© Copyright Ivel MAC 2017/18/19/20/21/22/23
A (Very Brief) History of the Club
Way back around 1968 a small group of like-
minded model aircraft enthusiasts got together
for a jar and a chat at the White Horse pub in
Blunham. The pub has long since gone to
become a house but several of that embryonic
group are still around and still retain their
ardent interest in aeroplanes. The group was
comprised of Fred Lincoln, Cliff Goodwin, John
Drake, Paul Careless, Colin Jenkins, Phil Lydiard
and Chris Bashford. There had long been model
flying activity on Biggleswade Common, not just
from the names above but also from John Fisher
of Hatch who ran a model kit company called
Performance Kits. It was through their chance
meeting on the Common that it all began.
Radio control in those days was predominantly
single channel 'bang-bang' control and when the
first set of fully proportional came along it was
like manna from heaven. Fred Lincoln, who
managed the butcher’s shop in Sandy in
Bedfordshire, had long known Lady Astell, a
local landowner, through trade in the shop.
Lady Astell lived at the big house at Everton and
part of her estate included the WW2 airfield at
Tempsford. At that time the runway itself was
listed as an emergency strip but basically
unused. Fred already had permission to use it
for his model flying. A little liaison set the ball
rolling for limited use by the group as a whole.
Sundays only were permitted, as the
surrounding land was active farmland.
Early meetings, with the odd pint or two at the
White Horse and later in The Bell, in Sandy, saw
the beginnings of what we now know to be the
Ivel Model Aircraft Club (Ivel MAC). We became
officially affiliated to the BMFA and were now
able to join the list of some 700 other clubs in
the UK. The BMFA not only provided us with
advice but gave the club its public liability
insurance. Following an advert in the local
paper for other model enthusiasts, more people
started appearing. Initially, membership was
small but over the following months, it steadily
grew. As seems typical with all model clubs,
many members were ‘armchair modellers’ and it
was seldom we ever saw more than the
hardened regulars. Lady Astell liked her ‘Boys
with their Planes’ and her gift of champagne at
Christmas always went down well!
Biggleswade Common was still used, as it
continued to be for some time, but this was
mainly as an evening venue and on Saturdays. If
you could distract the resident cows from their
inquisitiveness, it was likely that you would have
a good flying session. During our years at
Tempsford, members also met at Waterloo
Farm, just over the road from the airfield. Sites
at Gamlingay, Houghton Conquest, Wilden,
Willington, Riseley and Colmworth had also seen
their fair share of flying.
Ivel MAC used the Tempsford 'Drome' for over
30 years. The marked-out concrete runway
served well for all classes, from lightweight
sports to competition levels. Membership once
peaked at 130 but most sessions only saw those
hardened few braving the weather. The
Wheatsheaf at Tempsford became a regular
haunt of a Sunday morning’s flying. This
limitation with Sunday-only use was accepted
reluctantly, but soon became the norm that
helped hold the club together on the social side.
We have always had several other secondary
grass sites over the years. A field at Houghton
Conquest which though ideal, was difficult to
police reliably and eventually failed due to its
use by outsiders. There was the field at
Gamlingay through one of our members that
would occasionally have to compete with
gunshots from the nearby traveller site!
Lady Astell, the owner of Tempsford, died in the
mid 90’s. The new owner was keener on rearing
pheasants than entertaining the local model
club and, after 30 years, we found ourselves
having to look for pastures new - always a
difficult thing, but with flexibility and an open
mind, the club continued albeit with a smaller
membership.
Ivel MAC has been proud to have had many
national champions through its register of
names. We have had Paul Careless, Les Knott
and Dave Timberlake at National Pylon Race
level. Geoff Dallimer and Dave Dyer were Glider
and Soaring champions, Ross Donovan and
Dave Timberlake were with Aerobatics and Tony
Francis and Ian Contessa were our champs in
the Helicopter scene. Around 1995 the club was
proud to have Paul Gray who featured regularly
in the Ducted Fan and Gas Turbine arena.This
class of model was only suitable at Tempsford
and after a couple of trials at other sites it was
agreed to restrict their use elsewhere for safety
reasons. More recently we have a national
champion in a free-flight class, Andy Sephton,
and a 3rd place Kev Wallace.
Ivel MAC was probably one of the first model
clubs in the country to fly a model ‘On Screen’
via video telemetry, - now partly referred to as
FPV. During the 1970’s a cross-country flight was
made between Biggleswade Common and
Tempsford. This was a distance of some five and
a half miles as the crow flies but considerably
more when you take into account the circuitous
route needed following from the back of a truck
with your transmitter in hand trying to negotiate
woodland. You would not be allowed to do this
these days! The club has also used a model in
conjunction with heat-sensing cameras for
studies and research into bird migration via RSE
of Cambridge. We have had a high number of
members who have made their modelling
activities into their living. Both Paul and Colin
became partners in the Ivel Model Shop in
Biggleswade. Dave Handley became the
technical director of Horizon Systems, a
company making Radio Control outfits.
Sadly not with us any more just 2 of the
members who have contributed to our
sport/hobby are:
1.
John Drake who pioneered and proved
much of the initial control techniques of model
helicopters now taken for granted by most of
the world.
2.
Chris Bashford, pioneered the use of Opto-
Coupling for electronic speed-controllers way
back in the sixties. He introduced to the world,
the idea of battery analysing and cycling for
enhancing R/C safety. Later, he also perfected
multi-channel digital delta peak pulse charging
for Nicad batteries when many of the
‘knowledgeable die-hards’ of the day said that it
could not be done! - This technology is now
taken for granted and used for much of the
world’s charging systems.
Chris set up Mainlink Systems - a company
designing and building chargers and other
accessories for models and industry. Mainlink
also became one of the key maintenance
organisations for looking after much of the
County Council’s audio and paging equipment in
schools and retirement homes
The club is managed by a chairman and
committee, oveseen by a group of four
independent trustees.
Ivel Model Aircraft Club
Model Aircraft Flying near Bedford UK
Our members are mainly from Bedfordshire and West Cambridgeshire