FLYING ACES

ordon Hannah winds his Mr Smoothie racer on his way to Masefi eld victory. Mi e Stuart gets his Blac burn ipon away for another Masefi eld ight.

CD Lu e oymour prepares to launch his little BAE Haw ‘ ed Arrow’.

you turn up with almost any FF glider, rubber, electric or fi rework powered model you simply can t fail to have lots of fun.

Word on the meadow was that the wind might pick up later, so we scale fanatics mostly got our fl ights in early. Sadly, Peterborough stalwart Russ Lister was unavoidably absent this year, so Gareth Tilston was fl ight-judging the non-jet scale stuff and was kept pretty busy. Bryan ea eventually prevailed with his fi ne fl ying Monocoupe pipping Mike tuart s very reliable little eamew. There was also the Masefi eld scale contest, where a long fl ying model with a short wingspan will triumph. Gordon Hannah s Mr moothie racer won this, much to his delight at beating Mr Winalot , aka Mike tuart and his Peanut Blackburn ipon.

Meanwhile, over in Pyromaniacs Corner, the jet boys had their own competitions and heads were kept turning all day as each smoking fi bomb streaked into life. t seemed to me that far more than usual were actually streaking skywards too, rather than kamika eing into the grass. Father uke himself had his little BAE Hawk profi le model going very well indeed. t s powered by a T P- 1 rocket motor and he tells me he designed and built it in about hours and fl ew it straight off the board so if the Goymour Hour Hawk isn t soon a free plan in AeroModeller shall want to know why! oger immonds and Daniel ackstraw also put in some great fl ights with their super little jet models. Daniel told me he now has several of ichard Crossley s surplus jets too, which ichard was selling for reasons of space (see AM eptember 22). This is great news as if anyone can keep these gems fl ying, Daniel can! cale is of course only one part of the Flying Aces, which is a jamboree for free fl ight subjects of all kinds except C power, and so this time d brought my reduced si e rubber ic meed Popsie along. This kind of model is perfect for Peterborough as the day includes several categories for which any rubber sport model is eligible. When things shook down, was very chuff ed to win Table Top Precision with Popsie , especially as she hadn t even risen off ground before, let alone off a table!

The incorrigible ohn Ashmole scorned his ongoing health issues and ran a couple of the events including the popular Rubber Scramble contest with his usual enthusiasm and aplomb. t was great to see young Kalin Hall competing in this twenty minutes of fren ied madness, clocking up some good airtime. n fact he was out on the fi eld fl ying all day, as was his cousin, Braydon Mileson, who claimed an impressive

Pete Fardell’s mini-Popsie being wound. The irrepressible John Ashmole found time to

y his Monocoupe.

silver in the E20 comp; both lads happily proving that, contrary to popular opinion, Free Flight is not yet just an old man’s game! I’m sure both boys will keep coming back.

Phil Worth ruled the ‘Unorthodox’ category. His utterly mad Focke-Wulf Triebfl gel is a whirling dervish in the air; once seen never forgotten, and his EDF powered Horten 229 fl ying wing profi le model was also entertaining us throughout the day.

Longtime famous friends of PMFC, Julio and Sandra Isidro were back at Ferry Meadows too, fl ying several fi ne models, including their Cloud Tramps. The Cloud Tramp contest is of course one of the fl agship events at Peterborough. This time Bert Whitehead took gold ahead of Julio, with Chris Sanders coming in third.

Thanks to the sterling eff orts of the chaps in the control tent the scoresheets fi lled up methodically as the lovely day wore on. The air stayed warm and although the wind picked up a little it mostly kept blowing things safely down the fi eld, with excursions into modelgobbling trees being the exception rather than the rule. The ever-encouraging Dave Rumble manned the Hi-Start Glider bungee line all day; this was also won by Bert Whitehead who was having a very good day indeed. I’d again entered my Frog Petrel and after completely botching my fi rst two rounds was nonetheless very pleased to break a minute with its last fl ight. That s the thing about the Flying Aces; it’s very nice to win or place in the comps but even if you don’t, with such a breadth of eligible models to fl y and with six hours of glorious fl ying time and

Good to see youngsters actively involved. Braydon Mileson with a KK Eaglet, and his cousin Kalin Hall

put in lots of great ying.

Braydon Mileson on his way to E20 silver, assisted by dad Shaun.

Phil Worth launches his Horten 229. Edward Gautrey launches in Hi-Start Glider. Dave Rumble ready with the stopwatch.

space to fill you are almost bound to have a few magic moments! can t possibly mention all the great models that were in action, or even all the classes they flew in, as there were just too many and m sure missed some pearls due to being too busy flying myself. However, the results can be found on the club website (peterboroughmfc.org) and m sure some of club member Mick Page s excellent photos will appear there too.

Before the pri e giving, the flying concluded with the traditional Flying warm mass launch. All the rubber models from the day are potentially eligible for this finale, but Mike tuart s tiny KK obin seems to me to be the epitome of the Flying Aces ethos anyone can build one of these simple little aeroplanes, but at 4 15pm on Ferry Meadows his rose to the heavens like a joyful angel, soared about merrily in its element until absolutely everything else had landed, and duly took the last honours of the day!

Huge thanks to CD uke and all the judges, organisers and helpers at PMFC. As always, you gave us a fantastic festival of flying fun and competition. ong live the Peterborough Flying Aces! ■