SLOPING OFF...
...the Newsletter of Christchurch and District Model Flying Club for...September 2025
What we do on our holidays, by David Bintcliffe
Dear Aerobods..CDMFC
We have had a good journey here to lake Annecy…nice air conditioned bungalow…but the car air con has bust !
I flew theSea Cat seaplane in awful conditions, far too windy blew over / turned,, upside down. dried out nearly ready to. Go again….
The boat is a 1968 Riva Junior ,bought in 1968 for £2750….still in good shape
Have had some nice flying at lake Annecy…today nice and calm…very hot here
I have to drive my chariot to the end of the jetty rather precarious, but calm water is good.
Roland is staying at the flat of his Dogwalker ,whom he likes a lot! The weather has rather gone off ,….but lots of boating going on on .
Because of my inbuilt defibrillator I can’t go to high altitude here but the others are enjoying cooler weather higher up …
Done quite a bit of sea plane flying.and have had the Riva lookalike sailing ,after a lot of fettling of slightly dirty receiver wiring….
My father brought the Riva Junior ( a “starter boat“ ) in 1968 for £2500 …we have been to the Riva factory in the past .Its the longest single family ownership of all Rivas ( except for Carlo Riva who has now died.
Big Riva Aquaramas are worth a lot of cash now ,ours was surveyed at value £50,000 for insurance purposes….we have had quite a lot of problems towing it down here !
We filmed one of the last three aqua ramas being built in 1997 I think it was, in those days Riva was owned by Vickers group along with Rolls Royc, Cosworth and a load of other great brand names , the md of Riva lent us his company convertible Rolls Royce for 5 days to drive down to Scicily and back just to film one of their spectacular boats, he told us that the three old boys that had been hand building those wooden boats for nearly 30 years were going to retire when they had built two more , then that was it no more , he said they didn’t have the time to train anymore craftsmen in to carry on the range.
As a ps (says Andy Slightam) you can always tell if a riva boat has been modified or tampered with from new because every screw in every hinge on every cupboard or locker . The craftsmen always leave the screws dead vertical it was their signature
The French are aerofilles both model and full sized.In France you can go gliding. parapenting, micro lighting ,
Annecy has 500 flights per day in the summer..These can be thermal enhanced ,when you share airspace with long thin winged gliders..The Parapenters have their own airfield.Slope soaring on local ski resorts has designated area lift and views are terrific.
French and German RC Magazines are occasionally available from big supermarkets.In general the hobby feels more advanced than in U.K..
I have taken my Sea Kat and IKon foamy. These go in the Boat which we tow down.
In bad weather one is driven indoors ..tent or camping or plastic bungalow…Airbnb
I take several small kits and sheets of balsa and Depron. Plus very basic aeromodelling “Stuff “
I seldom make the kits but chuck gliders are good.. On ski trips chucking Chuck gliders off multi story flats is good…one year we took a model hot air balloon heated with hair driers..was nice in the snow…
This summer we had a children’s model yacht race with 6” yachts on the lake
ALL IN ALL, GOOD FUN…
