keven64Member since:10-June-2007

The field that I am standing in - in the little picture above...

...my old school playing field, where I did 'games' (I hated it all - I was never 'sporty')...

...and where our yearly 'sports days' were held - in the blazing sun (I'm talking late 70's here !)...

...is now GONE !

A school has been built in it - to replace the school that I went to.

However - the area where MY old school WAS - has NOT been made into a playing fields...

(Lady Towneley wanted there to be provision for recreation if the land was donated to the Council...

...and since she is now - errm... no longer with us... - well.

The land where the old school was is just footpaths - and lots of newly-planted trees.

It is all very nice - and will be lovely in 20 or thirty years after those trees have matured, but...

The implications ?

The new school has only a tiny field for the games lessons, with a lake beside - for the rain to drain into...

...and I no longer have a flat field with EASY ACCESS - in which to fly my model aeroplanes...! ! !

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I have been making working models since I was seven.

I began with free-flight and simple radio controlled aircraft ( Keilkraft models, mainly ) - and the odd radio controlled boat...

When I realised how much wood was actually in the kits, I began to design and build my own R/C aeroplanes...
I've been making those - and gliders, boats and yachts - for many years.

My first R/C car was a Mardave Marauder.

I bought it second hand with its box and an Attack R radio set - in 1983

My dad reminded me that I got that before the Grasshopper that I bought new in '84...
I then got a Hornet, then a Hotshot ( which was much more technically challenging ), and with that, I won an odd heat at local race meetings...

I also got myself a Frog - which was brush-painted green - and a March BMW racing car which I got cheap, when the local shop in Burnley ( Windmill Models ) was having a sale of the older Tamiya kits on their shelves...
I believe that most of that model ( 58013 ) is at the back of one of my cupboards - in bits...

I got a few other kits before getting married - then I had a rest from R/C cars and concentrated instead on 'proper' R/C model planes for around fifteen years.

I have recently got back into playing with my cars with our youngest son, Adam... Along with those models which I kept ( I had sold some now and again to afford 'plane bits' ) I have also bought a few bargains on eBay to add to the 'collection'.

Of this collection of Tamiya cars, only the Grasshopper is a non-runner at the moment - as it has no receiver fitted.
ALL my model cars, trucks and buggies are ballraced...

Adam's TL-01 is the only one that is not - and that's because he wont let me take it apart !

Right now, the model aeroplanes have again taken a back seat due to my prolonged ill health - and so I am spending my time building 12-inch long radio controlled yachts ( Footys ) - as well as playing with the Tamiyas that we have.