John Gilchrist Memorial Trophy

 

John Gilchrist was one of the founding members of Hamilton Radio Modelling Club as it was known then and an early chairman of the club up until his death.

He was a driving force in how the club developed in its formative years. Although never in the best of health and by his own admission, was never the best of pilots, he was an extremely skilled builder and could always be found at the clubs flying site.

 

He derived a great deal of pleasure from building and just watching others flying. He was always more than willing to pass on building tips to others and was a great admirer of others building skills. encouraging club members to build the best models they could and continually learn and strive to improve with each successive model.

 

When ill health finally caught up with him, it was felt that, as he was such a force within the formative years of the club, his passing should be marked in some way.

 

His family was approached, and they were delighted that his memory would be kept alive within the club as it was such a big part of his life. The family were asked to set the criteria for a shield to be known as the “John Gilchrist Memorial Trophy” and in line with Johns interests the following rules were set:

 

• The trophy will be competed for on an annual basis.

• The model has to be built by a club member.

• It may be scratch built or from a kit but NOT an ARTF. 

• It must be flown at the club and witnessed in the year it is entered. An amendment was later added that if the model is not capable of being flown at the club site, such as a seaplane, evidence must be provided of the date and location of its flight.

• The builder does not need to be the pilot but both must be club members. (John often asked others to fly his models so he could admire them in flight.)

• Individuals may enter as many models as they wish but each model may only be entered once (not again in subsequent years) regardless of whether it wins or not.

• The members will vote for their choice of model entered at the AGM and the winners name will be added to the shield which they will hold for a period of one year.