OMFC with BMFA FF2 Scale Free Flight

There’s been a long history of competitions held on Port Meadow by the Oxford Model Flying Club, from Andy Crisp’s Dreaming Spires to Charlie Newman’s Scale Fest. These events were open to all but this meeting marked a first with an invitation to the BMFA to run a BMFA National Free Flight Scale class, part of the FF2 ( Flying Only) Championship with Mike Smith as CD. In addition we ran two OMFC classes, Rubber Scale Duration with CD Andy Blackburn and Scale Hi-Start Glider CD Gary Law

The forecast was predicting the wind to increase through the morning so the decision was taken to bring the competition forward to 9am and that proved prudent with many of the flights made in calm conditions. We had a fairly good turnout though numbers were a little down on our Scale event in July due to anniversaries, weddings and other commitments. It was also great to see several FF Fun Flyers enjoying the calm air too which is very much part of these OMFC events

Scale-on-the-Meadow

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OMFC Rubber Scale Duration

Name

Model

Bonus

Flight 1

Flight 2

Flight 3

Total

Andy Blackburn

Miles Magister

56 (+10)

163

Mike Stuart

Howard DGA-8

137

Chris Brainwood

Piper Clipper

Mike Smith

RANS S7 Courier

Peter Brown

Piper J3 Cub

The Scale Hi-Start Glider was bit down on entries for the reasons given above but a good competition was still had. Out front was Simon Milan’s own design Vampyr, the model has a beautiful floaty glide, the sort that just breathing out underneath it would see it rising in lift. Simon had some issue getting it to stay on the line but in the end that mattered little as he cruised to victory with flights around the 30 second mark. Behind were the little and large Slingsbys from myself and Simon Burch. Simon’s Skylark is from the FROG kit design while my Eagle is my own design based on Keith Humber’s RCM&E free plan. On the day they were surprisingly well matched doing identical times in the first two rounds, albeit switched round. It was all down to the final round for 2^nd place but Simon’s luck ran out and I came away with the chocolate based prize.

OMFC Scale Hi-Start Glider

Name

Model

Flight 1

Flight 2

flight 3

Total

Simon Milan

Vampyr

Chris Brainwood

Slingsby Eagle

Simon Burch

Slingsby Skylark

These are lovely events on what is fast becoming a unique site for free flight, we are already planning to repeat them next year and it’s worth mentioning that we do have car on the meadow to help set and ferry people out to the flying who would otherwise find it difficult to get out there and back as it can be quite a distance. You can email me at webmaster@oxfordmfc.bmfa.uk for more details or to arrange a pick up on the day.