Gus had brought along his beautifully finished, large scale Mitchell bomber. Another aircraft that has been waiting for a nice long runway to try it out.
Gus Tinkers With His Engines.
Gus was having difficulty getting both engines to run reliably
but, as can be seen above, there was no shortage of advice from other club members!
Not surprisingly, Gus never did get the engines right and, sadly but sensibly,
the Mitchell has yet to fly.
This One is Worthy of a Caption Competition!
Dennis Fernie brought along an equally impressive large scale P51 Mustang which, again, had yet to fly.
The obligatory engine tinkering was again to be seen with, of course, lots of helpful advice.
P51 Engine Testing.
The engine running happily, range checks were done and the aircraft wheeled back to the pits for refueling.
Dennis Wheels the P51 Back
Finally the aircraft was ready to fly. So, with a large audience watching, a smooth and uneventful take off was followed by a very scale display (although minus the lower engine cowling to ensure the motor did not overheat.)
The P51 Takes to the Air
...And Climbs Away
On a Low Pass
Sadly the P51 story does not have a happy ending. As it turned onto finals, throttled back but with the nose well down, it appeared to drop into a spin. The unforgiving runway wrecked the engine almost as badly as the airframe.
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Oh - and the other crash of the day - that was me with a Delta 362. Rolling at about 5 feet above the runway and just passing through inverted, I caught site of a 'plane cutting across the front of me and immediately swerved. In fact he was at least 100 yards ahead of me and no problem at all - certainly not at fault in any way. I almost pulled out and the plane just glanced off the runway back into the air before dead sticking under control into a field. Well the 'plane wasn't badly damaged but the Super Tigre 29 was wrecked - the silencer ripping off of the crankcase and embedding itself in the wing. Concrete runways sure are hard! Keith England |
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