This being a fly-in, instead of our usual display, the lack of public meant that everyone in the club could fly.
Although the bad weather prevented some from turning up, for a number of flyers this was their first experience of flying from a hard runway.
I expect that one or two went home wondering where their tail skid had gone but, fortunately, only two people managed to discover just how hard a hard runaway can be (of which more later!)
David Pringle's Wot 4 speeds by.
Then, of course, another good reason for coming was lunch. A suitable break in the rain allowed the barbecue (obtained, as can be seen below, at great expense!) to be lit
The Barbecue is Lit
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The dilemma was then whether to fly or eat as the rain held off - eating won in most cases! Kit took the opportunity to do a feasibility study on jet engine manufacture from old washing machine parts. After lunch, Jeff flew a new addition to his stable. A Black
Horse Models Super Air. This was a clean looking low winger that comes
as a very complete almost ready to fly. As I found out a couple of weeks later, like a lot of these Vietnamese kits, the aircraft is made of some form of box wood and not balsa. This results, not only in it being somewhat heavy at 6lb 4oz for a 49 inch wingspan, but as brittle as egg shell. Mine hit the ground at quite a shallow angle when the radio went into fail safe, with a stopped engine - and in thick corn. Yet over half the aircraft was reduced to match wood. I'd expected to find a few cracks and a broken propellor! |
The Super Air Takes to the Air
The nice long hard runway was an opportunity for some first flights of new aircraft. For many, this was the first time that they got to see a jet flying when Tony Major put on a great display with his Vector. However both he and Tony Fuller flew their Vectors at the GTBA meeting a week later so I've put all of the jet photo's on the GTBA Meet page.
Mark, Alan and Tony had all built new Toffee Bombers. Since these came out as a cross between a Wellington Bomber and a Whitley Bomber they call them "Whitwells"
Mark, Alan & Tony Pose with their New Whitwells
These simple scale aircraft, 80" span and weighing 12-14lb, fly beautifully on a pair of Irvine 46's. They probably fly well on a couple of 4 strokes as well, but Tony had a few engine problems and didn't get to fly his one!
Mark's Whitwell Takes to the Air
Alan Does His Usual 3 Point Landing (Wheel, Wingtip & Tailplane!)
