It is renewal time again and, once more, there is no change in the rates – a form for renewals is downloadable here.

PAYPAL users may send electronic payment in GBP, USD or EUR to bastindw@aol.com.

Longer term we are in the happy position of having a cash surplus largely due to only having item of ever rising costs – namely post. This particularly affects overseas members so it is perhaps worth noting that on-line membership can now include the option of having the Newsletter E-Mailed as a Word document as well as instigating your own downloads from www.aviapc.com. You do of course need the ability to receive multi-megabyte E-mails.

Some of our expenditure goes on promoting the club at postcard and aviation collector shows. The Chester PC show in September indirectly yielded new member Chris Ludlam ,18 Leamington Terrace Ilkley LS29 8EJ chris.ludlam@wyg.com who joins our set of Imperial collectors. The only other contingency we have to plan for is that of having to pay for web maintenance of at any time we cannot do it in-house.

One correction. New US member Richard Citron, should be Sitron. Meanwhile Bill has signed up another, Roger Braatz from Minnesota. marras@hickorytech.net.

Following on from thoughts on the future of the hobby set out elsewhere in this issue, it seems to me that we need a way forward for CATALOGUES .

If the hobby is to become more established it needs to have more literature to share the knowledge of current collectors and be a vehicle to attract others. Our past catalogues have tried to be both that and give wider information about their subjects. Future catalogues should be only that – although a useful addition would be some indication of availability, like differentiating between Global rarity, hard-to-find, and common – no values assigned.

Paper publication would only be considered as an option for those willing to pay the full price for professional standard printing, like the French Concorde catalogue. Electronic publication would be the norm, which allows individuals to print at their own discretion. The important thing is the information not the medium.

I propose, using my own collection database to start a project “Airline-issue postcards pre-1940”, starting with the UK. The reasons include :-

1) This is a likely area of growth in interest

2) Connections with aerophilately mean there are established sources of information

3) We have a body of members who could both contribute and benefit.

….and finally , the recent production of a book on the postcard history of ocean liners suggests there just might be the possibility of a commercial spin-off.

Starting with the UK should make it easier for a UK based operation but there willbe some challenges, like sorting out the semi official Imperial Tuck series – apparently available from the Airline and from Tuck to the general public – and also in numbered and un-numbered versions. An unusual one is No 29 showing a diorama model of Rand Airport Johannesburg.

And common to all aspects “What is airline issue ?”. Even “What is an airline ?” Dragon G-ACCR with portrait of owner W.A Rollason, founder of the Croydon business that ended up as an ex RAF Tiger Moth agency and builder of Druine light aircraft under licence. Signed by him on the back with inked title “Air Dragon” and stating that the buyer had supported the local hospital and British civil aviation.

I will report further in March but, as for previous catalogue assembly projects, an initial database of UK carriers cards is already available for those who wish to be in at the start. If the project goes ahead I expect to issue an updated CD to contributors quarterly. For other members or non-members there is the possibility of making this available on a chargeable basis, possibly combined with all the previous catalogues on the same CD ( Although please note that the master copies of Comet, VC-10 and BAC-111 images were lost in a system crash and are now only held as scans of the paper copies with consequent quality shortfall).

One question is why not go the whole hog and publish the result on www.aviapc.com. This is an option but I have to point out again the example of the Constellation catalogue which Greg Smith used to maintain from the US but which has now disappeared – so only older copies on CD or paper remain. Also the club is very vulnerable due to lack of web skills to maintain www.aviapc.com should Christian’s circumstances change. This would need to be solved before developing the site further.

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