Sunday was pretty windy, mercifully from the southwest, which is the best wind direction for North Luffenham.  Rutland water is still a decent way away.

Bill Draper set the tone of the proceedings when the wing of his Caprice failed catastrophically on the first flight of the day. We all scuttled for shelter it buried itself in the ground at our feet. Undeterred, Bill unearthed his other secret weapon made of Teak, which flew remarkably well considering that the lump of lead in its nose must have been at least half a church roof's worth. Mike Edwards reappeared with his Amethyst after a long retrieve with it's fuselage in bits. None of us admitted to stamping on it, so we told him it was just an accident, and he believed us. Peter's Caprice put in three excellent flights, including a two minute max, which won him the competition and a place on the long distance walking team for next year's Olympics. At one point, I thought we had lost him in a bomb crater, but he was fortunately unharmed. Howard's Amethyst was just starting to behave when it unfortunately clocked a 21 second flight, a second outside the attempt minimum. Being a mean lot, we decided that it had to stand as a competition flight, which didn't do his overall score any good.  Mike Chapman put in two great  flights after his first one, over which we draw a discreet veil. I missed his demonstration of' 'kite' flying on one of his launches as I thought I was supposed to be retrieving it and Mike thought  that I was timing it. So he had five minutes kite flying, and I disappeared downwind pursuing his non existent model. There's organization for you ! Yours truly managed some good launches with the Mercury Swan, and on one of them, it actually found some lift.( You would not believe how far a glider  can travel off a 50 metre line in a stiff breeze. Or perhaps you would...) My modified Mercury Gnome managed a couple of fair flights. By modified, I mean having a large Rapier L4 motor stuck on a pylon over the wing. It does save all that running about with a towline nonsense, and the smell of that smoke...mmmmmm

 

So at the end of an energetic day's flying, the results were :-      1st   Peter Arkley with his KK Caprice      279 seconds   (total of three flights)

 

                                                                                               2nd   Mike Chapman     F1Havanana         245 seconds

 

                                                                                                3rd   Mike Edwards      Amethyst             215 seconds

 

                                                                                                4th    R Granger        Mercury Swan         202 seconds

 

                                                                                                 5th   Howard Smith      Amethyst             160 seconds

 

                                                                                                 6th   Bill Draper            Thing                   130 seconds

The wind strength was enough to flip over any un-tethered or upright model (except Bill's)

 

Bill's Caprice was the first casualty of the day !

 

Mike Edwards seems happy with his broken Amethyst ?

 

Another fly-away ?

 

Oh the wind strikes again !

 

Soon repaired (again).

 

Weren't we lucky with the weather on Sunday ?!

 I sat here watching the trees thrashing about on Monday morning, and thought what an incredible contrast it was to Sunday. The goat I sacrificed on Saturday morning must have done the trick, because it really was a perfect day ( remind me to have a word with our illustrious treasurer about the price of goats nowadays..... )

Both competitions were well supported, and various dramas kept us all entertained during the course of the day. The first disaster was Ian Hewitt's power model trying to beat Ken's attempt last year to destroy the runway at Barkston. Due to a trimming problem, no doubt compounded by the urge of most power models to self destruct at the earliest possible opportunity, it piled in at a ferocious speed after a five second flight and did itself no good at all. Peter Arkley's Climax then decided that a ten second engine run was quite inadequate and vanished upwards at colossal speed, finally cutting out after 28 seconds at about 1,000 feet. As the model settled into its long journey to Skegness, Peter disappeared over the horizon, reappearing about an hour later, plus model, looking ready for a long lie down in the grass. Ken Reeves also explored the countryside at length on two occasions after a couple of excellent  flights with his Foxy. His comments about needing the exercise need not be repeated here. Mike Chapman's Pink Elephant glider defied gravity in its usual stately manner, flying beautifully.  I was a coward and waited for the breeze to die down, which it did later on, being rewarded with  retrieves of at least 40 yards. Later on, flat calm prevailed, and the clear blue sky was filled with Howard Smith's delightful power models bumbling about. In tribute to the late Ken Oliver's success in this field, I had several great flights with the Red Ripper he left me, which showed what a fine modeller he was. John Churchill did well with his new, beautifully built 30" Pacific Ace, finished after breakfast that morning, and Mike Edwards seemed well pleased with the day's flying, including a long flight with his Senator's noseblock in upside down. There were some impressive flights put in by everyone, and I think we would all agree that it was a very successful day's flying. 

Here are the results, expressed as the total, in seconds, of three timed flights.............

 

In  OPEN  POWER        1st    Peter Arkley       217   with  his     CLIMAX

                                       2nd   Ken Reeves        203                    CLIMAX

                                   3rd    R Granger          202                     GIPSY

                                          4th    Mike Edwards    194                     SENATOR 

                                                      5th    John Churchill      190                    30" PACIFIC ACE 

 

In OPEN GLIDER          1st    Mike Chapman     328                   PINK ELEPHANT   

                            2nd  Mike Edwards       301                   AMETHYST

                        3rd   Peter Arkely          286                   CAPRICE

                   Joint 4th   Ken Reeves           223                    FFOXY (sic)

                            4th   Ian Hewitt              223                   AMETHYST

                                       5th   R Granger              181                   MERCURY  SWAN

                             6th   Howard Smith        141                   AMETHYST 

Some of the club members and a few models.

John, Ken, Pete, Ian, Mike, Howard - Richard on the camera.

 

Howard launches Pete's Caprice glider.

 

Mike Edwards looks apprehensive as he piles on the final turns.

 

Mike Chapman launches Ian's Amethyst glider.

 

Pete launches his Climax power model.

 

Pink Elephant looking for thermals.

 

Richard launches Ken's Ffoxy (sic) glider.

 

John launches his Pacific Ace rubber powered model.

 

Richard's Red Ripper heads for the heavens.

 

If you weren't there, you missed a memorable days flying.

 

Mike Edwards took over the scoring and lap timing, so if there are any fisticuffs, I have his address.

A few shots of the amazing poses adopted by C/L Stunt flyers. Any Shakespearean company would have been proud of them.

 Needless to say, Ian Hewitt won using one of his lethally fast Irvine 20 engines with 239 points, Peter Arkley came second with 250 points and Bill Draper came third with 300 points.

Scores  were :-                               1st    Bill Draper           1080 points

                                                      2nd     Kevin Morgan     954 points

                                                      3rd     Ian Hewitt            920 points

What a cracking evening ! I never thought we would be able to fly anything other than large kites.

The usual dedicated bods turned up for this auspicious event, in spite of there being gale force winds for most of the day.  

The first thing we noticed was a total lack of sheep. Diligent searching of the local treetops revealed nothing, so we assumed they had all been blown into Leicestershire.

The north westerly wind was ideal in direction, as the line of trees on the side of the field protected us from the worst of it. Having said that, there were some brilliant displays of involuntary aerobatics when the models cleared the sheltered area. 

The standard of flying was first class, and some unlikely models, such as Barry Purseglove's curious high wing Polish looking device ( shows how much attention I was paying when he told me what it was ) were achieving extraordinary altitudes. John Churchill's tiny all sheet Bird Dog flew as steady as a rock, Peter's Lacey M10 climbed like a rocket, and my own disgracefully tatty Lacey M10 performed a treat and came first !

Howard, unused to all this rubber flying nonsense, had some good flights from his West Wings Topaz sport model, and we hope this will persuade him to abandon his smelly diesels and go for rubber power. Mike Edwards finally got his P-30 model to fly, and was seen pursuing the offending object into the distance with great vigour.

And guess what ? We all retired to the pub !

*****

 

Peter, with Lacey M10, looks impressed with someone else's flight.

 

We must all be mad !

Where else, other than at the club's chuck glider competition, would you find seven grown men tearing about flying models worth at least 50p each in the gathering gloom and occasional rain of a typically  British May evening ?

There were some fascinating, if rather blurred launching techniques to be seen. ( I hope you got both your arms back Peter, having obviously lost them both on one particularly vigorous launch.....! ) Howard's brolly lent a certain quality to the proceedings too, I thought. We didn't see it fly, but it could have done quite well I think. And Bill looks as though he might have had his arm twisted by a desperate competitor!

 

Based on the total of the best five flights out of nine ( where did that come from?! )  (Old BMFA rules.)

 

                             1st     Mike Chapman           169.7 secs

                             2nd    Peter Arkley               120.1 secs

                             3rd    Rick Granger                85.8 secs

                             4th    John Churchill               77.8 secs

                             5th    Mike Edwards              63.6 secs

      A difficult wind direction was taking the models towards the road but light winds meant there were only one or two scares (phew). You know you are doing well, when, after a particularly high launch your fellow competitors look up at the glider and start singing " So long its been good to know you  - So long its been........" :)

Photo's taken by Richard Granger.

 

Mike Edwards gets to practice his hand launch technique .

 

Pete's no arm launch technique !

 

Howard came to keep us amused.

 

John tried something different.

 

Trying to detect very light thermals. Top Secret method being used.

 (the farmer may wonder why he has a patch of bulrushes growing in the middle of his field next year ! )

 

 

It was a great evening out and the pub visit finished it off a treat.