Sark Heli Fly

Sark Heli Fly-in October 2005

On 8th October 2005, half a dozen guys from Guernsey went to Sark's first ever RC Heli Fly-in. What a day. With no cars, the only ways to travel in Sark are by foot, pushbikes, horse carriages and Tractors! We did three of them, and left the horses well alone! This is what you could call Heli Flying - Agricultural style!!!

Once we were to the top of the hill, we went for a coffee. Well, most of us had a coffee, but Shane had the Hot Chocolate special...a huge mug with hot chocolate, topped with cream and a flake!!! I would've had one as well, but I'm not greedy like that, much.

Then we had to go to the bike shop, to hire our wheels for the day. Unfortunately they do not have motors attached, only gears, a chain and a pair of pedals...bugger. Most of us hadn't been on a pushbike for a while, and whilst some of us were ok, a couple struggled... but after we followed Danny to the site we got on with some serious flying. Shane in particular was on a mission. His plan for the day was to fly as much as possible and really progress with his flying. I think he had 7 flights in all, which is serious "Thomas Territory". My plan for the day though was to get some flying time on my re-built Fury 60 after it's heavy crash about 6 weeks earlier. I only just had it ready in time, and had only flown two half-tanks through it in Guernsey before the trip. My morning flights went well, and it seemed pretty much back to normal. Andy and Mick flew in their typical manner, Andy with his Fury Extreme, and Mick with his Raptor 50v2, which had just been given a new lease of life by fitting new MAH tapered main blades and a decent Gyro and tail servo combo (Futaba 401 and 9254). Brian aim for the day was to have me test his Sceadu after a head strip-down and rebuild following a problem last time out. The power in the OS50 Hyper motor is unreal, it absolutely goes like a rocket ship!

At lunch time we headed off to the Dixcart for something to eat, what a bike ride. Mick couldn't keep up, got lost, went to a different place full of foreigners (Hang on, we're foreigners here too...Doh) and I had the job of going to look for him. Of course if he'd looked at the sign at the end of the road he was on (about 100 yards away), he'd know where we were. After a slap up meal and a couple of pints (for most of us) we headed back to the site. Most of us went racing off, then I turned around and Mick wasn't there. His chain had come off, and he spent 10 minutes trying to fix it. Once were both on our way again, I raced off back to the site and by the time I got back there I was so knackered I had a job to stand up. Mick arrived about 5 minutes after me in a similar state.

After a couple of pints, you tend to start getting a bit braver when flying. Well, I do anyway and it showed in my afternoon flight with my Fury 60, when it really got a work out. Pitch-pumping flips, walls of death. flips in every direction and all sorts of other stuff, topped off with an Inverted Auto from about 1000 feet. Marvellous. Shane was also getting brave despite staying off the booze. He got much better at loops, and even learnt to roll his Raptor, a great achievement for him. Mick gave his Raptor another good workout, as did Andy with his Extreme. Danny also had a go with his Raptor 30, doing a bit of hovering around the site. To say he's learnt himself with virtually no help except for a basic machine machine setup when he brought it to Guernsey he's doing very well.

Toward the end of the afternoon we packed up and headed off, but before we went to the harbour we went for another pint at the Bel Air at the top of Harbour Hill. We got the boat back, and on arrival Guernsey got a good soaking by the rain that had missed Sark all day long. For a Model Club event to have good weather was one thing. To have it in October was incredible. Hopefully we'll repeat this trip some time next year, as it was great fun. Probably the best flying trip away this year (apart from Top Gun USA...obviously).