Wirral Radio Control Flying Society

The forecast for the day was sunshine and showers. While we were setting up the sky was blue and the sun was shining: hopes were raised that it would stay thus all day. By pilots’ briefing at 10.30 we had had our first shower. The pattern for the day was fairly long spells of sunshine, separated by a few terrific tropical storms! These were short-lived and a lot flying took place all through the day. The wind was moderate and didn’t cause any problems.

Sadly, we didn’t have any guests this year. Perhaps the weather forecast put people off; perhaps we didn’t promote the event widely enough. On the other hand, the WRCFS was turnout was huge! There haven’t been as many models and people down at the strip for many a long month. It was a joy to see so many people enjoying themselves in the way that we know best!

The format for the day was periods of off-the-peg flying interspersed with some low-key fun competitions. Because of the late organisation, there were no prizes to present, but who cares? Everybody who entered did so to have a bit of fun and get another flight in!

The competitions that we did have were climb and glide, spot landing and spinning.

Climb and glide

Competitors were allowed a 20 second engine run from take-off. The engine was then cut and the model kept in the air for as long as possible. The beauty of this competition is that all sorts of models can compete on an equal basis. Powerful models can get a lot of height but won’t necessarily thermal or glide as well as light models; light models don’t always have the power to get as high in 20 seconds.

Control line display

At the lunch break, Colin Martin flew his control-line Chipmunk.This is a venerable model, over 20 years old, designed and built originally by Colin for formation flying at displays. It is powered by an even older engine, an OS Max 35. The OS has no throttle, just a venturi. Once you have taken off, you are going to fly until the tank runs out or the ground grabs the model. In fact, at last year’s fly-in, the ground did grab it during inverted flight. The model has been repaired, cleaned and repainted since. The Chipmunk was specifically designed for aerobatics (or stunts as they tend to be known in the C/L world); it has coupled flaps and elevators with around 60º each way of elevator movement! This allows very sharp corners in aerobatics. C/L is not user-friendly at our field because it hogs the whole strip for a single flight. There are also safety considerations because, once airborne, the model cannot be landed until the fuel has run out; also, the steel wires would spoil the whole day of anybody who walked into the circle and caught the wires. For these reasons, it is only flown as a demonstration at our fly-in when there is plenty of supervisory help and the strip is roped off from the GBP (Great British Public).

Spot Landing

After lunch, more competitions, Spot Landing and Spinning. A marker was placed in the centre of the strip. Each competitor was allowed 2 attempts to land as near the mark as possible, best attempt to count. The point at which the model first touched was judged, but the model had to stay on the ground and come to a stop (no touch and goes). This was a very well supported event because, once again, any type of model could win.

Spinning Comp

After another session of general flying, we had the last competition, spinning. The winner would be the model that completed the greatest number of spins. No limit on engine run, model type, height etc. Just climb as high as you can and hold it in the spin as long as you can. So simple………………..and yet………………….so damn difficult! This can be a model killer when the adrenaline of competitive flying overcomes the fear of spinning into the ground. We’ve seen it happen! If you climb beyond where you can see it, you can’t fly it!

Both Colin and Ron made the mistake of starting too far over and ended up spinning over the hospital. Early recoveries were required. Probably just as well because competitive spirit can say “just one more” and then “just one more” and then “Oh sh*t!”.

Lasting memories of the day:

Dave Kerr

There was another demo flight, a really stunning F15 from Dave Kerr. This was a ducted-fan model. Dave used the whole of the strip to get the F15 airborne (and a few yards beyond that). A little boost from the uneven strip and it was climbing out through the gap on the right. As the undercarriage came up and the model built up speed, it came into its own. Dave showed us some blistering low passes, rolls and loops. He ended the flight with a long, low approach from the left, a perfect flare and a greaser of a landing onto the main wheels, nose high in the air just as full-size.

Graham Roscoe

Good to see a junior having a go and he only started learning last summer. Well done Graham! It is incredibly difficult to achieve the precision that these guys did. It is not until you have a go that you realise how hard it is. Really, you have to try and remember where the spot is because you will be watching your model on the approach. The actual spot only comes into vision in the last few seconds and you have to be pretty close by then to be successful.
Well done to you all! Awesome, once airborne and well demonstrated. Graham’s low knife edge passes look out Dave, you’ve got competition!

Roy’s Sharkface

A fantastic, tiny electric model with more power to weight than can be imagined. Just seeing it climb away vertically and be thrown around by Roy was a treat.

Roy’s Christen Eagle

Just the sound of the big Zenoah starting and idling is enough to get me interested; watching and hearing it in the air is awesome (sad b*stard or what?) The incredible monsoon around 4 o’clock as we were packing up Of course, the sun shone again later

Memories of fun day filled with lots of flying

Finally, big thanks to everybody who helped out with setting up, taking down, judging, announcing and just helping out where it was needed. I’m not going to mention names because: A There are some notable exceptions B You know who you are anyway C If I mention names, I’m bound to forget somebody and that wouldn’t be fair.

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