VISIT TO LMA SHOW - RAF COSFORD

Last Friday, a party of nine Club members travelled to Cosford to visit the RAF Museum and attend the LMA's (Large Model Association) two day show.7

Situated in the picturesque countryside of Shropshire, RAF Cosford is not only home to No 1 School of Technical Training as part of the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering but also No 1 Radio School, with both coming under the Defence College of Technical Truaining.

An early flight with Flybe meant hungry mouths had to be fed, so a stop-off en-route at a 'Toby' was a top priority.

Plates were generously loaded with a full English breakfast to satisfy the travellers' appitites and, like 'Oliver', one man stepped forward for seconds!   Why not indeed?

After an enjoyable high calorie intake of bacon, sausages, eggs and mushrooms,  it was off to the Museum where we spent some five hours touring the various hangars and marvelling at the wonderful exhibits on display.  Everything from Spits and Hurricanes to Vulcans and Victors and much, much more.  Well worth a visit should you happen to be in the area.

A magnificent static scale model of the P51-D Mustang.  Rivets, screws, hydraulic lines and an abundance of fine scale detail, all could be seen.   Ten years in the making and donated to the museum by its builder in honour of  the American pilots who lost their lives in WW2.  Truly wonderful.

Steve poses beside a Harrier.  Fond memories.  He served his apprenticeships here and worked on these aircraft.

Saturday and Sunday saw our group at the LMA show.  The weather was sunny and warm and with quite a breeze on both days.  It's not just at Kirkistown where the wind blows.  There were many trade stands on site, though probably fewer than in previous years.  We were able to pick up the odd bits and bobs for the workshop and impending build projects and fortunately, we managed to get everything through airport security!

Amongst the spectators were Colin L and Graham D who had made their own way over.  So, a total of eleven club members showed interest and attended this popular event .

The trip home was on a FlyBe 'Embraer' jet.  Manufactured in Brazil?  Lovely aircraft.  A very tight turn onto finals to the City Airport completed what turned out to be a comfortable and uneventful flight.

(I'm sure I heard from the flight deck, 'bank angle, bank angle, bank angle'!!)

Taildragger43

SEAGULL 'CHALLANGER' KIT

Yesterday saw the maiden flight of Lawrence's new model, a Seagull 'Challanger', which comes as a builder's kit.

Powered by a new OS .46AX glow motor, the model flew with authority in quite windy conditions and was a 'joy' to fly.

Lawrence has done a nice job with the covering;  Solarfilm and Solartrim for the 'Smartie' dots.  His wife's idea, and it looks really well.  Something different.

Lawrence hopes to fly it with the aid of a 'buddy lead',  assisted by one of the Club's instructors, just as soon as he wind dies down!

Nice to see a traditional built model at the field.

'Taildragger'

CRAIGAVON LAKES SPLASH-IN

A trial Splash-in was held in the beautiful setting of Craigavon Lakes, Co Armagh on Sunday.   Organised by John T and Seamus O'D in conjunction with the Council, the event was thouroughly enjoyed by all those who attended. 

Participants came from far and wide;  Enniskillen, Dundalk, Donegal and of course, NDMAC.  'Steadyhand', 'Sparky B, 'Taildragger' and Steve B carried the banner for the Club.

All types of water planes were on display.  Traditional, Foamies, Multi-rotors and a Gyrocopter on floats.  Boats also featured in the day's activities.

Some flyers posing for the traditional group photograph before moving to the lake shore

A recovery dinghy was provided by John T and 'Steadyhand' rigged up the Club's O/b to make life easier for the crew.

The weather was lovely, albeit a stiff on-shore breeze for most of the morning made the landings demanding, but this didn't put off the more enthusiastic pilots amongst us.

John T now hopes to discuss with the Council the possibility of holding more such events in the future.

John T

Seamus with his 3D printed Tri-copter.  Whatever next?

Some more pics:

Video courtesy of CMAC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1ZftIIgkWg

A great day out.  Can't wait for the next one.

'Taildragger'

The 'Inspector' takes his flying to the next level.

Today the 'Inspector' successfully passed his BMFA 'A' test.  Scrutinised by 'The Boss' and 'MTK', our two Club examiners, the 'Inspector' was deservedly awarded a Pass.

Mentored this year by 'Steadyhand' Elliott, the 'Inspector' duly reached the required standard, having shown great dedication and practising mainly in blustry conditions which have been so prevalent at Kirkistown this year.

The 'Inspector' & 'Steadyhand' (Club Instructor)

'CONGRATULATIONS'

Hi everyone.

We arrived safely here in Eguzon on Monday evening, after a pleasant drive down from Cherbourg. This was my car packed ready for the trip, fortunately some of my models were already in France.

 It's hard to believe we've been here over a week already.The weather was very hot for the first few days ( high twenties ) which made the gardening hard work. The forecast for this week is cooler with some showers.

The house and garden are almost under control now so we had a day out at the model flying club on Sunday ( lots of flying and no damage ) I will try to put a short video clip on You tube to show the layout of the runway etc.

This is a photo of a little depron  model I have started ( I thought this might interest George. )  

It's designed to begin learning aerobatics so it may not last too long, still the airframe is easily replaced.

Clicking on the link below should take you straight to the video if I did everything right, if not let me know. 

https://youtu.be/SmmnCTql_Bo

What about Bill Shanks?   Is he able to get down to Kirkistown now that he is not driving?

Hope you are all getting lots of flying at Kirkistown.

Regards.

Ricky

A enthusiastic band of volunteers turned out on Wednesday evening, shovels and rakes at the ready, and tackled the job of repairing the inner lane.

Members enjoyed a hearty meal of Fish & Chips in the shelter before the delivery lorry arrived at 6.00pm with six tonnes of blinding, destined for the pot holes.  Duly fortified by this high calorie intake, (of F & C!)  the gang quickly got 'stuck in'  and made light work of shovelling and raking.

A very big thank you to everyone who answered the call and turned up on the day.  Work got finished quickly which meant that flying could resume just as the sun was settling low to the horizon, on what turned out to be a great evening indeed.

'Taildragger43''

A NEW PROTOCOL HAS BEEN INTRODUCED

It is hoped that adopting this will make it easier for Fixed wing and Rotory wing fliers to slot in at different times on the flight line, thus avoiding a mix of helis and fixed wing models flying at the same time.

To this end, a Sign has been attached to the windsock pole.  It shows 'RESTRICTED FLYING' when displayed.

It will be displayed when Helicopters have a flying Slot, (only helis allowed to fly) and can also be displayed when a test flight is taking place or a fast jet is flying if the pilot so requests.

Committee

A NIGHT AT THE AUCTION

Just to keep club members informed as to what went on at the auction selling modelling items about which the club was informed by email recently.

I finished my work early on Tuesday night so decided to go to the auction obviously hoping to pick up a bargain or two.  I have never been to an auction since buying a Ford Escort for £400 thirty odd years ago, so didn't really know what to expect.  As you enter the building you are asked if you require a bidders number which I did.  This cost a whole pound and attached to it was a list of the six hundred and seven items up for grabs.

It kicked off at six thirty and although they were getting through one hundred items every half an hour, it was over one and a half hours before the first plane was reached!   All the planes and kits were brand new and looked liked they had never been out of their boxes.  There was a 87" Thunder Tiger Cub, a Phoenix Comet, a Skymaster kit and a 200 mph, as the auctioneer said, Magnum.   There were also a few boats and tool boxes with various bit and pieces in them.

It was the Comet I was most interested in with the idea if I got if for around twenty pounds, then I could sell my rather sedate Bullet.

As the first plane was held up, and by the time I got my pen out and got the top off, three modelling items had been sold!  Going by memory, the Cub started off around £30 went like a flash to 40, then 50, 60, 70, 80 and finally went for £87.  That really surprised me.  A Ben Buckle (?) free flight thing went for £17. 

A Ferrari boat for £40 and the Comet which I had an interest in, went from £20 to 30 to 40 to 50 and was sold for £55.  Not by me I might add.

Added to this price is 15% commission PLUS 20% vat!!!  Not cheap.  The only other item I had  interest in was a plastic tool box c/w bits and pieces, most of which I would have no need for, but the tool box was quite sturdy.  Only go to a fiver I keep saying to myself.  £8 was the starting price then £12, 14, 16, 18, and it sold for £20 bleddin' quid!  Perhaps there was some 'buried treasure' in the bottom which I missed, but no way was it worth that amount of money.  (Yikes - hope nobody from our club bought it!)  There were another two modelling items.  A box of various modelling tools and another with an assortment of servos, but it would have been another one and a half hours before they came up.  So I headed home, my tail between my legs.

.
So that was how I spent my Tuesday night, and I think the moral of this story is, if there is something that you really want, then yes it would save you money, but if you want a super cheap bargain, just forget it.

Dennis.

'A' TEST SUCCESS FOR RICKY

Saturday saw Ricky rise to the occasion and take his BMFA 'A' test.

Conditions were far from perfect when Ricky committed his high wing 'Sedona' to the sky.

None-the-less, Ricky put in a competent performance in the strong winds and was duely awarded a Pass.

Well done sir.

'Taildragger'

Congratulations to Matthew and Lisa on the birth of their son, Reuben

Reuben's first outing to an airfield was on Easter Monday when he went to UMAC's Fly-In.  It is reported that Reuben particularly liked the electric planes!

Best wishes from all at NDMAC.

Mike 'Sparky' Braithwaite