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2023 Buckminster Fun Fly Dates Announced

The BFFA have been given four dates for Fun Fly Competitions, including our Nationals, at Buckminster in 2023. Buckminster is an excellent venue for fun fly and also has a fantastic campsite adjacent to the flying site.

Many thanks to Manny at Buckminster for accommodating us in the very busy calendar and we really hope you want to support the BFFA and come along for some Fun Fly fun at our National centre.

Hope to see you there!

Please put these dates in your diaries so you can hopefully join us for some fun fly action in 2023….

29th – 30th April (please note new date)

Fun Fly Coaching and Competition Weekend

BMFA National Centre NG33 5RW
Do you fly in Fun Fly competitions at your club or want to start competition flying? Then why not come along to the British Fun Fly Association’s first weekend at Buckminster for 2023 and enter the challenging, yet extremely enjoyable and friendly world of Fun Fly.
Following Buckminster’s policy on Bank Holiday weekends, this event is only for Electric powered models.
  • Open to any BMFA member
  • Practice/Coaching and competitions on both days 10am-5pm
  • Classes for expert and novice Fun Flyers
  • New Foamy class
  • Relaxed, fun, club style competitions
  • All competitions can be flown with any normal club sport or fun fly model
  • Trophies awarded
£10 per pilot per day (paid on the day).
For camping prices, please see the National Centre website: nationalcentre.bmfa.org
To book camping, contact: manny@bmfa.org
If you are interested in attending, contact James Gordon: jamesrrg@hotmail.com or 07966 439835

3rd – 4th June

Fun Fly Festival and Competition Weekend

BMFA National Centre NG33 5RW
Come and join us at Buckminster for a celebration of the wonderful sport of Fun Fly competition. Bring along any model from the early days of club competition, through to the early 80’s when Fun Fly became a Nationals event, or right up to date with one of the modern, exciting, ever evolving Fun Fly designs.
  • Open to any BMFA member
  • Competitions on both days 10am – 5pm
  • All your favourite club style competitions
  • Classes for expert and novice Fun Flyers
  • New Foamy class
  • Trophies awarded
£10 per pilot per day (paid on the day)
For camping prices, please see the National Centre website: nationalcentre.bmfa.org
To book camping, contact: manny@bmfa.org
If you are interested in attending, contact James Gordon: jamesrrg@hotmail.com or 07966 439835

19th – 20th August

Fun Fly Nationals

BMFA National Centre NG33 5RW
You are welcome to join the British Fun Fly Association for this year’s Fun Fly National Championships at Buckminster. Newcomers always welcome to take part in up to two classes, including a new Foamy class, so why not come along and join us for one of the friendliest yet challenging and skilful competition classes, always following the Fun Fly principles that competition flying can be incredibly rewarding but above all, Fun!
  • Two-day competition. Briefing 9am each day
  • Classes 1, 2 and 3 (including the Foamy sub class)
  • Enter up to two classes if you wish for no extra fee
  • Open to any BMFA Member
  • Competitions can be flown with any qualifying Fun Fly or sport model
  • Trophies and certificates for each class, plus the Robin Jones trophy for the overall Nationals champion.
£23 entry fee for the weekend (Paid on the day) Juniors Free
For camping prices, please see the National Centre website: nationalcentre.bmfa.org
To book camping, contact: manny@bmfa.org
To enter, please fill in the entry form on this BFFA website, when it’s published later in the year, or contact James Gordon (jamesrrg@hotmail.com) or 07966 439835. Please also visit the BFFA Fun Fly Group facebook page.
 

29th October

Fun Fly Competition Day

BMFA National Centre NG33 5RW
You are welcome to join the British Fun Fly Association for another enjoyable Fun Fly Competition day at Buckminster, with a variety of your favourite Fun Fly competitions to have a go at, both practicing and competing. 
If you’ve never had a go at Fun Fly and fancy a go, then this event is the perfect introduction! If you are interested in joining us for the day, please contact James Gordon (details below)
  • Full day of competitions and practice 10am – 4pm
  • Classes for expert and novice Fun Flyers
  • New Foamy class
  • Open to any BMFA member
  • Competitions can be flown with any Fun Fly or club sport model.
£10 per pilot per day (paid on the day)
For camping prices, please see the National Centre website: nationalcentre.bmfa.org
To book camping, contact: manny@bmfa.org
If you are interested in attending, contact James Gordon: jamesrrg@hotmail.com or 07966 439835

New Fun Fly Rules for 2023 now confirmed! 

New Classes introduced including the new Foamy Class.

Click HERE to view

Another Fantastic Fun Fly Nationals held at Buckminster on 20th/21st August 2022.

Great competition, Great company and Great Fun!! Huge congratulations to Class 1 Champion Peter Mumford and Class 2 Champion Charlie Wood. Click the link at the bottom to see the full results.

Photos from the event taken by Mike Bell available in the Gallery.

Class 1:

 

Class 2:

 

BMFA FUN FLY NATIONALS RESULTS!
CLICK HERE!

 

The Fun Fly Festival at the end of May was a great success!

We had some new faces taking part as well as well as some of the country’s top Fun Fly pilots, so a good spread of competitors over class 1 and 2.

We managed to fly six rounds over the weekend consisting of Longest Glide, Touch & Go Pylon Race, Limbo, Touch & Go, Roop and Spins & Spot and we also had a good number of historic Fun Fly Models from the last 35 years.

Trophies were awarded on both days for the top flyers in both classes as well as a Pilot of the Day for each day too, courtesy of Gavin from Evolution Models, who also donated a kit for the free raffle over the weekend.

To top it off, the 20 year old Touch & Go record was finally broken in Class 1, with Peter Mumford clocking up an amazing 57 touch & Gos in the square in 2 minutes!! – LINK

For more photos, see the BFFA Fun Fly Group facebook page for what was a thoroughly enjoyable Fun Fly weekend! – LINK

 

Fun Fly Nationals was held at Old Warden on the 18/19th September

A great weekend which was hosted at Old Warden.  The venue could not have been more accommodating at this special place for Aircraft and Aeromodelling.

The new Champions are:

Class 1 – Peter Mumford

Class 2 – Simon McNeill

Further results are now uploaded onto the Results Page.

Peter Mumford also broke the record for the number of Limbo’s in 2 minutes taking the total to an amazing 53!

Please take a look at our Gallery Page here for more action shots from the weekend! Thanks to Mike Bell for the photos.

If you wish to see video of some of the impressive flying then take a look at our Facebook BFFA Group page linked here. BFFA Facebook Group

Lastly, keep an eye out for a detailed write-up about the event by Mike Bell appearing in a future edition of the BMFA News.

Fun Fly was conceived at club level all over the country in the 1960’s and in 1985 it was launched as a national event which soon became an integral part of the BMFA August Nationals. It has been going strong ever since, living up to its reputation of being one of the most enjoyable events at the Nats.

So what is Fun Fly? Basically, at club level, a fun fly competition can be pretty much anything as long as it’s simple and fun! I belong to the Caterham and Croydon clubs, both of which have monthly fun fly competitions ranging from limbo, touch and go’s or spot landing events, through to slightly sillier events like water carrying, balloon bursting or even doughnut dropping! All these events are designed to entertain, both the pilots and the spectators.  They also improve pilot skills and confidence and they certainly add a new dimension, a sense of purpose and of course lots of fun to any club! The other thing about fun fly events is that they are all scored against the clock. There are no judges deciding how much they liked your flight – your score at the end of the time is what you get – simple as that!

The models, too, can be very basic. At club level and indeed at the Nationals, most people use well proven designs such as the Limbo Dancer, Avicraft Frantic, Western Cougar, Wot 4 or the very popular Evolution Models Fusion. All of these models have the benefit of being relatively cheap, quick to assemble and easy to fly. But with the right set up, then these models can be as nimble and maneuverable as any model on the market. I fly lots of different types of models, but I never get bored flying a fun fly model!

At the Nationals, we also like to encourage flyers to modify existing models or even design their own. Over the years, we have seen some wonderfully ingenious designs that have been incredibly successful. This, then brings another element to the competition, for the model can’t be just good at one event, it needs to be good at four or five very different events, so not only are the pilot skills being tested, so is the design of the model!

So, go on, why not give the fun fly a go!

Happy Fun Flying!

James Gordon.