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 competition 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 in. 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 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, with the help of Trish Dennis, they ran the class in the smooth and relaxed style we are coming expect from an OMFC Scale event
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 breaking 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 9th place. Charlie Jeffreys had his Rumpler flying nicely looking very much the part as it flew in lovely large circuits over the meadow. Charlie has clearly finessed the trimmimg from last year and was rewarded with 8 th place just behind the equal 7th 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 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 fly 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 5th place just five points behind Andy Blackburn’s 4th 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) It looked to all intents and purposes like 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 |
I will be adding to this report over the next few days, with more detail on the other classes but in the meantime here are the final results for the other classes
Scale Glider Duration
| 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
| 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
| 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 |