Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome now well into its third year but where did it all begin?

We look back now to the history of Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome from the very first web page to have the Bumpy Green name up to the present day & how we grew to be the success we are today.

Well firstly I guess we have to tell you about Bumpy Green the flying field as this is where is all began for us. Firstly YES it does exist, buried deep within the countryside of Hertfordshire lies a closely guarded secret.

	The Bumpy Camera fitted to the top of the Goldberg Anniversary Cub give us a great shot of Bumpy Green
Mown runway (shown by the arrow)

As far back as the 1960's the field was used by model aeroplane enthusiasts. Back in those days small free flight models were the order of the day, Radio Control systems being an expensive luxury for most. ARTF had no meaning & shrinking iron on plastic covering was some new fangled thing for rich people. Tissue, silk & even fabric was applied to airframes with dope.



Here we see a young modeller trying out a new fangled radio control system. A rare sight indeed back in the early days of Bumpy Green.



A classic vintage freeflight aircraft powered by a small diesel engine.

Daren (Grot) had already been flying there for many years before we met him, and initially self taught with gliders he soon moved on to powered flight and has flown a wide variety of models over the years including helicopters. We (Tony and John) met up with Daren about 5 years ago after buying a second hand trainer each and radio gear. Daren spent many a Sunday afternoon teaching us to fly and so beginning our journey into this very exciting hobby. Within a short amount of time we had both mastered taking off and landing as well as throwing the model around the skies and a very aerobatic way. Summers and Winters passed by and we continued to enjoy flying until the present time where you will still see us there on Sundays. Like most flyers we both went down different avenues of the hobby with John venturing into electric flight and Tony enjoying the more scale powered type of models and Daren with the experience of many different model still enjoys helicopters the most. The field only really got its name about 3 years ago when we used to mock the lack of smoothness the runway had and the beautiful green surrounding area and thus Bumpy Green was the name we used. We didn't stop there and it was Tony's very unique imagination that gave us many a laugh considering how great it would be to one day have huge grandstands and flushing toilets at the field. One thought led to another and soon we were thinking about telling everyone about our mysterious flying field called Bumpy Green.

But how could we do this...

At the end of the 90's access to the Internet was just starting to become affordable with companies starting to offer a fixed price for unlimited surfing and no phone call charges to worry about. Tony had been a developer of many years and started to look at the Internet and web page design but it was John who took the initiative using homepage.com's easy to use web page designer to create simple front page consisting of pictures and text.

We soon realised this would be a great way to share our experiences with other like minded people and so it began...

Here is the first Bumpy Green website to carry the name of Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome. It only had 1 page which was updated to show new pictures after our various days at the field. The top picture is still in use now and can be seen at the head of the main page. This is symbolic on the current website as it was the first picture published on the Internet taken at Bumpy Green on 13th May 1999.

The website address was www.bumpygreen.homepage.com but was only active for about 3 months before Homepage.com was taken over and all web hosting ceased without warning. How little we knew that this was to become so typical of free web hosts.

Welcome to the Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome Homepage 13th May 1999 Bumpy Green is the unofficial name of our flying strip. It does describe it very well. The pictures do not show the bumps clearly but take my word for it, they are there. A Panoramic composite. Click on it for a larger version The first days flying 13 May 1999 Updated 16th June 1999 Some of the Bumpy People & their flying machines the following month. Gliders were the theme for today as the wind was up, so with a fleet of 4 gliders & six people (+ someone's pet dog) headed for the Green. It was quite cold for June & everyone brought coats & hats.

The very first Bumpy Green home page

We then had a vision of a web site that would give modellers a whole host of valuable information and as we all talked more and more we could not stop the flood of ideas coming from the 3 of us with everyone adding different ideas. While we investigated a suitable new host John started to put his own web site together and it emphasised on the models John was building and flying. In time we started to use this site to see how the ideas that we were coming up would look like including Regular Columns, Projects, Reviews and Links. If we only knew then we would end up with a site visited by over 6000 people a week from all over the world.

BrocKent This is the homepage of BrocKent, a partnership of resource and ideas! Also the Temporary homepage of Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome Planes PICOJET COMBAT - EPP flying wing. T33 Shooting-Star - Electric Ducted Fan Jet! T77 Arising-Star - 63" Span ARTF Trainer! Topic 400 - ARTF Electric glider ~ very good fun! Columns Bodge Corner - With Choddy our resident airframe master builder. Grots Groans - What does Grot have to say about it. Projects Project Delta - Mini Whizz 36" .25 powered Stunt Delta. Plan by Brian Cooper. Project BAe Hawk - British Aerospace Hawk Powered Slope Soarer. Project Shuttle - A NASA Shuttle glider launched by solid fuel rockets ( Ballistics by Jay ) (NO LINK YET) Other Models THE INFERNO - Ground based 4wd fun Venues Bumpy Green - The main Club Airfield Ivinghoe Beacon - Local Slope Soaring Contact & Links Addlestone Models - Great Model Shop selling much more than just R/C models. WELL WORTH A LOOK!

John web site was a perfect way to see how the beginnings of a community might look

Soon it became apparent that the information we had to offer needed to be organised & structured in such a way that people would find it easy to navigate as well as enjoyable to read.

Well we were now convinced that the modelling world really needed a good resource for modelling information on the net for those of us that were connected, but more than that we needed a community. Now by community we mean a place you can belong to, a place where modellers could meet and exchange articles, building tips and pictures. Now this community needed a few fundamentals Firstly a name, well that was easy, Bumpy Green, it was both catchy and relevant to modelling. It also needed to be able to hold a huge amount of information and lastly it needed to be easy to navigate. So work began to achieve these goals.

One problem initially was to find a place to house such a site. It was at a visit to Epping and North Weald Model Flying Club where we were demonstrating the newly arrived Multiplex Twin-Jet, we were lucky enough to have one of the first in the country and took it along for the guys to play with. One of the pilots and now a good friend of ours was Gary Clemments-Gibbon, we learned that he hosted web sites and was the man behind the extremely popular RC Pages for sale site. Many conversations were had with Gary and we eventually we signed a deal which allowed Bumpy Green to host with Angry Rhino, Gary's web company.

The first thing to do was to design the feel of the site and we had strong beliefs that this would be the key to a professional looking site. We also had to keep the humour there and the icons which you see at the top of the site were drawn. These were Chat, Diary Dates, Guest Book, For Sale, Cinema and Outings.

The icons where the first of the designs to be done

A decision was taken to make all the content pages have a consistent look to them and more importantly we needed a logo. After a few hours of throwing ideas around Tony drew a logo on a scrap of paper and declared, "this is what I think it should look like", this was followed by some "ooohs" and some "ahhhs" and even some "hmmms", but everyone liked the idea, so John simply scanned it, outlined it and coloured it in.

The original logo hand drawn by Tony

John created an outlined version	and then coloured the logo in

The logo mainly seen on site	The newest logo and probably the final

Navigation has always been a concern of ours, as this was the key to moving around the site. Initially we implemented a folding menu, when an item was clicked the menu expanded to show the items contained in it, this was used for a short time but had many limitations. For the good part of a year we had an expanding menu system and as each item was selected a sub menu opened to reveal all, this also had limitations, (especially for those running a lower resolution).

The menu system which lasted a good part of a year

By the end of 2001 we were getting around 5000 visitors, this amount of traffic together with the great movies available for download was starting to over load our host and yet another host was needed, one that could see us into the future. After some hunting around, Tony discovered a new hosting company who could offer us a dedicated server situated in their computer centre in Croydon. The move was quite straight forward and we were soon up and running again with even more power. The site was live January 1st 2002.

We have always been conscious of the feedback we get from our visitors but it wasn't until we started to appear at the shows did we really discover how slow the site was for standard modem users. Having been used to the luxury of high speed connections we never noticed how slow the site had become.

It was in the first part of 2002 that we decided to make an appearance at the shows and started to bookmark the more well known ones to have a presence at. Our biggest achievement to date has been to have a stand at the Sandown Model Symposium 2002, although upstairs we have a prime spot looking out onto the flight line.

The other shows we had stands at included Weston Park, Woodspring Wings and the BMFA Nationals.

Here RC Hotel visited the BG Stand at Weston Park	Here Mike from ATS popped in for some light refreshment

Bumpy Green stand at the BMFA Nationals 2002

As previously mentioned having a presence at the major shows has enabled us to get feedback about Bumpy Green and the biggest problem was the speed, even to such an extent that some people could not use the site because it was too slow. This had to be sorted...

We had to find the fastest place in the UK to host our web site, this was a building called Telehouse and luckily our host could provide us a server located in that very spot. Another criticism was the menu system, it still wasn't right - too complicated you told us. So a major redesign started to take place. A simple menu was adapted allowing the user to select an area and then be presented with a new page which clearly gave them the items they were looking for. The main page was also redesigned to become more visual using lots of pictures, and lastly a new monthly area was created called 'This Month'

So we had the idea, although not fully explored yet, we had the humour feel, we had the navigation, and we have designed a look so that all the pages remained consistent. All we needed was all the ideas turned into reality and the content to keep visitors coming back time and time again.

Lets have a look at some of the areas of Bumpy Green.

Forums - Think of these as conversation you would have, someone asks a question - someone else answers it. You might want to just tell us about a model or engine you have which you are pleased with or let us know something about the site. They are doing very well and we are always happy to help.

Gallery - This was the newest feature to be added and allows us to hold a very large gallery of pictures but best of all you can add a picture yourself, comment on someone else's picture or even vote for your favourite picture on the site.

For Sale - This is one of the most popular areas on the site and has a very good track record of actually selling items. Unfortunately at the moment there is no way to delete the advert yourself but this is changing soon.

We are always looking for new areas to add to the site and ways we can make Bumpy Green better for you, keep sending in your feedback to us and help us to keep the site up to date.

Thanks to our good friend Mr. Paul Heckles we were contacted by the Discovery Channel about putting a team together to enter a brand new TV show scheduled to be shown early 2003. This was one of the most exciting things we have got involved in and over the two days of filming we had a really good time. Although we cant tell you to much about this we can show you a couple of pics to wet your appetite.

Serious Stuff	Team & presenter Mike Brewer
Some of the set	The Bumpy Green Team

Unfortunately the message that we are not really getting across is that YOU can write for Bumpy Green and WE want you to.

Let us tell you about Wayne Haycock, now Wayne decided he wanted to write something for Bumpy Green, were not sure how he realised he could do this but he did. He first wrote a review on the Mini Laser 3D from Laser Models, he initially sent over the review as a word document and included a few pics which he sent separately, once we had formatted the review to have the Bumpy Green feel he could not believe how good it turned out and proceeded to write another review. This time on the Microlader charger, again he sent it and included some pics and we formatted it. By now he had realised how easy it was to write articles and asked if he could write a regular column, we appropriately named it 'Waynes World' and he has now written one every month from Feb 2002 to September 2002 and has plans to keep writing for the future. Wayne was not part of Bumpy Green in the beginning but has now earned himself a cap, T-shirt and polo shirt and best of all pride of place on the stand at Sandown 2002 as one of the Bumpy Green crew. He will also be with us at the 2002 Weston Park International Model Show and he really is regarded as one of us.

If you want to write something, it is very easy to do, if you want to, then have a look at some of the articles on the site to get a feel for length and structure. Write it in Microsoft Word or Wordpad and take some pics, sent it all along to Bumpy Green and we will put it on the site. The article can be about anything that you think modellers will enjoy reading or could help other modellers. Here are some of the other modellers who have written articles and we would personally like to thank everyone of them.

Simon Bisson - Review of the Kyosho Trainer and How to build a Wren gas turbine
Kevin Hammond - Review of the YT Dragon Lady and an article on his Phil Ramsey Pitts Special
Gary Knight - Review of the Vulcan and a report from the Halton Show
Andy Blackburn - Review of the Duo Discus and a 3 part introduction to PSS
Alan Spicer - With an article on the A and B certificates
Steve Dorling - Learn more about Carburettors
Scott Edwards - Review of the Dave Smith Excelsior
Jason Williams - Review of the Scorpio Java
Stewart Walker - Review of the Banshe from Phoenix Model Products
John Wells - Article on painting your Twinjet
Dave Coathup - Article on Liam building a Twin Limbo Dancer
Kevin Hammond - Article on building a large Wot 4
Mike Duckering - Flying the Raptor 3D
Steve Vine - History of the Titan and Steve modelling history
Neil Tidey from Laser Engines - Pilot Profile
Alasdair Sutherland - Article on Centre of Gravity

So all these people have decided to write and everyone of them is a great article. Not to mention all of the hints and tips sent in, and the piles of pics of all your models out there which will all be added in a new section called modellers pictures - your own personal gallery.

We want you to get involved - its so easy to do...

You CAN do it and BE the reason why Bumpy Green is the biggest UK
Aeromodelling site ever!

If we can get you modellers to write articles then we can spend more of our time giving you new features of the site, more movies,
and start working on a very special surprise which will happen Summer 2003

It was August 2002 that Daren Graham (a.k.a. Grot) decided to leave the Bumpy Green team, this was obviously sad news to us all but he felt that the time had come for him to move on to other things. We thank Daren for his hard work and dedication especially at the shows. He will never be forgotten and many areas of the site are a constant reminder of the work he contributed.

Grot doing what he loves the most, with 15 knot westerly breeze...

We would like to thank all our visitors over the last 2½ years and lets see what the future brings us......

Article by Tony Brock and John Kent from Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
September 2002

Comment by Cliff on 00000000000000. Rating none

Thank you guys for the really neat site and especially the HUMOR section. I fly R/C sailplanes in western Idaho (Post falls, ID USA). Keep up the good work!

Comment by on 00000000000000. Rating none

If there's no feedback from emails sent in not even an aknowlegement, wha is the point.

Comment by Amar Nath Chakladar on 20040923173327. Rating 1

i am student if iitm in india...i am interesred about areomodelling......but i have no idea about aeromodelling ..please give me some basic idea about it ..i will me very much obliged if mail me ...i am looking forward for your mail amar

Comment by Charles Frizell on 20060322001648. Rating 5

Excellent! Just discovered the site while browsing around looking for modelling stuff. have been in UK 4 years (from Zim) and enjoy electric RC and vintage - have an RC KK Ladybird with ED Bee and RC KK Bandit with Mills 1.3

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