SCALE DAY

20^th June 2010

As to be expected on the day before the summer solstice the weather started off drab, windy and a little cool.  However, nothing daunted our gallant team of barrier erectors were hard at work by 8:15 a.m. and a steady stream of cars began arriving to gradually fill the (temporary) car park.  By the time of pilot briefing it was clear that the event had attracted a bumper entry this year and the contest director was forced to announce that in order to have two rounds of flying the number of manoeuvres to be flown by competitors would be reduced from 10 to 8, thereby reducing the flight time per round.

Two types of competition were actually being held although the same two (unfortunate) flight judges and flight scoring system was used for both. Those who so elected could have their models statically judged and the combined static and flight score would comprise the F4c competition whilst those with flight scores only would compete in the unsurprisingly named ‘flying only’ competition.

Flying started at 10a.m. and proceeded at a brisk pace with competitors lining up and preparing to fly in the flight order on the scoreboard.  The wind was a little blustery but not so strong as to cause problems and there were few moments of high drama. However there was one casualty when Terry Manley’s beautiful Blackburn Kangaroo lifted off and promptly misbehaved itself to the point where it stalled in and tore its nose off.  This was a beautiful and well-detailed model of an unusual aircraft, which was generally expected to do well.  However, its owner had earlier responded to my enquiries as to its handling by stated that, to put it politely it was a bit of a bitch!  He was later heard muttering that it was going in the bin, but then we all say that after a crash.

Richard Scarborough giving his Yak 9 a bit of a seeing to in the grand style enlivened the lunch break.  I have never seen a WW2 war bird do things like that!

After lunch the weather began to improve along with the start of round 2.  By the time the event concluded we were in full sunshine, the wind had gone and the temperature was balmy. One excitement was the sight of Richard Crap’s Huge PT22 coming in to land with one undercarriage swinging loose after a bracket failure on take off.  The touch down and one wheel slide across the grass was magnificently real but sadly is not on the scorecard.

All in all one of the best scale competition at our field for some years with some fantastic models, including one that will be going to Poland later this summer for an International event. If you missed it you missed a great day

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I came nowhere important but had a great competition!!

Photos herewith are worth a thousand words and capture the event in all its glory, including the results.  Enjoy.

Link to photo`s