Since 2014, the East Anglia Area has run 2 Achievement Scheme Workshops every year with one exception. That is a total of 9 Workshops. Thank you to the Raydon & District MAC for letting us use their field for the 2nd Workshop of 2018.
Sadly, the weather failed to deliver so a total of 16 attendees were greeted by a cold wet day. I’m sure more would have been there had we had a nice sunny day! Attendees included: an ACE, Club Examiners, Club Instructors and candidates. Luckily, we were able to use RADMAC’s clubhouse to conduct the majority of the activities but had to brave the cold and damp to do the actual flying part! RADMAC provided excellent BBQ and provided hot drinks throughout the day.
The Workshop covered what was the expected standard for conducting the pre-flying session and pre-flight checks, taking the model out from the pits to the patch, the flying part and the recovery of the model to the pits. Each section was subject to a demonstration by our demo pilot, thank you Graham Gooch, and was followed by a detailed discussion on the whys and wherefores of these actions. This is so that we all agreed what was an acceptable standard to be reached in each of these critical areas. The final discussion concerned the questions both the mandatory air law and the other ones.
Among the more general topics covered was the importance of 2.4 GHz aerial placement and their straightness. Robert Coggan showed how variations in Tx aerial placement significantly reduces the received RF power at the Rx.
Feedback from those who attended was that, apart from the weather, this had been a highly enjoyable event, a lot was learned and many left feeling energised to go on either to the next level of Achievement test or to work towards becoming Approved/Qualified Instructors and Club Examiners. This is a very good outcome from these Workshops.
Thank you to the South Norfolk Club attendees (Robert Coggan and David Blake) who were so helpful in the running of the day and in taking the photographs.
If you would like to know more about these Workshops, please contact me, Phil Gutteridge, at philg44@sky.com . The dates for the 2019 Workshops will be notified to all Club Secretaries in early 2019 and will be posted on the Area Website (www.eastanglia.bmfa.org) . Any BMFA member can subscribe to this website and you will be notified by email whenever a posting is made on it. The Workshops will also be advertised on the Achievement Scheme Website (www.achievements.bmfa.org ). Again, any BMFA member can subscribe to this website where you will find all the information you need to prepare for any Achievement Scheme Test as well as guidance on how to prepare for the B test and quizzes to allow you to test your knowledge of the air law and other questions.
Phil Gutteridge – East Anglia Area Achievement Scheme Coordinator
