Charmouth Heli Fly-in Spring 2004
What a Weekend!! The Charmouth Heli Fly-in Spring 2004 was a cracker from start to finish. 3 GMC members, Andy Best, Dave Vivian and myself, left on the overnight ferry on the Thursday evening. Now, the Slow boat goes to Jersey first, so on the way there we had a bite to eat (Steak and Chips...yummy) then when we got to Jersey we disembarked as transit passengers, where we knew Pete Rondel would be waiting to meet us to go for a beer. When we got off the boat we were told we had an hour before we had to be back. After nearly an hour, we got back to the terminal, and the door was locked. Panic set in, then the cleaner came and let us in. We had only just made it. We got on the boat, they shut the door behind us and we were on our way. Close call or what!?! Good job we had a cabin too, I didn't fancy sitting in the Bar watching TV all night.
Next morning at dawn, we docked at Portsmouth, and had our breakfast, then it was time to leave the boat and hit the road. We were on the road just after 7am, where we headed for East Sussex where Andy had to deliver some electronic equipment. Then it was Northward, to Watford, home of Motors and Rotors. Surprisingly, traffic on the M25 wasn't too bad and we got to M&R bang on 10am.
Dave Wilshire was very surprised to see us, as a week earlier Andy had told him we wouldn't be going. Of course, being a model helicopter business, some money was exchanged for a new helicopter and some other bits and bobs. It was also where the 3 of us got to have a good nosing over of the new MA Fury ION-X, surely the best electric helicopter ever!! Pricey too.
After we left M&R, we headed for Slough Models, and had a good nose around before heading off for some lunch. Then it was the long drive back down South, almost to where we had started 6 hours earlier. On the way, we stopped off at a little shop called Spire Models in Salisbury, a very interesting place, quite small, but packed to the brim with kits and ARTF's. Unless you knew where it was or had a GPS (like Andy's car has) you would probably never find it. It's located right at the back end of a very big housing estate, but the GPS took us right to the door. Being in Salisbury, we saw some RAF aircraft buzzing around too. A lynx helicopter doing stall turns, and a Harrier and Jaguar doing very fast circuits over the countryside.
Once we got to Newlands (the holiday park) at Charmouth, it was time to do some park-flying. Mini-pipers and Stinson's at the ready. Dave Wilshire's Piper didn't last long, as I took his wing clean off in mid-air. Andy didn't do much better, and his Stinson spent the night on the roof of the main complex. Then Dave and Trevor got the Shockflyers out. These Shockflyers really are amazing. Super-lightweight they are almost the ultimate 3D machine. Many people seemed impressed at the flying qualities of these little planes. Then Dave let me have a play with his Edge 540 Shocky. What fun. Powered by a Typhoon micro 6 and 3 cell Li-Poly battery, the performance was unbelievable. I'm not the best at torque-rolling, but these things make it a doddle. Can't wait to get mine going!
Up to now the weather had been perfect the whole time, and it was to continue right through the weekend. Saturday morning was dry and bright, and after breakfast we headed for the flying site. We were there well before ten, but already many others were there before us. It turned out to be just about the biggest Charmouth ever, with a total 94 pilots checked in.
The one helicopter people were most interested in was Dave Hollin's huge Jet Ranger. With a rotor disc of 2.4m, this was no small machine. The price was huge too. About £8,000. There was another one like it at the meeting too, painted in the colours of a full-size Ranger which landed in the corner of the flying site and stayed there for the day. Seeing the model hovering around it's full size counterpart made for some good photo opportunities, as did seeing both models together in the air as well.
Andy was flying his Raptor 30 and X-cell Pro 2, and I had my Raptor 30 v2 and Fury 60 Expert. My first flight of the day was with the Raptor, which was great fun. The conditions were perfect for some low inverted hovering, and after I landed there were some grass marks on the blades, and a few bits of grass wrapped around the flybar. That got low! The Fury also went well, even Pat Vaudin who popped along to see us was impressed, and he's not normally fussed by helicopters. Andy's Raptor and Pro 2 were also flying very well. The Pro 2 must me one of the smoothest model helicopters ever. Andy let me have a play with it too. At the end of the afternoon, everyone headed back to Newlands, and some more park-flying was done. I don't think many people expected to be, but a lot of sunburnt faces meant that the weather must have good, with similar conditions forecast for the Sunday.
The forecast wasn't wrong. Sunday was almost identical, except for a light breeze during the morning, keeping things a little cooler. And a lot more flying was done. The only trouble with so many fliers present, is that you may not get that many flights. I had 2 on the Saturday, and one on the Sunday, but they were all fantastic. And seeing some of the others was occasionally spectacular. Dave and Trevor appeared to have their entire fleet with them, including the Turbine NH90, the entire Fury range, a few scale IC Graupners, and the Ion X. Watching Duncan Osborne flying his Fury Extreme was mind blowing. Bob Johnston flew in his usual dramatic style, even crashing the Millennium on one flight.
That wasn't the only crash either. Quite few hit the dirt over the 2 day event, including some rather expensive machinery...Electric Starlet, Fury Tempest, Raptor 50, and even the big blue Jet Ranger. I guess when there are so many helicopters at one event, a few are bound to be lost for whatever reason.
At the end of the afternoon, we could reflect on a fantastic weekend's flying, and a good break in general. Fun, fantastic flying, night life...The Charmouth Heli Fly-in has it all.
In the evening, the 3 of us went down to Lyme Regis for an Indian, and a little walk around before heading back for our last night in the Log Cabin. Apparently a film was made in Lyme Regis many years ago, and an Episode of Inspector Morse was based here too.
Our boat was scheduled to leave Weymouth at 7:15am on the Monday, which meant being there by 6:15. So, we set our alarms for 4:45 to give us plenty of time to re-pack and have a coffee before we left. Again the weather was great and the whole of the Channel was a millpond the entire way back to Guernsey. That really rounded off the weekend.
Can I recommend the Charmouth Heli Fly-in as an event worth going to? Absolutely. I can't wait for the next one!