I wanted to take this day to put up a thread here with some history of aeromodelling activities in Allahabad as well as encourage the several aeromodellors of the city to post activities here in this thread, which will go a long way in inspiring others as well as help more newcomers find our club here.

Would like to start out with :
- A brief history of Aeromodelling in Allahabad with a brief profile of aeromodellors in Allahabad
- Events we have done in the past
- Locations we fly at
- Updates of pictures and videos of our week to week activities.

A brief history.

The pioneer in Aeromodellling in Allahabad, was Sqn. Ldr Tariq Ali, one of the finest persons I have known. He was i the IAF as a flight instructor and had this immense passion of building and flying.
He started into the hobby in 70s , when there was little availability of aeromodelling gear and was one of the most perfect builders I have seen to date.   I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones to have been able to spend hours with him building, and learning the fine art of aeromodelling and the immense attention to detail.
Unfortunately he is no more, but even in the last days when he was bed ridden, he used to sand the ribs of a glider we were making together. Such was his passion for building.

In the field too, he was extremely particular about the finest of details - There had been days we drove 20 km to the field only to find out that the wind direction and speed didnt meet his .20 size glow model and returned back after just taxiing around.

The last time he went to the field to fly was in Dec 2005 . I wish I had a picture, but i recall the day as if it was yesterday.

Mr. Anand Agarwal and his son Neeraj Agarwal from Bank Road, Allahabad made the next mark in the aeromodelling scene in Allahabad.
Started aeromodelling in 80s  with glow engines.
Immense passion of flying, and I still share wonderful days of Flying with Neeraj who can give just about anything to fly, and also help beginners with good/positive advice .

Neeraj's flying skills are un beaten - IN the way of amazing the audience. Lo flight over the heads have given many a huge adrenaline rush !

Here's a picture from 2004 with Neeraj , myself and Anand uncle ( left to right ) at Allahabad . Airplane is my plan built 40 size Piper cub.

No mention of our RC activity can be complete without hte mention of Ritesh Agarwal . He joined us in 2005 and perhaps one of the most loyal visitors to the field.
Anytime we flew, Ritesh was always there. Helped immensely during the Vortex 2005 event.

Ritesh is a glow airplane pilot, and currently has taken a break from RC. We need to get him back !


We have spent really good times together over hundreds of weekends flying together.

Sir if you permit may I too post my RC activities of this week.
 

Where do RC Flyers meet in Allahabad? Bamrauli? Could you please post the map? I assume Sundays.

@tahmadblr are you from Allahabad or presently in Allahabad?
Bamrauli is a an airbase sir. So at bamrauli we would never go . There are several other fields here where RC flying activities are carried on. For eg: Football ground of MNNIT,Allahabad.

A big big salute to such a great personality . These are the people who are as a role model for us, who motivate us to work more and more harder and keep the spirit of hobby high as always. I wish I could meet him ever.

But, still I owe all my current knowledge/skills in aeromodelling to Gaurav Sir. I'd got to learn a lot from him and still much is to be learned more. I remember sir helped me in building my quadcopter for which I'd struggled for around 4 months(I agree it was a wrong decision of mine to enter into this as a beginner with very less knowledge). It took almost 3 hours that day and everything was done from beginning and my quad was flying in garden. That was the best moment for me that ever took place .
My next build was a Cessna 172. But, it also crashed due to weight and  poor building skills .Then sir gave me a slow stick model Moss glider for building my flying skills .
After this also there are several moments or I should say every moment where I usually take help from Sir. I usually go for his opinion once before starting anything.
At last, I could only say that this is a hobby which is all about respect, passion, and immense knowledge in this field. It is always better to learn from a master.
Sir a big thanks to you for helping me, guiding me, suggesting me and everything you did for me .

Several other people who also guided me and whom I should not forget mentioning about: Kashif Asshar(MNNIT), Shashank Shekhar(MNNIT), Abbas Mehdi Zaidi(Bilal)
 

Well..... fly where ever in any city.... one  things needs to be ensured.... As per the safety regulations.... any flying around 10 miles (i.e. 18 Kms) from an airfield is prohibited until and unless a specific clearance has been taken from the airfield operation authorities.  This can have serious consequences to the aircraft flying on the airfield.... the typical hight of aircraft flying on an airfield is 200 mtrs and below.  We all know our models often fly above 300 mtrs.... directly interfering with the local airfield air traffic.
Well to keep everything and everybody safe... never fly close to an airfield.... as serious aeromodelers that is our responsibility.  The law may be seperate and may be enforceable... thats another aspect.

  with shobhit sir...

We had Jakkur air field where the flying was permitted when there there were no landings confirmed. Hence quite possible there might be similar arrangements near Bamrauli. 

Hence I assume there is no single place where RC
Flyers in Allahabad meet.

Well.... dear friend.... lets not assume things....

Subscribed for many hours of interesting read Gaurav. Continue 

Sharing the location wouldn't do any harm to the hobby.  Is there a place where all hobby flyers meet in Allahabad for flying?

I do not want to assume it is only MNNIT  >

Right from the open stretched of Sangam Ghat to many many places.... Just drive out of the town and you will find many....

Well, I originally wanted to put up the history, profile and locations about Allahabad fliers on the top, and then continue with the discussions below. Guess I should have locked/unlocked or reserved some posts up top.

Anyways, Let me use this post to answer the queries comments posted above and then continue with my story of Aeromodellign in Allahabad.


@utkarshg13  - You are most welcome. I am glad you appreciate the help/guidance and will follow the spirit to pass on this wonderful sport to many others.
ANd yes you may post pictures/videos of your flying activity here. This is the sole reason I opened this thread.

You know very well of how much flying we do and what a lovely group of fliers we are blessed with . Unfortunately none of this came on the forums , partly because of my fault of not taking the due time to share. As Anwar aptly said - "The reward is in the build itself" - I take that to the letters. Building, Flying and helping others has had been so rewarding that never know how time flew by till I got reminded/jolted by shobhit17 and gusty that i need to do my part here as well .

@tahmadblr - Of course sharing the location will not harm, Ill dedicate an entire post to the locations we fly at. Just be patient. If you read my first post here, with the contents I posted, it very well said that The locations will come after the profile of people . and to your question - No its not just MNNIT.

@shobhit17 - Very well agree to the safety measures. One of my main emphasis has always been to encourage safe flying at all times. Not only in choosing the locations, but in planning the flight, its aim and duly taking all precautions so that the hobby club never pays a price.

@utkarshg13 - I have done hundreds of flying sorties at Bamraulli. Have had wonderful friends and families with whom I have had the pleasure to fly with . However its only after getting due permissions.
Even if you fly in any other place, its always advisable to check in with the permissions and proximity to the airport and follow strict safety measures.


And for now, let me continue with the brief profiles of the aeromodellors in Allahabad.
 

Between the year 1998 and 2009 the only active fliers in Allahabad were Neeraj, and myself with occasional Ritesh.
Alone we three used to meet up at the Phaphamau airstrip at early hours of the morning to fly our nitro models. It was good times indeed , though we always felt that we lacked company . Just the two or three of us to continue on with the hobby.

Often times I wondered, why no one, who saw us taking our models in our cars, chase us to become part of the hobby. We tried to inspire so many, school students, professionals, doctors many came on the field, some even got the equipment but no one could take to the skies.

In 2005, For the first time, IIT Kanpur's annual Tech festival - sp4mm3r added a new competition - Cruise Control to their tech fest.

Neeraj and myself were super excited ! At last something in our UP heartland where we could fly and meet up with others !
Very well remember the enthusisasm with which we planned to visit and take part in the event. We used to practise together, with our Nitro airplanes. and planned to visit Kanpur, which is around 4 hours drive from Allahabad.

Just the night before the event ( after all our planes were packed up , and families told that we were on our first flying spree ) , we got a call from the IIT-K team that the Cruise Control event was cancelled 'due to security reasons'.

Bang ! both of us were so dejected that, that very night, we vowed to hold an event in Allahabad. That was when the 'Vortex-2005' was planned. Together we must have approached hundreds of aeromodellers across the country to invite them to Allahabad for a 2 day competitions. We were thrilled to know that there were aeromodellors in Kanpur - Sudipto dada, Ravi Gupta who very sportingly made up a plan to take part in our event. We were overjoyed when Sharad Goyal from Delhi also joined us. There was even a gentleman from Punjab who came in ( Will edit this thread to put down the name )  . We even got sponsorship from Keane India company in Gurgaon.

What a 2 day event that was.  Hundreds of families from the city came up the abandoned airstrip , and the two day event was memorable. We had aerobatic rounds, pylon speed racing and balloon bursting rounds. Incredible fun that was.

Here's a link to pictures from our event then : https://plus.google.com/photos/112530304634056436105/albums/5032169297579308625

I do have some videos too that I shall upload and link them from here.

After the event things were the same. Just the two us , to encourage each other to get up on early mornings and drive out to the runway to fly.

Continued this till 2008 when Amir Ahmed joined us.... Continued.

One day, back in 2007 I got a call from a student from MNNIT - saying that was interested in aeromodelling and found my name somewhere and wanted to learn to fly. I was thrilled !! After all these years, I got someone to express his interest towards flying , It had always been me pushing others to join me to the field.

Those were days before this forum had started, and I used to have my profile at IndiaRC - That was another interesting chapter in itself

One meeting with  Amir was enough to confirm that he had been bitten with the RC bug and after so many years Neeraj and myself got some company . We were thrilled to the core !
Amir introduced us to the new era of electric flying ( previously my stint was with brushed NiMh stuff only ) .  We helped Amir build up several birds to take part in various competitions. Amir in turn was very regular in flying and we spent countless weekends together on the field.

Our flying got on to the next level with 3D flying also. Amir made a mark by not only flying himself but by encouraging his mates and juniors to take this on as well. That was his true contribution to AeroModelling .

For the first time, after many many years, Neeraj and myself got company on our flying sessions. Amir with his array of electric birds amazed us with his skills. Amir also got into nitro flying . I believe he got his Yak and then a Harrier 3D airplane. I remember once seeing him fly so well, that I gifted him a .60 size Extra 300 from Phoenix models.

I remember once building a 3D airplane, and Amir maidened it in my garden cordoned of with trees . I guess he needed only 10x10 feet to fly that bird !

I have some cool videos and pictures of our flying days then, which ill post them here.

Amir's contribution was to start the aero club in MNNIT and inspire his juniors to take this forward.

One Saturday evening, back in 2009, when I was planning to start with a new Raptor 50 Nitro build, I get a call from a young guy saying he wants to meet me re: RC . I said come over and within 10 minutes, a stout and chubby Class 11th student was at my hobby room. He was none other than Akshay Bharadwaj , aka Akky.

I remember going to my hobby warehouse with him to take out the brand new Nitro heli kit ( I had saved for months to do the 'perfect build' ) and i t was evident that Akshay was an aeromodellor to stay.

He used to build all sorts of crazy airplanes which never flew - Flying wings, coro planes etc etc. I remember getting his first flyable bird to the sky - a coro plane, of which the wings had fluttered so much so that it gave us all fits of laughter at the field.

Calling himself the 'uncrowned King of electrics' Akshay and myself discussed many interesting things - from rewinding brushless motors to reprogramming ESCs . We shared good times in the field too - I helped train him for disciplined flying.

I had this Orange box glider, built from the Sharma models kit' - that I gave Akshay , who renamed it to the 'Pineapple box'.
He then went on to buy a GWS Slow stick which, in my opinion was one of the best learning airplanes.

Akshay and I used to meet up almost everday and talked about topics far ahead of the times then. We built and flew tricopters and multicopters in 2009, designed flying wings, and spent hours brooding over topics like prop and motor bell balancing, listening to motor vibrations, optimal control linkage geometry etc.
We used to fly at Phaphamanu, abandoned airstrip, at Bamraulli airbase, and sometimes at the Parade grounds near Sangam.
With Akshay, it was destined that electrics were the way to go, and in no time my interest in Electric flying grew up.

Akky was a fun person on the field. Anytime we needed something to smile - we asked Akshay to lend his plane and watch him shy away with some excuse.

Akshay was very different from the start - very creative, and a perfectionist. I have watched him crash his airplane in a pond of mud with the motor completely drenched only to have found him go home, and give the motor a through cleaning job and come back to show me running as new.

Our aeromodelling club in Allahabad now had 4 active fliers ! What good times.

Its as if yesterday, when Amir introduced me to yet another modeller who this time was a railway officer from Lucknow and got posted to Allahabad - Mr. Gaurav Bansal ( aka GKB ) .

A verstatile, multi-talented super creative person , perhaps with so diverse talents and interests that i would never be able to list them out here. From gardening, to book writing, from aquarium to poetry, from guitar to whistling songs, Gaurav ( no not me ) was the master of it all,

I remember him when he called me for the first time one evening to find out for a location to fly at, and we meeting at my living room and he showcased me his building skills. Gaurav was a master builder of foam airplanes. I have seen him think of building an airplane on Friday, see the framework on Saturday and do the maiden on Sunday - All in the same week.

Gaurav, used to fly electric, while i was on my 50CC and nitro helis. We used to call each other up religiously every Sunday at 5AM to confirm our departure to the airstrip , and it was indeed good times to have a flying companion. The two of us flew together for months every Sunday, sometimes on both Saturdays and Sundays. It was indeed a god's gift to have such a wonderful aeromodellor in our city.

I remember once GKB showing me a small, perhaps 12" plane built of sticks that he had made that very day. I wish I had taken a picture of that, for it was indeed a work of art.

Gaurav also did wonderful commenty - on several of our videos. Here is one i found. There would be tonnes others somether I need to post here :


and another one of him explaining his creation.



One day, I recall getting a brand new Twinstar Kit - for Neeraj. GKB got this idea to do a copy/trace of it before we assembled it together. We got out blank A4 sheets of paper, stuck them together, and traced out the twinstar fuse, and its wings.
This was a Friday evening.

After Gaurav left, I put up the kit back in its box and planned for the build next week. The very next day GKB calls me at 11AM saying he wants to show me something. At 12 I was seeing a copy of the twinstar ! Overnight he had converted the plans to a full airplane ! and not just any airplane a fine, square and true airframe. Also got his thumb cut, almost severing it in the process !
I was amazed to see someone which such exceptional building skills.
We maidened the airplane together in Sept 2012, a beautiful day that was.

With GKB we shared the love for aviation to the utmost sometimes even to being childish. Remember making an airplane from the PVR movie ticket and flying it from the 3rd floor of the mall and watch do a perfect spiral flight down !

We designed airplanes together in CAD, got them laser cut, assembled birds big and small flew together and spent evenings chatting about flying and skills.

Knowing GKB was in a transferable post, we literally prayed that he would never go, for the great company we enjoyed.

Truly a master builder of foam planes, and a wonderful person/ friend to be with.
Wish for the good days back , when we spent such wonderful times together.

Well as its said  All good things must come to an end. So did our good times.

Amir, after his MNNIT went back to Lucknow to setup his CNC business - Fbots.in
Akshay, after his 12th went to do his B.Tech at Graphic Era University, Dehradun,

Our group went back to basics again !

Luckily, with Amir's efforts the MNNIT aero club was existant and I met up with the next round of students - Kashif, and then  Shashank, Devendra, and even their juniors Ashwini.

I wish to write a word about each of these wonderful people I have met.

Kashif, Shashank and Devendra together organized several events in MNNIT . I have been there in almost all of them, and it had always been a great feeling to fly with students so excited and with hundreds of questions. They even helped get the college director to watch the sow and got his promise to fund the aero club. Great work there guys.
Here is one pic with Pawan, Devendra, Shashank and myself at UCER - Shashank and Devendra have been doing workshops in colleges - Again great work there to spread the hobby - Just add an extra chapter or two to train the newbies well and inculcate the responsibility to fly safely.

Utkarsh and his friend Siddhanth ,both students from UCER got in touch with me last year.

It was just one meeting with them, I knew Utkarsh was on his way. When he sent me a wonderful message after we went flying together for the first time - I knew he was addicted to the skies. Best thing with him is - He is always prepared before he comes to meet me. Always a set of well thought of questions/queries and is taking up the right path to learning flying. Good to know he has won prizes in several competitions. I am sure he will do great.

Utkarsh went on to learn his flying from the basic Coro Slowstick we built up together, to flying a more agile scratch built aerobatic model. With some more stick time, on my dual radio trainer setup Twinstar, I am sure he will move further up.
Want you to see some great pattern aerobatics.

Dear Gaurav,
All what is wanted is that each city not only has one specific place for aeromodelling flying but..... every group of friends of the city finds his own place suitable to them to fly.  Like in our cases..... I may like to fly on Bamrauli side of the allahabad... you prefer to fly towards the KP College side... someone likes Phaphamau... and others prefer Naini.... and not to forget the open grounds of the Railways and the Cantt areas... Similarly... I have found suitable place in Kaushambhi also..... Well... I found our dear friend too pushy about Bamraul being the only place in Allahabadi.... which was probably incorrect.  It is this forum which has brought us together and we are sharing our ideas and things... OR else we all would have had a small group of friends flying at different places without knowing each other....
The bottom line is.... Allahabad may be a sleeping place as it looks like.... but surely its not a dead city.... Its a vibrant and a bright city.

Also our little flying club is blessed with some junior members .

Shivam and Manas (pic attached ) aged 14 and 8 respectively are super enthusiastic. Shivam is crazy about building models. and though can fly solo has some way to go before he can fly good aerobatics. He never ceases to amaze me with his wonderful creations.

Pawan Pandey, for whom I helped create a dedicated thread - Is also a 14 year old - on a great way to learn.
http://www.rcindia.org/rc-people/pawan-pandey-from-allahabad-up/

My son Stavya Agarwal, aged 6  has also just joined the flying league .

We also have Vivek Kushwaha, pic attached - Getting into building . Already training on a Slow stick, will graduate to flying a more agile plane soon !

shobhit17 - Agree with what you say perfectly.  Infact it was your call the other day that urged/inspired me to come back here and post up the aeromodelling activities in our city ! Over the last couple of years, had more or less retired from the hopes to find any flier from our city here !

Of course everyone will have their own preference to fly. And as you know, there are ample of places to fly . With Allahabad such a small town, a short hop outside the city - open farms, barren side roads and beautiful/scenic locations to fly at ...

I idea behind this thread is to post any kind of aeromodelling activity here - by students, groups or individuals. A live running thread that showcases the huge RC activity happening in our very own city !

Coming to the locations we fly at :

Here are the most popular ones :
- WWII Abandoned airstrip at Phaphamau - Padilla Mahadev.
- Sangam Parade Grounds, Popular place for people to fly kites, and learn car driving
- MNNIT Grounds - May need permission from college.
- KP College ground - Again need permission from KP Trust to fly

Several other smaller college grounds are good places to fly from, specially electric airplanes. I have flown in several including : St. Josephs College, Boys' High School, MMM Stadium, University MCC grounds, All of these need permission.

Best bet for a newcomer would be to get in touch with someone experienced in my city for guidance.

Polo ground is also one wonderful place to fly at. However completely restricted by Army.

Allahabad being a small town has villages all around accessible within < 15 km of driving from anywhere. Within the villages there are ample places to fly at . Some exceptionally beautiful .

Contact here if you need help with flying locations. Suggest you observe precautions as well with Allahabad being like a fortress with defence installations on all sides.