Many things have changed over the years, but the love for building and flying model aircraft is as strong as ever. Since I retired 11 years ago I have been able to spend much more time building and flying my models. I am a traditional balsa builder who loves to build from plans including WW2 scale where I post my builds on “ RCScaleBuilder.com” forum as YNOT-57. Over the years I have had all types of models from IC and Turbine but now I just use electric power for both Fixed Wing & Helicopter. I have been a member of Raydon MAC for 30 years, and have served on the committee in a number of posts during this time, after a short illness which forced me to stand down from the committee, I am back to full health and now in the role of club Secretary once again.

My family and I currently divide our time between Shropshire, where I am based at RAF Cosford working as a Training Coordinator, and our family home in Norfolk. In my current position, I help to shape and influence the development of the RAF’s future aircraft engineers. I have been a keen aeromodeller since my teenage years, although my involvement became more serious after I began model flying during my Service career. I am proud to be a member of the Royal Air Force Model Aircraft Association (RAFMAA), which provides the opportunity to fly at some of the finest hard-surface sites in the country. My particular passion lies in balsa-built aerobatic powered models and gliders from the 1970s and 1980s. Formore than ten years, I have served as a RAFMAA Committee member, organising and leading model flying events, promoting aeromodelling as a valuable activity within Service life, and helping to preserve the legacy of the organisation while contributing to the development of future policy.

Joined West Kent MFC and SMAE in 1948; flying in competitions ever since. Joined Croydon & DMAC in 1949, flying C/L aerobatics, speed, combat, a little R/C (bang-bang rudder), flew early R/C slope soaring in 1960s, moved on to concentrate on F/F, mainly international class F1A gliders. Learned to glide at Detling, 1951 and to fly at Redhill and Croydon on Magisters and Tiger Moths in 1953 via a Flying Scholarship. RAF 1956-58 on ground radar, just missing Suez. Having several expatriate New Zealanders in the Croydon club led to a long involvement with the NZMAA, first as proxy flyer and team manager at F/F World Champs, starting with Kauhava in 1965 and as NZ delegate to CIAM since about 1970. I was made a life member of NZMAA in 1987. Other CIAM work has included chairing the Information & Education Committee and serving on several International FAI juries at World and European Championships. Managing the UK teams at World and Euro F/F Championships from 1980 to 2003 with a couple of years off makes me probably the next most experienced of the species after Viktor Eskov of the USSR and Russia. In parallel with this has been a lot of BMFA work, with an emphasis on the public relations side and the removal of inter-disciplinary blinkers, and work since 1970 towards Sports Council recognition of model flying, finally achieved about 25 years later. Despite 35 years as a TV cameraman for the BBC, Dilly Towers has always managed to avoid having a resident TV set, which may account for finding the time for it all. ‘All’ has included writing the Free-Flight and Foreign Flyers columns in Aeromodeller magazine for a period, co-founding Free Flight News, serving as BMFA PRO for two periods, editing and producing the SMAE newsletter, doing part of a TV series on modelling that still gets shown 20 years later, much to peoples’ amusement, representing BMFA on the Royal Aero Club Council, producing, editing and marketing most BMFA Free Flight Forum Reports annually since 1985, organising the Free Flight Forums, writing a couple of books on model flying, serving as London Area PRO since 1965 and as Council delegate since 1970. I was also heavily involved in the landmark Bromley public enquiry on model flying at a local park in the early 1970s, and in drafting the Home Office Code of Practice on Noise Limitation for Model Aircraft in 1970s. I was elected a Fellow in 1977 and received the Royal Aero Club silver medal in 1992. Current flying activity focuses on F1A, where the building of some carbon bunters and ‘Russian rod’ line has led to far more consistent towing and helped to compensate for the possible lack of launch energy at the bottom end of the towline. Other interests include jazz, baroque music, Eastern Europe and food.

Having learnt to fly solo, the achievement scheme appealed to him, giving him a goal to aim for each time he went out flying. Ultimately, this resulted in him passing both his A and B achievements in fixed wing flying and, later, A achievement in helicopter flying. His enthusiasm and determination were noted by the Area Chief Examiner and he was encouraged to work towards his club examiner qualification. Looking to the future Jon would like to continue working towards various achievement scheme milestones, starting with his helicopter B test. Jon saw the benefit of the structured syllabus of learning provided by the achievement scheme and wanted to be a part of helping future RC pilots; he therefore became a club trainer following the BMFA syllabus. Jon also attends many of the area “Train and Test” days run by the Western Area. Jon is part of a team who regularly run outreach demonstrations at the Bristol Aerospace Museum, sharing his interest in the sport with the wider community. He is also involved in a collaboration between his club and the Royal Air Squadron, running an outreach program in schools to promote aerospace and the wider opportunities associated with it. Through a selection process consisting of various tasks, applicants from four schools across the Bristol area are whittled down to four candidates who go on to participate in a one-week residential gliding course. Jon is the chairman of the Wessex Scale League, an inter-club competition promoting scale flying and its associated benefits. More recently, Jon was appointed as the Western Area delegate and member of the Achievement Scheme Review Committee. Jon has worked in the aerospace industry for 16 years and is a qualified inspector, currently working as a radiographer on Rolls-Royce aero engines. As such, he is part of the wider Non-Destructive Testing team, maintaining quality in the manufacturing process and overall safety of the final product.

His main interest is in classic F3A but he cheats and flies mostly electric. Whilst there's an odd Yamada in his fleet, he admits to being a bit scared of them. If pressed he will admit to an over-developed sense of right and wrong and of an urge to put something back in. Typically, as a volunteer at a heritage railway, he knows nothing whatsoever about steam trains but succumbed to a need to get their gutters unblocked (and ended up handling strategic acquisitions and development to expand operational capacity). Nevertheless he harbours dreams that one day, they'll let him steer one. Still married to the present Mrs. C after almost half a century (child bridegroom), he shares a converted cowshed between Harrogate and Leeds with his gundog, her terrier and two cats and he enjoys cigars, fieldsports and claret (but rarely simultaneously). Despite being a qualified mediator he freely admits to deficiencies in anything remotely politically correct, sometimes to the despair of his two adult children.