NADMAC

Brief History

The club was formed in 1983 for the benefit of the youth of Newent and the surrounding area’s. With the help of other aero modellers in the locality, the intention was to cover all aspects of modelling i.e. aircraft, boats, cars, trains etc. unfortunately, due to the lack of support from adults with modelling interests other than aircraft , the club was reconstituted as the Newent & District Model Aircraft Club.
From its inception it was recognised that in order for the youngsters to benefit it would be necessary for them to have the help and guidance of experienced adults, so the club was set up with both junior and senior sections- the condition of senior membership being to foster and encourage the construction and operation of all type of model aircraft by assisting juniors with their modelling activities.
For the building of the models, the club was provided with a room in the youth and community centre, which for many years has been solely dedicated to our activities meaning that the junior projects can be left undisturbed between meetings.
A local farmer, who was sympathetic with the clubs objectives of encouraging youngsters into the hobby, kindly allowed us to use one of his fields for our model flying.
Junior section

Over the years the membership of the junior section has varied between 8 and 22, although the space and assistance really limit us to maximum of about 12 on any club evening. Ages range from 8 to 17 and there have been both girls and boys attending over the years.
Juniors meet for two hours every Thursday evening; during the winter months (September to April) in the clubroom at the community centre at the flying field in the summer (May to August), weather permitting.
At the community centre the juniors are helped and guided (there is no formal instruction as such) on how to build a wide variety of the model aircraft by the seniors. In general we work mainly from plans with the occasional kit. When the juniors first join they are shown how to build and fly a chuck glider and after building others, under the watchful eyes of an adult, progress to larger gliders and powered models. All this time they are hopefully learning the skills of handling the tools, working with the modelling materials, reading and understanding plans an possibly most of all patience. Obviously at some time they want to build a radio controlled model when they can either use one of our many plans or we can recommend a suitable kit, engine and radio gear. At the flying field the juniors are shown how to prepare and check the clubs, or their own, model for flying, the operation of the radio control equipment, the effect of the models controls and the safety procedures when starting and running engines. Nearly all flying instruction is with the use of dual control systems on one of the club’s high wing trainer models. It is only when the juniors are more proficient that they are allowed to fly their own models under instruction.