OUR HISTORY...So Far

THE ORIGIN OF THE GRAFTON MODEL AIRCRAFT CLUB GOES AS FAR BACK BACK AS THE LATE 1940's

John Smith remembers flying control line models in Lower Fisher Park in 1948. The club was formed about then because John remembers moving to Hollaway’s paddock from Fisher Park as a club soon after this because of the noise factor. Mufflers were not compulsory then, you can’t imagine the noise echoing from the trees in Plane Tree Avenue. When we were flying at Fisher Park and at Hollaway’s the club had a segment on 2GF’s sporting session on Sat mornings.

 Of course Radio Control was not here until late 50’s when we moved to the South Grafton airfield where we flew control line and single channel radio models.

John BUILT his own 10 channel gear based on Phil Kraft’s design in 1961 and later purchased an Orbit 10 channel rig on 27 Mhz (ugh) and he built a couple of 10 channel models for Russ Hammond in Coffs.

In late 60’s a couple of members Bob Tomlinson and Pat Crowe flew control line models at one of the Grafton Shows.

John Smith tried to salvage the club’s records from Charlie Harrison’s clearing out auction after he died but they had been sent to the bin with heaps of other rubbish by the time he asked about them.

Although flying on Dougherty’s Tea Tree Farm for many years prior to 1982, it was  on May 22nd 1982, that the Club was formed as “Clarence Valley Radio Flyers”, with a membership of 20 members.
Of those original members, two are still members of the club, John Smith and Scott Short. John Windred died in 2022 and Bryson no longer flies.

In May 1989 the club was renamed “Clarence Valley Model Aircraft Cub Inc”, and as the name suggests the club became incorporated. Membership fluctuated between 10 and 44 during this period, in 2000 MADMAC (Maclean and District Model Aircraft Club) was formed, and we lost between 12 and 15 members to this club.

Jonn Windred remembered that after MADMAC members left our club, membership further declined with  higher fees being part of the reason. The club struggled on.

Then in 2010 with 24 members, the club again changed it’s name to reflect the fact that we were now really a Grafton based club. Our name was changed to  “Grafton Model Aircraft Club Inc” and the club updated it’s Constitution at the same time.

We moved from Doughertys Tee Tree Field in the 1990's and then went through a time of tempory fields.

We tried flying on the left of the highway opposite the Jacaranda Motel but it was too damn difficult to land there.

From here we got as field not far from our present field but on the left of Washpool Road. Unfortunately we erected our shed there and the owner got very upset and told us to move.We tried flying at the rifle range for awhile but again it was far from perfect and we moved to Brett Wilkinsons property on the Glenn Innes Rd.

From here we went to the glider Club field but we were restricted to flying for only 3 hours a week on Sundays.

Scott and I (Bob) investigated a paddock he and his brothers owned and we deiced to move to here.

We also flew at Scotts brothers place in Tyndale but it was decided that maintaining two fields was too much work for a small clubs members.

Our field maintainance and mowing was done by John Windred for years, thenGus and Tom took over and did it for several years untill Bob and Daryl took over and are still currentlythe field maintainance team.

In 2023 Bob prepared a submission for the club and it was decided to try to get an MAAA grant for a new mower to supplement our 8 year old Cox. The submission to the MAAA was prepared by Secretary Daryl and we found we were successful and will be getting a new Cub Cadet mower and trimmer later in 2023.

As of April 2025 it's done 79 hours mowing.

The club finally got a working fire truck in 2023 with a 1000ltr tank pump and two hoses. 

It was in 1988 that John Windred became Secretary and in 2000 took on Treasurer as well.
In August 2010 John Windred was awarded Life Membership.

John Windred was also awarded the MAAA Medal in 2022.

John relinquished Secretary in 2012 but carried on as Treasurer until just before his death in 2022.

In 2016,Pat Crowe, another one of our foundation members was also awarded life membership.

Both our life members Pat and John have since died.

Note from Webmaster:

This history so far has come from John Smith and John Windred. There will be more to come. If any of the other members can help flesh out this history more fully please email me the details and I will include them. The loss of early records when Charlie Harrison died was really bad news. Hopefully this website will help preserve our history. Bob T