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Next stops Nationals 2015


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Yes - a good day. Or half-day for me by the time I got there!

Plan 'A' for the weekend had been to go to the air show at Dunsfold today (and see much of what we would have seen at Shoreham last Saturday afternoon if events hadn't overtaken the show there) and go to the Nats tomorrow.

Plan 'A' went out the window when I looked at the weather forecast this morning. It was forecasting a fairly dismal, damp day for Barkson on Sunday. So it was Barkston today or not at all. Consequently a rather later start than I'd have ideally wanted, plus bad traffic at the top of the M11 saw me arrive well after 1pm.

We met in front of the control tower at 2pm as planned. It was great to see there really are real people behind all the names we see on the forum! I recognised BEB and Vecchio Austriaco from pics on here, but wouldn't have recognised the others. Good to meet you all!

And so the compulsory group photo(s), and my chance to embarrass myself by forgetting half the names and getting the other half wrong...

nats2.jpg

So in the shot above we have, from left to right, (oops, not sure... was it Martin McIntosh?), Vecchio Austriaco, BEB, (not sure, might me Mart49? - had two numbers at the end anyway!), Andy Green, Dylan from Lasercraft and finally "Ray" who confesses to being a "lurker".

nats1.jpg

Second pic, same motley crew, except Andy took the shot and it's me in the lineup where he was previously!

So apologies to the 2 whose identities I'm not sure of - I blame the 6 hours driving to and from Barkston today! If they'd like to own up to who they really are I'm sure we can get the names updated in the post if necessary.

And Ray... the "lurker". We should persuade you to stop lurking, and join in and post something. Why not here and now? We don't bite, honest! wink 2

Also met Paul Marsh later on the 2.4GHz electric flightline. And inbetween all that I also saw a fair bit of flying.

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John, if you found Paul at the 2.4 flightline then you probably also found me as I was marshalling with him
Had such a busy day bargain hinti g arou d the peri track and shopping at the trade village it was2:30 and on our way back to the caravans that I realised I had missed the meetup! My excuse is that my mind was on the Graupner ASK15 I had picked up earlier and whether Paul had brought anything big enough to tow it up I to the air later on!
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Did not look as well attended as normal to me. Plenty of camping space left and much smaller queues for food and drink. The more popular trade stands were not the usual six deep with punters either.

Last years` new layout did not go down well, and this year it was even worse, but at least you could freely go to the FPV and IMAC lines.

Day visitors would maybe have had difficulty in finding the driveway to the trade stands, although this location was very handy if you were camped near the hangar/bar/control tower.

The indoor location was only just being set up when I arrived there on Sat. evening so I gave up with that. The use of hangars was, of course, beyond our control.

It would have been handy if more signposting could have been put up since finding your way to the various flying sites was tricky as you have only a worms` eye view of the enormous airfield.

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We started heading back home early this morning as the rain looked to be set to spoil any chances of flying and most of the traders were packing away. I was slightly disappointed with the trade this year as most traders seem to have downsized stalls and a few of the regulars were missing. One of the highlights of my weekend was having a chat with the revered David Ashby in the BMFA marque over a brew.

Looking forward to new venue next year and lets hope the event organisers keep up the good work and that they can appease the traders and locate them nearer to the flight lines, which may encourage more traders.

Barry

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Just back! Well Saturday and Sunday were great! I enjoyed some time at least at; showline, scale, IMAC, FPV racing, C/L Team racing, C/L combat, C/L carrier deck landing, helicopter aeros, swap-meet, the evening free flight mayhem, the beer tent, the trade area, I even managed a couple of flights on the rotor flying eveing flight area....wow no wonder I'm knackered! Even with all that I still didn't get to Pylon racing, GBRCAA or Funfly!

So much for Saturday and Sunday. Sunday night, as we went to bed, it started raining. By 6:00am it was lashing down! At 10:00am it was still rianing hard, by 11:00am we decided to bit the bullet and break camp - even though it was still raining. Boy did we get wet!

So we eventually left Barkston just before 1:00pm, bedraggled, very soggy and a little bit glum. But will be we go again next year - you bet your bottom dollar we will!

BEB

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Nice to meet you too Barry thumbs up

Yep, an enjoyable weekend although very busy and tiring rushing about trying to cover (or just say hello) at all the events. The FPV racing was particularly fascinating and the evening free flight scale pretty darn heroic as usual. Great to meet so many friends old and new.

I'll be at the Southern Model Show in a few weeks, so look forward to bumping into a few folks there.

Now I need some sleep smile

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Took the wife & kids with me this year and despite mutinous grumblings on the drive over they all thoroughly enjoyed it. The kids are even planning a collection of rubber free flight models to fly.

Spent a lot of time at the scale line looking at some amazing models and some very smooth and realistic flying. Did some shopping and bought a glider for the slope on Saturday and also a pretty little DB TigerMoth converted to electric at the Sunday Swapmeet, installed an RX and flew it the same evening in the sunset before it got busy!

Speaking of flying, marshalling the evening electric flight line was quite enjoyable again. The mad rush to get in on Friday meant Paul & I got a bit of flying in as only a couple of people turned up. Saturday was mad busy so I only got one 5 minute flight when it was going dark & quietening down and one 7 minute flight early Sunday evening with my new Tiggie before it got busy.

Last year we only turned away 3 people who didn't have proof of BMFA insurance or an A cert (or both) but this year there must have been 14 or 15 turned away on the Saturday evening alone. As last year even Show Flightline pilots turned up without proof with one getting very grumpy and aggressive because he had to walk back the 50 meters back to the car to get it! Still, as long as he enjoyed the flying!....

The indoor hanger was pretty cool to. The DepStik flew very well but broke a prop Sunday evening when I was trying loops with it! It also needs a rudder which will be added later this week. We even flew a formation of micro P40 War Hawk, P51 Mustang and a B17 which was being flown in a very slow and scale like manner. That may be on my shopping list very soon!

Thanks to everyone setting up (and packing up in the rain) and all the pilots for the entertainment, including the evening electric pilots who usually come with their humorous banter and some impressive models (Martins Vulcan being one of them) Next year I may forgo the marshalling to see the evening free flight, especially the scale... Maybe!

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I had a thoroughly enjoyable Sat & Sun and would like to help the organiser's for all their hard work in making it a successful weekend.

My only gripe is how sensitive the situation is re our use of Barkston yet I saw the big " I am's" blatantly flouting the rules of the site, laid out quite plainly in the program, yet still decide to ride motorcycles around without crash helmets, just another mark up for an excuse to deprive us of using it again.

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I had a great weekend mixing with like minded folk, went pretty much round everything this year. Highlight for me was again the 'Chuck and Duck', though I must remember next time to not fill up the tank on my Mills .75 and launch straight away, I must have jogged half a mile !

The layout has changed from a few years ago with the venue possibly changing in the coming years but does this really matter? At the end of the day it is what we each make of it, roll on next year I say!

Rich

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Pleased that all and sundry had a great time, in the end we decided to give it a miss this year because of the poor weather forecast and that the hanger would be closed during the day, so no chance of indoor flying out of the weather until evening.

Roll on next year...............yes

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