LETS GO DOWN MEMORY LANE

Hi all, as those of you who were at the last club night will know I was contacted by a Mr Cliff Holt wanting to get in touch with Don. With Dons permission I have passed on the details so Don should have a new/old pen pal soon. During my correspondence with Cliff he offered me some stories from the early days of P.A.M. so here is his first instalment of LETS GO DOWN MEMORY LANE.

Hi Steve,
During the next few months i will put pen to paper, keyboard style, whilst my eyesight allows me to.
The stories will be very informal & will only  contain names if it does not cause embarrassment. There
are some funny, some not so funny & some, downright,  tragic.
i will start by explaining how i became involved with  the motley bunch, pre PAM.  arriving in  Petersfield,
Jan 2nd 1972  as sales director of a local company during a visit to the local petrol station I met Ken Boucher
and we talked about flying power models. Next  time i was introduced to Don Eades and the following Sunday
met the boys. We flew at a field near Emsworth, Don was flying his scratch built Mirakardo, boy, did it go,
he let me wiggle the sticks, no buddy boxes in those days, but i was smitten. Next thing, Ken took me to
Ray Browns shop where i purchased a trainer kit, Enya 35 and a s/h 4 ch Swan with Macgregor servo’s.
We came out the shop with the goodies and put them on the back seat of my car. Whilst I was driving Ken
reached back and started fiddling about. I asked what was wrong, he replied, take the prices off! we don’t
want the wives to know how much everything is. Does this ring true today??? What he was unaware of was the fact that I had an agreement with my wife, she bought white goods for the new home, i had the same budget for modeling.
I fell in love with Dons Marakardo and there’s a story to tell later, but Don was a very accomplished model builder
and flyer, we looked to him to test fly all new  models so did not see his planes very often. I believe he transitioned  from flip/flop to pro/por in the 60’s, but that’s his  story. it was obvious that we banded together so later that  year PAM was born.

From memory the following formed the club.
Don Eades,  
Harold Bowell, 
Ken boucher, 
Bob Pethybridge, 
Don Hoolahan, 
Frank Buckland, 
Dick Hall, 
Peter Mason,
Jimmy Woodward, 
Gordon Clare, 
Tony no name  (plumber)  Bob no name (telephone eng)  & myself.
Don was our leader (chair) , I got the job as Sec (nobody wanted it) whats new, and Ken as Treasurer.
Peter Mason, arty type, took responsibility for the logo design. and I see it has stood the test of time.

More in 3/4 weeks time. Please warn them, themes like, “bucket of bits” , “UP UP UP”  “Pilot error ! no, radio  interference”,
“You did’nt pull the Aeriel out, did you” , “Ground  check? it in the air”
Cliff Holt
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