Post by Modelman on Apr 19, 2005 23:55:48 GMT
Beginnings of 'The West Essex Club'.
(Based on an article by founder member, the late and much missed Sid Sutherland)
West Essex Aeromodellers is one of the UK's oldest model flying clubs being founded in 1947 by the amalgamation of several smaller pre-war groups in the area to the East of London. These clubs were kept going during 1939-45 mainly by the junior members as most of the seniors (older teenagers really!) were away serving in the RAF or Fleet Air Arm.......but that's another story.
During the hostilities, no power model flying was allowed in this country, so we kept up to date with modelling by reading the well thumbed copies of Model Airplane News brought to the UK by our American Forces colleagues. To see those petrol (gas) engine adverts for Ohlson, Bunch, Denny Mites etc. was to us a dream world. Our flying activities in the UK were of course confined to gliders and free flight rubber power, (when we could get the rubber).
When the West Essex club was formed in 1947, control line (U-Control) was introduced to us by one of our members, Ron Moulton, who went on to become a very well respected Aeromodelling writer and publisher. Those were also the early pioneer days of radio control with single channel in this country. Around this time, our members had considerable success at our national contests in radio and class A and B control line team racing. With the advent of reed radios (mainly imported from the USA), closely followed by proportional equipment, our hobby and the club took a giant leap forward.
Some archive cine footage from over fifty years ago. Although considerable advances in miniature electronics mainly through the availability and low cost of transistors in the 1960s gave us true electronic proportional control of model aircraft, R/C could occasionally be hit and miss and prone to radio interference and unreliability. Equipment was constructed from a multitude of individual components so still tended to be quite physically large and this continued to be the case until affordable integrated circuits became available to consumer products in the 70s and 80s. In comparison, modern technology means that a complete receiver system's electronics can be constructed within the area of a postage stamp!
The cost of radio gear remained very expensive and out of the reach of many, except for very basic sets which were still the equivalent in today's prices of several weeks wages for ordinary folk. Gear tended to be swapped between models because of the high cost of purchasing extra receivers and actuators. Older and cheaper technology that relied on clever electromechanical devices to give a limited form of multi-channel control carried on for a while, but was eventually replaced by newer, cheaper and more reliable equipment, in particular from the growing Japanese brands with their more global outlook.
The next decade towards the 1980s saw the price of equipment fall even further, with high reliabilty and simple plug together systems making installations easier for the non-technical. Sadly, a combination of a lack of investment, outdated designs and an unwillingness to change, allowed the competition from forward looking Far Eastern factories to put most mainstream British and American producers of R/C out of business, or for those remaining, to only offer products that were imported and badged with their name. A situation that wasn't unique to the hobby radio control industry, it must be said.
The dedicated 35MHz band for model aircraft which came along in the 80s, solved many of the interference issues that could affect all brands of radio and was mostly caused by the then new CB radio craze in the UK, which could swamp the old 27MHz band.
Moreover, 27MHz was a shared user frequency so there was always the danger of nearby and unseen model boats, cars or toys causing havoc with model aircraft. Later 27 and all 35 gear relied on spot frequencies within their bands, so although several models could be flown together, only one model on a particular spot frequency could operate locally at a time. Crystals could be either single or dual conversion types, which could lead to confusion.
Channels could be changed by swapping frequency control crystals in both transmitter and receiver. Crystals were fragile and easily damaged by rough handling and it was possible to mis-label or confuse which crystal was which if not very careful. This all required a frequency control system and regular operating checks for range and adjacent channel interference at flying fields, plus the ubiquitous 'peg board' (colours for 27MHz and numbers for 35MHz - notice the 27MHz colour flags and pegs on transmitters in the film) to prevent flyers from 'shooting each other down'. All not 100% reliable, it must be said. Model boat users, model cars and other model surface vehicles eventually gained their own 40Mhz band.
2.4GHz radio is almost universal now with reliable and affordable starter and mid range equipment up to highly sophisticated professional gear, and all having none of the frequency clash problems of earlier times making 'pegboards' redundant. Modern gear with software driven frequency hopping technology has the potential for dozens of systems to work perfectly happily alongside each other. The 27 and 35 meg frequencies still remain available and legal but are only used by a very small number of modellers who keep their old systems going while they can, particularly for models designed for early radio gear.
Today's West Essex Aeromodellers
2022 is our 75th year of operation and West Essex Aeromodellers has at present around 80 members. (unfortunately, at the moment we are unable to accept new members wishing to fly models with IC engines larger than 65cc, gas turbines, helicopters or multi-rotor drones).
Many categories of models are operated from the small and very specialist types requiring micro radio equipment to fine large-scale aircraft built to national competition standards. Single rotor Autogyros are another field of interest and a number of members have had great success with these machines that are far from easy to fly, requiring a skill set of part fixed wing and part helicopter experience! A few members have entered the world of FPV (first person view)and pilot their models from the ground via a live video link from the model's cockpit.
A number of social 'fly-in' type events are held for members and families throughout the summer months and are always popular. Members receive regular news updates via Email. Our club membership year runs from January 1st to December 31st.
(Based on an article by founder member, the late and much missed Sid Sutherland)
West Essex Aeromodellers is one of the UK's oldest model flying clubs being founded in 1947 by the amalgamation of several smaller pre-war groups in the area to the East of London. These clubs were kept going during 1939-45 mainly by the junior members as most of the seniors (older teenagers really!) were away serving in the RAF or Fleet Air Arm.......but that's another story.
During the hostilities, no power model flying was allowed in this country, so we kept up to date with modelling by reading the well thumbed copies of Model Airplane News brought to the UK by our American Forces colleagues. To see those petrol (gas) engine adverts for Ohlson, Bunch, Denny Mites etc. was to us a dream world. Our flying activities in the UK were of course confined to gliders and free flight rubber power, (when we could get the rubber).
When the West Essex club was formed in 1947, control line (U-Control) was introduced to us by one of our members, Ron Moulton, who went on to become a very well respected Aeromodelling writer and publisher. Those were also the early pioneer days of radio control with single channel in this country. Around this time, our members had considerable success at our national contests in radio and class A and B control line team racing. With the advent of reed radios (mainly imported from the USA), closely followed by proportional equipment, our hobby and the club took a giant leap forward.
Some archive cine footage from over fifty years ago. Although considerable advances in miniature electronics mainly through the availability and low cost of transistors in the 1960s gave us true electronic proportional control of model aircraft, R/C could occasionally be hit and miss and prone to radio interference and unreliability. Equipment was constructed from a multitude of individual components so still tended to be quite physically large and this continued to be the case until affordable integrated circuits became available to consumer products in the 70s and 80s. In comparison, modern technology means that a complete receiver system's electronics can be constructed within the area of a postage stamp!
The cost of radio gear remained very expensive and out of the reach of many, except for very basic sets which were still the equivalent in today's prices of several weeks wages for ordinary folk. Gear tended to be swapped between models because of the high cost of purchasing extra receivers and actuators. Older and cheaper technology that relied on clever electromechanical devices to give a limited form of multi-channel control carried on for a while, but was eventually replaced by newer, cheaper and more reliable equipment, in particular from the growing Japanese brands with their more global outlook.
The next decade towards the 1980s saw the price of equipment fall even further, with high reliabilty and simple plug together systems making installations easier for the non-technical. Sadly, a combination of a lack of investment, outdated designs and an unwillingness to change, allowed the competition from forward looking Far Eastern factories to put most mainstream British and American producers of R/C out of business, or for those remaining, to only offer products that were imported and badged with their name. A situation that wasn't unique to the hobby radio control industry, it must be said.
The dedicated 35MHz band for model aircraft which came along in the 80s, solved many of the interference issues that could affect all brands of radio and was mostly caused by the then new CB radio craze in the UK, which could swamp the old 27MHz band.
Moreover, 27MHz was a shared user frequency so there was always the danger of nearby and unseen model boats, cars or toys causing havoc with model aircraft. Later 27 and all 35 gear relied on spot frequencies within their bands, so although several models could be flown together, only one model on a particular spot frequency could operate locally at a time. Crystals could be either single or dual conversion types, which could lead to confusion.
Channels could be changed by swapping frequency control crystals in both transmitter and receiver. Crystals were fragile and easily damaged by rough handling and it was possible to mis-label or confuse which crystal was which if not very careful. This all required a frequency control system and regular operating checks for range and adjacent channel interference at flying fields, plus the ubiquitous 'peg board' (colours for 27MHz and numbers for 35MHz - notice the 27MHz colour flags and pegs on transmitters in the film) to prevent flyers from 'shooting each other down'. All not 100% reliable, it must be said. Model boat users, model cars and other model surface vehicles eventually gained their own 40Mhz band.
2.4GHz radio is almost universal now with reliable and affordable starter and mid range equipment up to highly sophisticated professional gear, and all having none of the frequency clash problems of earlier times making 'pegboards' redundant. Modern gear with software driven frequency hopping technology has the potential for dozens of systems to work perfectly happily alongside each other. The 27 and 35 meg frequencies still remain available and legal but are only used by a very small number of modellers who keep their old systems going while they can, particularly for models designed for early radio gear.
Today's West Essex Aeromodellers
2022 is our 75th year of operation and West Essex Aeromodellers has at present around 80 members. (unfortunately, at the moment we are unable to accept new members wishing to fly models with IC engines larger than 65cc, gas turbines, helicopters or multi-rotor drones).
Many categories of models are operated from the small and very specialist types requiring micro radio equipment to fine large-scale aircraft built to national competition standards. Single rotor Autogyros are another field of interest and a number of members have had great success with these machines that are far from easy to fly, requiring a skill set of part fixed wing and part helicopter experience! A few members have entered the world of FPV (first person view)and pilot their models from the ground via a live video link from the model's cockpit.
A number of social 'fly-in' type events are held for members and families throughout the summer months and are always popular. Members receive regular news updates via Email. Our club membership year runs from January 1st to December 31st.
