Upcoming Events…
Sunday 22nd September 2024
South East Area Open Fun Fly Competition Day
Low key, informal, Fun Fly Competition Day at the Croydon Airport Model Flying Club’s site near Warlingham, Surrey. All your favourite club style Fun Fly competitions plus a few new ones! Open to any BMFA member, whatever your experience in Fun Fly with any Sport or Fun Fly type model. We might also run a club team event, so why not bring some of your club mates along too to join in the Fun! Lunchtime barbecue also available. Please email me at jamesrrg@hotmail.com if you are interested in attending.
10am – 5pm at the Croydon Airport Model Flying Club, Featherbed Lane, Warlingham, Surrey (nearest postcode CR6 9PL)
Please see the Croydon Airport Model Flying Club’s website for venue details.
Sunday 27th October 2024
Bickley Club’s Open Fun Fly Competition Day
A re-run of one of our most popular area events of the year, which was rained off in July. A lighthearted competition day with your favourite club style Fun Fly competitions including a few very different ones! Any club sport models or Fun Fly models welcome to join in the fun!
10.30 am – 5pm at the Bickley Model Flying Club site, Church Road, Sutton-at-Hone, Dartford, Kent DA4 9EX
Please see the BMFA Contest & Events Calendar for more venue details.
2024 Fun Fly Nationals
Another great weekend was had by all at our Fun Fly Nationals, held at the fabulous National Centre. The fine weather meant a really good competition over the two days, with a good number of entrants in the three different classes.
There was lots of truly impressive and skillful flying over the weekend, but highlights included Gavin Barden breaking the longstanding Longest Glide record, with an amazing glide time of 15 minutes, 48 seconds and a spot bonus from a 15 second climb! Also, Martin Bell came within 1 Touch and Go of equalling the current record with a very impressive 62 in two minutes for Class 1. Well done also to a junior, Joe Hampson for entering his first ever Fun Fly Comp and coming in the top half of class 2 and also beating a multiple Fun Fly champion in the process. Joe showed lots of skill, so well done Joe, hope to see you as a future Fun Fly Champion!
Congratulations to the winners though, Nick Lester in Class 3, Simon McNeill in Class 2 and Martin Bell in Class 1. Martin achieved a perfect score by winning every round in Class 1, which also gained him the Robin Jones Trophy for being this year’s overall National Fun Fly Champion. Well done to all the winners and well done and thank you to all the competitors and team for making the weekend such a success, very enjoyable and above all Fun!
For all the 2024 Nationals Results, please go to the Comp Results section at the top of the page….
More Photos – Here
2024 Fun Fly Festival
Gallery available below!
Some amazing photos provided by Mike Bell are also available for you to check out – HERE
2023 BFFA Fun Fly Nationals
Gallery and Results available below!
If you wish to see any of the results from the 2023 Funfly Nationals then please click – HERE
Some amazing photos provided by Mike Bell are also available for you to check out – 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.