The Midland Area committee represents the BMFA members and clubs in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, West Midlands and parts of Lincolnshire, Warwickshire Worcestershire. The area committee is your conduit to the BMFA on a national level. Each area club automatically has a place on the area committee and we strongly recommend all clubs to send a delegate to area meetings.
Midland open Day 2023
The increasingly popular BMFA Midland Area Annual Fly In was held at the BMFA National Flying Centre in Buckminster on Sunday 9th July 2023. While the weather forecast was supposed to be cloudy, breezy and mild all day, around midday the sun shone and the temperature rose creating a perfect flying day. Although the wind was blowing across the runway, it wasn’t strong enough to cause issues – apart form a sudden whirlwind that lifted gazebos and a plane or two. We had flight lines for Fixed Wing, Helicopter, two Control Line (C/L) grass circles and Discus Launch Glider (DLG). Fifty pilots were in attendance from eighteen different clubs within the Midland Area.
Pilots briefing got underway at 09:45 and the first aircraft to commit aviation took off around 10:00. The flight line and C/L circles were busy all day with a constant stream of pilots enjoying their flying at a fantastic location. Yet again, a vast variety of different models took to the skies:
large assortment of foamies including flying wings, sport and scale EDF, 3D machines, Riots and WOT4s; and a selection of fun fly, scale, vintage, warbirds, pattern ships, gliders and even a little free flight model powered by an even littler RedFin engine. It was great to see some Flair Scout models on the flight line including an Atilla, two Magnatilla and a Hannibal. They were all flown brilliantly! I wonder if a small squadron of Flair Scouts could form next year… That would be a sight worth seeing.
Fascination and intrigue swept over most of the flight line when the DLGs were launched. A quick twist and up they went 50 ft and higher. Strong lift was found plenty of times and at one point the 1.5 metre wingspan gliders were almost miniatures in the air. But the conditions of the day meant that strong sink soon followed.
We had an increased number of C/L pilots in attendance this year, which was fantastic! We had aimed to run a Retro Aerobatic Competition, but sadly there weren’t quite enough flyers to make it viable. However, the two circles in operation were busy all day with a great variety of retro aerobatic model designs.
Once again, we had a full line up of fantastic raffle prizes this year including: a RealFlight flight sim, two plane kits, RTF Helicopter, 4 gallons of glow fuel, two Lipo batteries, two puzzles and a catapult glider. A special mention to Masons Models for organising these prizes and a big thanks to J Perkins, Optifuel, Optipower, Logic RC, Elite Workwear and Masons Models for supplying the wonderful prizes and supporting the Midland Area.
The success of this event is building year on year and we are continually seeing more and more people come through the gates for this event. Everyone fully enjoys their time at the Midland Area Annual Fly In, and we always get excellent feedback from attendees and it’s all free. So why not come along next year and take part in the fun, you won’t regret it.
Midland Open Day 2022
Midland Open Day 2022 7th July at Buckminster
Midland area Open Day 11th July 2021 Photos
2021 Midland Open day
A Grand (Midlands) Day Out
Finally after the enforced Covid break we’re back in event action. It was great to be able to welcome Midland Area Club members to Buckminster for a free to members fly in. All that was needed to get in was to show your Mids Area club membership card, then attempt to negotiate our Area Treasurer Alf without buying some raffle tickets. Good luck with that! Big thanks to Alf for donating the star raffle prize of a Fox Eagle 60.
With a decent forecast members turned up from 16 Midland clubs, mostly FW flyers with a few heli guys enjoying their own flight line at our superb Buckminster field. Our only real disappointment was the lack of any Mids area control line flyers turning up after Manny had made a real effort to accommodate a couple of CL circles at the same time as FW and helis.
After a pilot briefing the new to Buckminster visitors had a walk round the site before flying got underway at 10. From then on it was pretty much non stop with planes ranging from small foam trainers through EDF, twin rotor gyrocopter to big 3d petrol jobs. Apart from a couple of minor mechanicals there were no hard ground/plane interface moments so no need for bin liners so that was a bonus. With a quick lunch break to ‘meet the committee’ and see if anyone had any pressing issues for discussion or inclusion in our next AGM towards the end of the year, flying carried on all afternoon until close of play.
So to sum up, a great day out for the Mids Area members who came along. An even better one for the heli guy who took and passed his A test at the end of the day.
Thanks from the Committee to all those who attended, we’ll be doing it all again next year.
Thanks to our sponsors Optipower and Elite Workwear for their support
