absolutely minimal return for what I pay. I want to see pro-active marketing, sponsoring major heli events, getting the kids into it, spreading the whole hobby absolutley shed loads going on every year.

This got me thinking, we keep saying we aren't impressed, but we never have the tangible evidence. So this is why I want to see from the polls am I the only one or do more feel the same.

[Stuart]

Stuart's a mole......







.. and he's moleing.

Oh heck I've been rumbled!!

The BMFA would be running at 110mph if I anything to do with it.....but to be frank its pointless trying to change the BMFA. Too many old sayings of dogs / spot's you name it.