<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following was written by Denys Clarke in 2016. Denys was one of the founding club members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Memories and Impressions of Post War Model Aircraft in Rotorua 1947- 1953”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Denys Clarke June 2016<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The club continued flying during the 1950s on the old Fenton Park aerodrome. By 1960 a permanent site was used at the Medical officers reserve on Pukuatua St opposite the Boys High School. Most of the flying was control line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the mid 60s a small group was starting to experiment with radio control. The airstrip on Hunts farm on Pukehangi Rd was the center of activities. In the late 60s the club moved to a site on Vaughan Rd and established a control line circle and R\/C strip. The members became very active in several competitions with some success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 70s the club had another move. Two new control line circles were established at the airport and R\/C flying moved to Te Ngae where the tree nursery is now. The Club Hosted the1989 Trans-Tasman event at the airport circles. Thermal soaring had become very popular and several members performed very well in a series of competitions between Rotorua, Putaruru, Cambridge, Hamilton, Matamata and Tauranga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1990 another move saw the club move to its present site at Mead Rd. Here an all-weather 180m long strip and a control line circle were established. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The following was written by Denys Clarke in 2016. Denys was one of the founding club members. “Memories and Impressions of Post War Model Aircraft in Rotorua 1947- 1953” \u00a0Mid winter 1947, two Rotorua teen age brothers found out that the Hamilton Winter Show had a model aircraft display, having little pocket money they decided to cycle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-79","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rotoruamac.org.nz\/wordpress_Z\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00a0Mid winter 1947, two Rotorua teen age brothers found out that the Hamilton Winter Show had a model aircraft display, having little pocket money they decided to cycle to Hamilton, loaded with a pup tent and sleeping bags they set off early one morning heading for Hamilton not realising that this was going to be the catalyst to form the Rotorua Model Aero Club\u00a0the following year.
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A night in a pup tent in a paddock on the outskirts of Hamilton did not dampen their enthusiasm. At the show building they looked at various models, one\u00a0model caught their eyes, a\u00a036 inch wingspan control line trainer, low wing, simple box fuselage with cockpit, their concentration was interrupted when a woman’s voice said, “My son Ron\u00a0built\u00a0it, would you like to meet him?”\u00a0The two brothers turned to see a middle aged lady beckoning to her son and at the same time introducing herself as Mrs Henecker.\u00a0 Ron invited the brothers to a flying demonstration at a local\u00a0playing field the next day.\u00a0 Ron put on a great demonstration, and the brothers were enthralled and excited by this new type of model.
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Three weeks later\u00a0back in Rotorua a box arrived from Modelair containing the balsa wood and\u00a0other materials\u00a0also a\u00a0diesel engine. With the help of Ron’s plans the control line model was built and ready for test flight. Because of the poliomyelitis epidemic in 1947 the schools were closed, so the modellers could take advantage of this, fly their models and do the set homework in the evening.
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During those early years following WW11 there were only three keen modellers\u00a0in Rotorua who were also\u00a0very good friends, the late Bill Brown and the two brothers, Henry\u00a0and Denys Clarke. Henry test flew the model on a sports field bordering Pererika Street and Old Taupo Road. Fortunately, our pride and joy flew slowly and with a few ups and downs Henry got the hang of it, we all breathed a sigh of relief when the engine spluttered to a stop\u00a0and\u00a0Henry managed to land without incident.
\u00a0Bill and I cheered, all three of us had big grins, Henry after spinning around for several minutes\u00a0flying the model\u00a0was wobbly on his feet.\u00a0During the flying a small group of spectators had gathered. Two of them,\u00a0Stan Griffiths and his brother Pont, subsequently became very keen model builders.
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Stan’s model building technique was unique, being a very good boat builder he had all the tools of the trade and many different types of timbers, his control line model fuselages\u00a0were made from totara, he carved the shape and then I guess with a\u00a0circular saw cut them in half from nose to tail, he then hollowed each half to a thin shell, glued them together and finished with\u00a0a coloured paint\u00a0to make beautiful models that were\u00a0strong and flew very well.
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Broken propellers happened frequently, no plastic ones in those days, Stan generously provided blanks which could then be carved.
The test\u00a0flight and subsequent flights over the next few months\u00a0created great interest in control line\u00a0modelling.\u00a0As well as the original three modellers there were now nine keen members, it was then that we realised that we had a club and named it the Rotorua Model Aeronautical Society.
\u200bThe NZ Model Aeronautical Association which\u00a0was formed\u00a0during 1947 did not accept this name, perhaps because the word “Aeronautical” was too similar to theirs. The club formally came into being when it was renamed as the “Rotorua Model Aero Club.” and\u00a0was registered\u00a0with the NZMAA during 1948.\u00a0 The members were Henry & Denys Clarke, Bill Brown, Vincent Barry, Barry Gleeson,\u00a0Ivan Lebeau, Mervyn Hodge, ( Later Mervyn became Air Commodore RNZAF)\u00a0 Stan Griffiths and his brother Ponty.
\u200bDuring many of\u00a0the flying sessions we noticed a small boy watching, when he became a teenager he joined the model club, his name Rob Brown, he still maintains contact with the club and went on to a career as an aircraft engineer. No relation to Bill Brown.
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Rotorua in those days had a population of about 12,000.
Before\u00a0the club was formed most of the members had known each other as\u00a0they were\u00a0or had been\u00a0in the\u00a0No: 29 Squadron Air Training Corps. Barry Gleeson was ex ATC, a cadet reporter with the Rotorua Post and a good person to\u00a0have as a\u00a0club member, although he was nonflying he was always keen to help. He came up with an idea which was to buy a section\u00a0in\u00a0Malfroy Road\u00a0near the Old Taupo Rd end so that the club members could have a club room built\u00a0on it, no doubt Barry, being Barry had all the\u00a0finances worked out, all the flying members wanted to do was fly their models.
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\u00a0Barry took this proposal to the council, it so happened that 2 doors away from the vacant section lived the local\u00a0council traffic officer Mr Short,\u00a0at a council meeting he squashed this proposal on the grounds that model engines make a lot of noise, he would have known about\u00a0model engine noise because we lived next door to him. He never complained about it to us or our parents. I suppose that\u2019s what\u00a0one would\u00a0call a good understanding neighbour.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n