2025 may well be remembered as the summer of heat waves and by the time the club’s annual Free Flight Scale Fly-in came along we were well into our third.  The day before temperatures had reached a sweltering 32C in the afternoon so the early morning starts to our competitions seemed like a good one, even so we decided to start an extra hour early at 8:30 so we could finish at 12pm and be off the meadow before the higher heat of the afternoon.

The plan seemed to work well with competitors arriving early to take advantage of the cool calm air to get their flights. The normal 10:30 curfew on IC engines was also relaxed so those of the oily hand brigade could make the most of the conditions as well. CD Gary Law also had plenty of water on hand, a Gazebo for shade with chairs to sit on and was able to ferry people back to the car park at the end of the day which all made it much more pleasant.

Despite the predicted heat the meeting was fairly well attended with some fun flyers with both scale and sport models and some spectators which was great to see

There’s a video here showing many of the flights of the day. Thanks to Pete  Fardell and Charlie Jeffreys for the extra filming

FLYING ONLY 

 The Flying Only Class saw the largest entry with 11 models . The rules allow up to 2 models per entry so Mike Staurt, Pete Fardell and Chris Brainwood all took advantage of the extra flying time and had a couple of entries. Bill Dennis was the CD who judged the class , with the help of Trish Dennis,  in the smooth and relaxed style we are coming expect from an OMFC event

The class is judged on flying realism with marks awarded for different aspects of the flight, from the climb, cruise and landing approach. The best scoring flight is then used to determine the winner with 4 flights permitted. The were no attempts so once you let go of your model it counts as a flight

The flying conditions were often quite tricky as the morning warmed up with some quite bumpy air to contend with. Finding a calm patch definitely made all the difference , not so easy to do those with IC engines as once you have started your diesel you generally just go with it.

 Both Mike Smith and Chris Brainwood fielded DH biplanes with very similar results . Both were IC powered and both had flights where they turned quite tightly and both found out how hard the meadow is after 3 heat waves. Mike’s Tiger Moth unfortunately had a hard arrival under power and broke the rear fuselage off at the tail leaving him with a model I would have put straight back in the car. Undeterred Mike got out the Cyano and set about sticking it all back together. Much to his credit and skill it flew again several times, flying well enough for a reasonable score in the conditions. Fairing only slightly better and just 25 points ahead was Chris Brainwood’s DH 60 Moth. Chris’s first flight the fuel level was miss judged and it ran out just after launch, the resultant stall and dive broke off the fin and despite also hitting the cyano bottle it never really got its usual trim back after that with a nice climb but a bit of a spiral dive on the glide.

Both models with superglue repairs

Mike did much better with his rubber powered Aeronca Defender to gain 9^th place. Charlie Jeffreys had his Rumpler flying nicely and looking very much the part as it flew in lovely large circuits over the meadow. Charlie has clearly finessed the trimming from last year and was rewarded with  8 th place just behind the equal 7^th of Pete Fardell’s Stinson Sentinel and David King’s BAT Monoplane. David’s Bat Monoplane looked very impressive in the air, very slow flying with its broad chord wings.

Mike Stuart’s Bristol Superfreighter looked and sounded superb but the early flights the model was down on power no doubt due it having been last flown at the Indoor Nationals. With the power increased it was climbing much better but the more turbulent air meant it bounced about a bit more than was scale and it was unable to repeat it’s winning success of last year.

One model that always seems to confound the conditions and produce a high scoring flight is Pete Fardell’s 1909 Bleriot XI. This rubber powered model oozes the character and charm of an Edwardian aircraft and even has a model of Louis Bleriot himself flying it. The Bleriot also flies indoors as well , even using the same rubber motor, which is extraordinary as often indoor models need more power to fly in the less than perfect conditions we have outside, as Mike’s Bristol proved. Pete’s Bleriot managed 5^th place  just five points behind Andy Blackburn’s 4^th place Miles Magister.

The Miles is built from the Aerographics design and was looking very smooth in the air, it was also entered in the Rubber Duration Class proving you need a car full of models to enter the Scale comps. 2nd and 3rd were also separated by just 5 points. Mike Stuart’s Consolidated Fleetster looked very convincing as it circled above our heads but lost out to the now well sorted Cessna 170 of Chris Brainwood.

Out in front though by an impressive 25 points was Ivan Taylor’s Gloster Meteor. The model is twin edf and like most of Ivan’s models to his own design. The flight was truly impressive and captured on video by Charlie Jeffrey’s ( checkout the link to youtube.com) It looked to all intents and purposes a real Meteor over the meadow and flight won him the class and the John Blagg Trophy

 

Name	Model	Power	Best Flight
Ivan Taylor	Gloster Meteor	electric	880	1
Chris Brainwood	Cessna 170	I/C	855	2
Mike Stuart	Consolidated Fleetster	rubber	850	3
Andy Blackburn	Miles Magister	rubber	785	4
Pete Fardell	Bleriot XI	rubber	780	5
Mike Stuart	Bristol Superfreighter	electric	775	6
Pete Fardell	Stinson Sentinel	rubber	730	=7
David King	BAT Monoplane	rubber	730	=7
Charlie Jeffreys	Rumpler Taube	I/C	700	8
Mike Smith	Aeronca Defender	rubber	685	9
Chris Brainwood	DH 60 Moth	I/C	655	10
Mike Smith	DH 82 Tiger Moth	I/C	630	11

 

Scale Glider Duration

The class is the total of three flights using the provided bungee hi-start. The class attracted 6 entries but all the flyers found the conditions a challenge. The Peterborough rules bungee saw a lot of activity throughout the morning but only half the entrants managed a qualifying flight. Aside from the bumpy thermal air the models had to fly in, the ground after successive heat waves  was baked hard and  proved very unforgiving if the model turned on the line and headed down at speed. A recent mowing of the grass made things worse with little in the way of cushioning.

Pete Fardell and Mike Stuart both suffered damaged models and retired. Mike loosing the front end and therefore nose weight from his Schweizer. Pete and  Colin Sharman also failed to get a time on the board with Chris Brainwood managed just one qualifier with his Slingsby Eagle before another poor launch and dive to the side saw the wing dowels finally give up and retired as well. David King fared better with two qualifying flights in the tricky conditions with his Zlin 24 to gain 2^nd place, while the only entrant with 3 flights on the board was Bill Dennis with his Schweizer. A total of 38 sec gave Bill the class win

Name	Model	Flight 1	Flight 2	flight 3	Total
Bill Dennis	Schweizer TG-2	14	12	12	38	1
David King	Zlin 24	13	13	–	26	2
Chris Brainwood	Slingsby Eagle	10	–	–	10	3
Colin Sharman	Slingsby Prefect	–	–	–
Mike Stuart	Schweizer SG2-22	–	–	–
Pete Fardell	DH Sparrow	–	–	–

Rubber Scale Duration

This year saw a new class, the Scale Rubber Duration. The class follows the Flying Aces Club rules fairly closely which allow monoplanes up to 36 ins span and multi wing models up to 30 ins. A set of bonuses are then added to the score to determine the winner. Due to the conditions on the day with the wind direction heading for the river, a max of 60s was set by the CD

6 models entered all looking for that 60 sec max. Mike Stuart initially entered his lovely little  Beech Bonanza and managed a first flight of 18 sec however the the next resulted in a broken tail so a second model, a Neiuport was entered to take it’s place. This model fared somewhat worse and re-kitted itself on it first flight leaving Mike the only option to repair the tail on his Bonanza. That paid off and the resultant flights saw him just 10 points behind the 4^th place of David King with his BAT Monoplane. David’s BAT is a new model and is scaled up from the smaller kit version. It works very well at this size with a lovely slow flying speed and even scored a max on it’s last flight.

 

Pete Fardell’s Stinson Sentinel was going well too and though it didn’t manage a max it was consistent and with the bonuses added gained a well earned 3^rd place just 1 point ahead of David’s BAT

Out in front though were Andy Blackburn’s Miles Magister and Ivan Taylor’s Auster. Both managed 3 maxes but the winner was decided on the bonus system with Andy coming out on top with his smaller Miles Magister.

The performance of Ivan’s Auster was remarkable though with all flights over 90 sec the final being 5 minutes. This did cause a bit a of problem as the DT wasn’t set and the model drifted off downwind still in lift and heading over the Thames.  Ivan and his timer Colin Sharman watched it down with binoculars into the land beyond the river and hoped to retrieve it later as it was fitted with a tracker bug. Bill and Trish aided by Alan Trinder  and Colin set off after the meeting in search of the model using the tracker to pinpoint it’s location. They got within 3 meters of the indicated location but could not find it suspecting it is somewhere above them in the trees

Despite the fly away the class looked like fun and went down well with the competitors so why not give it a go, particularly if you’ve only flown duration models before. It could be a great and fun way into scale models

Name	Model	Bonus	Flight 1	Flight 2	Flight 3	Total
Andy Blackburn	Miles Magister	45	60 max	60 max	60 max	225	1
Ivan Taylor	Auster	20	60 max	60 max	60 max	200	2
Pete Fardell	Stinsen Sentinel	45	44	33	33	155	3
David King	BAT Monoplane	20	39	35	60 max	154	4
Mike Stuart	Beech Bonanza	75	18	37	14	144	5
Mike Smith	Aeronca Defender	30	–	–	–

FROG Senior

The FROG Senior Class attracted 3 entries with Andy Blackburn the clear winner with a couple of flights over 40 sec ahead of David King. Gary Law managed just one competition around his CD duties which took up the bulk of his time.

Name	Model	Flight 1	Flight 2	Flight 3	total	Position
Andy Blackburn	Linnet	43	37	45	125	1
David King	Redwing	25	32	38	95	2
Gary Law	Linnet	11	25	—–	36	3

Fun-fly

There were also several modellers who took advantage of the chance to visit and fun fly on Port Meadow with a variety of models from Paul Nottley’s lovely Mustang and Chipmunk to Simon Milan’s scale and duration models. Charlie Jeffreys found time not just to compete in the scale class with his Rumpler Taube but also flew his Froglet ( Free AM Plan) and Ace Of Diamonds . The Ace of Diamonds is quite a sight with its diamond shape cruising above the meadow. It flies particularly well and has a lovely glide, perhaps too lovely as on one flight in flew into some very strong lift much to Charlie’s horror. His Ace of Diamonds was last seen still climbing, clearly enjoying it’s freedom and disappearing as a speck over the distant hills on the horizon. Model fly aways are never good but Charlie did have a name and number on the model in case somebody did find it and left the meadow with just that to consul him.

 Charlie’s luck was clearly in though as just a few hours later he got a call from the local sailing club saying a lad had found his model in the Farmoor reservoir. Charlie was happily reunited with his model albeit more soggy and covered in pond weed than when he last saw it. He was very lucky someone spotted it, as club member Charlie Newman says fly aways  in the Farmoor direction are often never seen again.  His theory was that the sink over the cold water usually ends in a watery grave , exactly as happened to the Ace of Diamonds

Charlie Jeffreys’ Ace of Diamonds before and after its fly away and dunking in the Farmoor reservoir

Gary Law did a great job running the competitions aided by chief timer Alan Trinder and general helper Chris Brainwood, while Bill Dennis ran the Flying Only competition aided by Trish Dennis. The operation worked well and by 12:30 pm the competitions had ended with a prize giving to finish things off. Most of us were off the meadow by 1:30pm and heading for the cool of car air-con after of course a trip to the ice cream van .

What happened to Ivan’s Auster I hear you asking, well Alan and Gary returned 10 days later after a spell of windy weather to find half of the wing lying on the ground under the tree and the model easily visible having dropped several feet from its original position high in the canopy. The rest of the model was coaxed down with a loop on the end of Alan’s extended carbon fishing pole. Ivan was very pleased to get his model back, only a single  wheel remained elusive