[Tmaxx4ever]

One came from Mark Ramsay (representing Great Hobbies), informing the members that if a club was interested in organising the GAFF in Charlottetown, Great Hobbies would support their venue.

The second proposal came from the "Ailes du Madawaska" (Edmundston, NB.), a well prepared 6 pages proposal.

A few weeks later, Great Hobbies informed the executive of club Les Ailes du Madawaska, that they were not interested at supporting their proposal,

I do not have any details on the reason why the proposal was denied. You would need to ask the question to Great Hobbies.

I think you've answered your own question.

[Sparhawk]

Correct me if I am wrong Louis, but what does MAAC have to do with the GAFF? I never understood the connection between MAAC and a private business sponsoring a Fun Fly event.

IMHO, I don't have a problem with the Great Hobbies store chain bringing forth a proposal to the clubs in the region. I just think that the venue of doing so at a MAAC AZM was inappropriate. A letter from GH out to all of the clubs is the way it should have went down. Any business venture between a club and Great Hobbies is their business, not MAAC's.

MAAC's only interest in this would have been whether or not the event is being sanctioned. Am I right?

Dan

[Tmaxx4ever]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk

MAAC's only interest in this would have been whether or not the event is being sanctioned. Am I right?

You are 100% correct. It shouldn't be an issue. Any questions about where the event should be held has absolutely nothing to do with MAAC. It has everything to do with the sponsor(s) and the hosting club(s).

[ground pilot]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk

Correct me if I am wrong Louis, but what does MAAC have to do with the GAFF? I never understood the connection between MAAC and a private business sponsoring a Fun Fly event.

IMHO, I don't have a problem with the Great Hobbies store chain bringing forth a proposal to the clubs in the region. I just think that the venue of doing so at a MAAC AZM was inappropriate. A letter from GH out to all of the clubs is the way it should have went down. Any business venture between a club and Great Hobbies is their business, not MAAC's.

MAAC's only interest in this would have been whether or not the event is being sanctioned. Am I right?

Dan

IMHO to the best of my knowledge GH never asked for it to be brought up at the AZM, this seemed like it was decided by the members who though it was their funfly. You can't blame GH for not wanting to sponsor an event that is a 6 plus hour drive for 80% of the Maritimes. From reading the other posts on this subject over the last several months I believe the idea behind this Funfly originally was to have a central gathering that made it reasonable for most people to attend. Not to have it jammed into the corner of one province making it impossible for most to get to.

[SJrcflyer]

I'm no expert, but the idea of a fun fly is just that FUN!!!! Regardless if prizes are handed out or not, the people that show up and fly are there for one reason....to have a good time. IMO I absolutely hated the guys that showed up at the GAFF with one intention, to win prizes. The people that come to fly and socialize are the people I want at "my" fun fly anyways. If GH wants to hold an event that they sponsor and put out prizes for, all the power to them, I would probably even attend just to fly and socialize. If a club holds a fun fly that I think I will be able to attend and is within reasonable driving distance for me, I'll go to that too. Registration fees are there for a reason, so you don't need sponsors, I have no problem paying my share to cover costs.

I think were all missing the idea of a fun fly.... just go fly, and hang out with a bunch of people that enjoy this hobby as much as the rest of us.

Just my own two thoughts,

Chris R

[Terry Gauvin]

Originally Posted by SJrcflyer

I'm no expert, but the idea of a fun fly is just that FUN!!!! Regardless if prizes are handed out or not, the people that show up and fly are there for one reason....to have a good time. IMO I absolutely hated the guys that showed up at the GAFF with one intention, to win prizes. The people that come to fly and socialize are the people I want at "my" fun fly anyways. If GH wants to hold an event that they sponsor and put out prizes for, all the power to them, I would probably even attend just to fly and socialize. If a club holds a fun fly that I think I will be able to attend and is within reasonable driving distance for me, I'll go to that too. Registration fees are there for a reason, so you don't need sponsors, I have no problem paying my share to cover costs.

I think were all missing the idea of a fun fly.... just go fly, and hang out with a bunch of people that enjoy this hobby as much as the rest of us.

Just my own two thoughts,

Chris R

I agree with you in principle Chris but in reality you need something that will draw people to your event. Yes, the first 2 GAFFs were held in a more central location than others but they also had the more prizes available and had an up and coming 3D pilot from the US (John Glezelis) along with our own Ivan and Colyn performing demo flights.

Without the demos and the prizes from the sponsor my guess is we would have seen fewer than 30-40 pilots attend rather than the 120 plus that did show up.

The GAFF was intended to be one of the Atlantic Canada's premiere events and as such needed to be marketed that way. The prizes and demo pilots were enough of a draw to get a large number of pilots to attend. The large number of pilots ensured model diversity on the flight line. I have nothing against Nextars but I am not going to drive 3 hours to see 6 or 7 of them siting on a flight line, I can see those any given night at the club field.

With todays high travel costs my bet is that others won't either.

[SJrcflyer]

Terry, great points, and yes if the GAFF was to continue(and advertised as a premiere event) I agree that sponsors and demo pilots would be essential. That was a huge bonus for me, getting to see Colin and John fly at the first two in Amherst, I had never seen anything like it, so it was amazing.

I guess my comments were made more as general comments about fun flys in that prizes and sponsors don't necessarily make the event a success.

Regardless, I hope to make it to a few fun flys this year and I'm sure I will have a good time, wherever they might be.

Chris