CHAIRMAN'S BRIEFING (January 2008)

Well what an incredibly good 2007. This is my second time around as Chairman and it does appear to be a lot easier than my first time.

We had a super CLAPA Championships spread over 3 days at the National water sports centre in Nottingham. The weather was specially ordered by John Benzing and it could not have benn better. All Control line Classes were catered for and each class had a hard fought battle. I would like to thank all those who took part and those who organised and judged.

In 2008 we are going to run a stunt workshop and also a Judges Training Seminar at the Leicester Model Aircraft Club at Gumley. Planning for this years premier C/L event, the CLAPA Championships, is already underway. It will be at the same venue as last year and spread over 3 days from 30th May to 1st June. The Friday will be a practice and training day, the Saturday and Sunday for the Competition proper. The Annual General meeting will be late on Friday afternoon and on Saturday evening we will have our Annual dinner  at Ashmores Restaurant.

During 2007 there were ten club competitions, all were efficiently run with attendances for F2B and Classic into double figures. However, there has been a diminution of entries in Vintage and Class 2, which is a worry for your committee.

The last event of the year was at Milton Keynes and held in October. To the surprise of many the weather was perfect and as a consequence we had our best entry of 16 for F2B. We had to be pretty slick to get three flights in for each competitor before it got dark!

In closing I would like to wish you all a happy and successful 2008 and may your lines always be tight.

Peter Jackson CLAPA Chairman