The people behind CSM
Although as a company CSM has only existed since July 1995, the people behind it have been in electronics and aeromodelling all their remembered lives.
'The Absent-minded Professor'
Colin Mill is the brains of the outfit. He was a Senior Lecturer at UMIST, England, specializing in Atmospheric Physics, which involved developing computer controlled data systems to measure parameters in clouds - this involves electronics, computer programming and aerodynamics. When he decided to try flying model helicopters, having flown fixed-wing previously, he was mad enough to write his own flight simulator to learn to fly it!
The problem with Colin is that having got something working, probably in a very user-unfriendly package, he loses interest in it. This is where the other half of CSM comes in:
'The Suave Businessman'
Dave Whitney (who also runs NHP) is the one that takes Colin's working ideas, and packages and markets them. His background is the aeromodelling business, being the World Speed Champion for model helicopters. He has encouraged Colin to look at what else he could design to help modellers.
There are also Industrial contacts where Colin designs Control systems, and again Dave makes sure that Colin's feet remain firmly on the ground (he does tend to let his brain drift up into the clouds!)
That's the bosses dealt with, now for those that really do the work! At the Woodfield House Factory we have Andy Powell and Geoff Gardner. These oversee the assembly and testing of the gyros, deal with queries and service returned gyros. Its amazing what they can do with the most mangled, crashed gyro!
They are all aided and abetted by Colin's wife Wendy, and hindered by his daughters Katy (responsible for the cartoons!) and Janette! In their spare(?) time they also foster cats and kittens on behalf of the Cats Protection League, in particular the High Peak branch - the 'backbone of England'
Model goods
The CSM model products are available from any good model shop, or from many mailorder companies and are distributed world-wide to the trade by:-
RC Models Distribution Ltd
Woodfield House
Woodfield Road
Altrincham
Cheshire
WA14 4ED
England
Tel. +44 (0) 161 929 5955 Fax. +44 (0) 161 929 5984
EMail: info@rcmodels.org
Enquiries:
Contact CSM direct at:
E-mail:info@CSM-Ltd.co.uk
Tel.(0044) 161 928 8505
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/CSM_Ltd March 2000