Fun Day 2004

On Sunday 8th August 2004 the Guernsey held it's Family Fun Day, but not before some shenanigans on the Saturday.  For the first time in recent years we were joined by flyers from Jersey, and together we had one goal in mind...have some fun!!

Saturday's flying got underway at lunchtime, with the first casualty of the afternoon happening almost straight away.  Andy Best's Madness 2 lost out to Thomas' Funtana big time in a mid-air collision.  The impact took off one half of the wing, and made a pretty good mess of the rest of it too.  The Funtana's only damage was...none at all.

Then the Jersey Fliers arrived!  6 members in all came over, and brought quite a bit with them too.  During the afternoon, we had some spot landing competitions, one for heli's and one for fixed wing.  The results of these competitions were:

Heli's:  Winner: Mick Wilkinson.  Joint Second: Pete Rondel and Dave Wilkinson.

Fixed Wing:  Winner: Pete Rondel.  Second:  Dave Wilkinson.  Third:  Dave Vivyan.

Congratulations!!!

On Saturday evening, we had a Barbeque on the Yacht Club Balcony, and the weather couldn't have been better for it.  The sun was out, the wind was down, and the beer was flowing nicely.

Sunday..."where did this rain come from?" was what we were all wondering when we arrived at Chouet in the morning.  So, instead of waiting around, we went for some breakfast at the new cafe at Pembroke.  The food was Ok, but the service could have been a bit better!!  The rain stopped around 11am, so we headed back to Chouet to get everything set up for a 1:30 start.  The weather wasn't great, but it didn't stop the show.  At least the rain held off for most of the afternoon.  We had a good spectator turn-out too.  And they seemed to enjoy it alot!  Highlights for them was seeing the faster stuff, and aerobatic helicopters!  Most people would not believe that helicopters could fly up-side down or backwards.  The Magnum's also went down very well, with Pete Rondel and myself duelling at 200mph up and down the flightline.  One of the highlights for me was a slot featuring 3 Fury Helicopters, Kent Pinglaux's Extreme, and Mine and Pete's almost identical 60 Experts.  At one point, all three of us were hovering inverted over the runway, and Pete and I finished off with a formation Auto-rotation.  Except I rolled mine inverted on the way down. Nothing wrong with a bit of showmanship! And very exciting!!

The streamer chop finished off the afternoon, and a plane.  When the Original streamer tug bailed out on take-off, it was left to me to tow...with my Giles of all planes.  It was going well, with most people hitting the indestructible streamer, until Shane Browning missed the streamer and hit my plane.  His plane went straight through mine, and to add insult to injury, mine also went for a swim.  Luckily Hero Paul Gaudion was up for a swim too.  He rescued what was left of my plane, and won a prize for his efforts.  Cheers Paul!

So, on the whole, and excellent weekend, despite the iffy weather.  We all enjoyed it, and I think the Jersey guys did too. Lets hope their show next month is good, and they come back here again next year.

Above: Pete Rondel's Fury 60.

Below, the original streamer tug, which didn't quite have enough power to tow the streamer.

Below, both of my Fury helicopters

Above,  This is believed to be the last photo taken of the Giles before it's demise.

Below, Thomas' Funtana.  It survived a mid-air, and a dodgy landing!