Park Fly session - Port Soif 10th June 2008

This was the first session of the year for the smaller parkfly type models, but as you will see from the pictures below, no longer is it the sole domain of the Graupner Cub and similar foamy models. The range of aircraft that fall into this category is enormous and the performance from some of the smaller 3D models is quite staggering. The leap in technology related to electric flight has brought about this surge in interest in this area of modelling and certainly within our club has been responsible for a healthy increase in new members in the past two years... long may it continue.

And now to the pictures themselves...

He we are at the start of the evening showing the first members to arrive and set up their models; a lovely evening to be out in the fresh air.

What was I saying about Graupner models... here's Ben Le Prevost's Stinson doing some low passes before he brought in for a lovely smooth landing. Loads of fun these aircraft, and they seem to last forever.

Here's Carl Armitage launching his delta into the wide blue yonder. This model had a terrific turn of speed and I couldn't catch it on film as a result. Very aerobatic and great 'fun' to fly says Carl.

Check out this beauty...

Trojan T28 I believe, and a really good looking model. The standard of finish on this ARTF was amazing and it flew very well indeed.

This fine aircraft belongs to Andy Sarson, who has just joined the club. We look forward to seeing this model down at Chouet in the future as it really is a lovely flyer.

Here's the same model in flight and making an approach for landing. Totally trauma free, safe handling and looks good... what more could you ask of a model?

And now for something completely different.....

The bright orange looking box kite is indeed just that.. a powered box kite! Carl provided the 'kit' and Steve put it together and test flew it a few nights before this evening session.

Here's how it went on this particular night.....

Careful flight preparation is a must for 'experimental' craft such as this, so an interested audience is always welcome!

Nifty launch technique from Steve, and away she went up into the evening sky...

and carried on up....

and up ....

until it was just a dot in the sky !!

Carl had cut the power a long time before, but the kite 'effect' took over and it went very high indeed before it finally decided to descend into a nearby green patch where it sat awaiting its collection by a much relieved owner.

I think though that some serious thought will be given before the next outing so that Steve or Carl don't have such a long walk on their hands to recover it. Great fun to watch though :-)

Moving on to more conventional models, this new electric heli of Dave's (TRex 500) was 'the business'. Dave had a bit of setting up to do at first, but once trimmed it flew beautifully. Obviously Dave's skill as a pilot had something to do with it!

I particularly like this shot of Dave's model, as it shows its sleek lines off quite nicely against the evening sky.

Nice Depron Biplane, very agile and had quite a turn of speed when required. Bright colour scheme helped with orientation, and is shown off quite nicely in this shot against the sky.

Paul Gilliver has also been 'bitten' by the electric bug just recently, and this is his new Kantana Mini. Still a bit of sorting out to do with the power train, but does fly very well and looked really smart in the evening light. Nice looking model and Paul is justifiably proud of it.

So there we have it, the first park fly session of the year and some new models & pilots enjoying a relaxing evening's flying in a different setting. More sessions are planned, and Dave will let members know by email as well as the dates appearing here on the web site.

Hope to see you at one soon!