Longhorsley Report
by Dave Parry
Well this event turn out good in the end despite the weather forecasters’
reports.
Friday saw the arrival of most of the pilots and traders. The weather was
trying to be kind apart from the odd downpour from time to time, everyone
seem to get a bit of flying in throughout the day and club members were busy
in the background getting everything ready for the show weekend.
Saturday morning dawned cloudy with a light cool breeze the sun kept popping
through from time to time which took the chill off us all, the pilots started
putting out their models and making their way to book in at transmitter control,
I have to say that 2.4 is so apparent now that the tranny tent was looking
a little bare (looks like you can put your feet up again Phil), myself, Ian
Jones and John Cross went out to man the flight line on what seemed was going
to be a very short day according to reports, which had forecast rain all day
from around 11 ish, all weather reports seemed to confirm this so with that
in mind, we made sure all pilots were slotted at least one flight before this
weather front was due to move in.
As we approached lunchtime the weather front still hadn’t shown its
face, we did have threats and the odd little shower but nothing big enough
to stop the show, the good old weather once again had proved the forecasters
wrong and managed to hold out all day so plenty of flying was had by all much
to the delight of the general public.
Highlight of the show was Andy Johnson’s Victor; it was great to see
this beautiful model in the air once again. Dave Johnson flew the smaller
Vulcan that used to belong to Rob Greenwood, the scale detail on this model
is superb but it seemed to lack the presence of the larger Vulcan that Dave
owns. All pilots and club members put on the usual fine display of their models
for the public with John Townsend’s 50% Magister being one of the crowds
favourites, along with IAD’s Iain flying a 50% Super Decathlon with
its auto engine starter “very impressive” Fighter Ace Phil Clark
and crew put on a great display with their WWII fighters along with “full
throttle” Andy Wynn. The lads and lasses from the SAA returned again
this year after having had a successful event themselves the week before at
Castle Kennedy. There were plenty of trade stands to whet the appetite of
any budding modeller and the refreshments on sale in the club house were without
question my favourite.
The Evening
Longhorsley’s traditional evening entertainment went down a storm again,
with a free BBQ for all pilots and helpers plus a live band, there was also
plenty of the liquid stuff flowing all evening making it a perfect end to
a great day.
Sunday started off well with light winds at first but by lunchtime the wind
was gusting up to 25 knots which saw an end to most flying, so all in all
it was a great weekend, Monday turn out to be typical of Longhorsley with
wall to wall sunshine and a light breeze which most pilots took advantage
of and enjoyed before making the journey back home.
If you have never been to this event then you don’t know what you are
missing, a great weekend, great site and most of all great hospitality. What
more do you want? See you next year.
