It was the Usual mixed bag as regards my models - I had repaired the Curtiss P-6E and Vought SBU from last year, and even added a few extra details. The P-6E performed very nicely, flying reliable circuits well away from the walls, and didn't suffer any damage at all. I got four decent qualifying flights, and finished fourth in open rubber. Tim Horne recorded the first flight and posted it to Youtube (thanks Tim!)
The electric powered SBU was much harder to keep away from the walls, though it survived trimming on the Saturday evening. On the first competion flight it decided to turn right for no obvious reason, hit the wall and ripped out the motor, battery and controller. The wires wrapped round the prop which ripped off a battery tag. So, back in the box with that one. Maybe I'll just fly it outdoors now.
I had a third model as well - a new peanut scale Brewster Buffalo, from a Diels short kit. It was not, it has to be said, a great success. every time I thought I was getting somewhere, I'd hit the wall and break one of the butt-jointed wings off again. The poor thing just got more and more battered looking as the day went on. In the end I didn't even put it in for scale judging. Here's a photo of the Buffalo before the event.
As you have come to expect, I'm not going to summarise any class rules as they can all be found painstakingly detailed in the latest BMFA rule book here, or have a look at some of my older Nats reports for a brief summary.
The open rubber class had a healthy entry of 15 models this year. Mike Hadland brought along a new model, and it's a real beauty. Probably not a surprise that Mike chose the Stampe SV.4 as his subject as he already has a fine flying peanut example. The level of detailing is outstanding, including the access windows near the struts and the turnbuckles on the rigging, as seen below.
The model flew very well, as shown in the video below and Mike finished second in class behind Richard Crossley's well known Brewster Bermuda.
Speaking of which, take a look at the video below and see the type of flight that can win you the open rubber class. The take-off is very long and straight, and the model climbs out realistically rather than zooming skywards. The circuits are not too tight, and the landing approach smooth. The only way I think Richard could have got more marks is if the cruise phase of the flight had been a little higher, but that's about all.
Graham Banham had a new open rubber model - a very nice Cessna C-34. Note temporary repair to right wing leading edge which allowed Graham to get in his qualifying flights. Video below - the model finished fifth in class.
It was good to welcome Gerard Brinks from The Netherlands to the event. This is his sixth place open rubber entry, a neatly finished Stinson Junior S.
Alasdair Deas turned up with a beautiful new rubber powered model of the Curtiss F11C Goshawk - as you probably know I have a real soft spot for pre-war yellow-winged aeroplanes, and this one is a cracker, featuring scale rib spacing and a fully detailed engine. Alasdair got close to a qualifying flight, but unfortunately couldn't quite get to the magic 15 seconds.
Below is a video of Tim Horne's best flight of the day with his Misty 1 racer, which finished 7th in class.
As well as his kit scale Waco SRE, Peter Boys entered this lovely Waco YKS-7 in the open rubber class. Sadly a qualifying flight was not achieved.
Laurence Marks has a whole fleet of Wittman Tailwinds in various sizes. This rubber powered example, in the middle of the size range, showed remarkable stability despite no dihedral whatsoever (as per the full size) and finished 8th in the open rubber class.
Entries in the electric/CO2 class were disappointing, with only 8 entries including my SBU, which wasn't entered for static judging. Winner was Richard Crossley with his well-known flying flea, followed by Derek Knight's Tiger Moth.
Divs Masters finished 3rd in class with this lovely SE5A - I'm not sure if this is a new model, as all Divs's SE5A's are in the same scheme (a sensible solution as regards preparing your documentation).
Peter Fardell entered this new and well detailed CO2 powered Polikarpov PO-2 which would have scored a much higher flying score if the wall hadn't got in the way and denied Peter any landing points on a really good flight.
Charlie Newman brought his electric powered RWD 8 - a beautifully finished model, which unfortunately could not be persuaded to take off.
As mentioned above, there was a record entry of 29 in kit scale, and the standard of flying was the best ever - very small margins decided the finishing order. It seems churlish to criticise such a successful class, but I do find it slightly disappointing that so few people have taken the step up to one of the other open classes. I'm not sure it's as big a step as many people think though - a simple but well flying model can place well - just look at the number of open rubber models this year that didn't get a qualifying flight. Also remember there are kits out there that are quite capable of winning an open class - Both myself and Richards Crossley have done well with Diels Engineering kits for example. So, to all you kit scalers out there, why not give it a go next year?
Laurie Kirby did one better than last year, finishing third behind Graham Banham and Laurence Marks with his neatly finished Keil Kraft Auster Arrow - it must be lightly built because the flying speed was so slow and scale-like - see video below.
Nice to see a few more low-wingers this year - one of my favourites was this Veron Tru-Flite Harvard by Andrew Darby. On the Saturday evening it had looked practically untrimmable, but on Sunday it was flying beautifully, as you can see in the video below.
I also really liked this Veron Tru-Flite Hawker Fury built by Richard Moore fitted with a very tasty carved prop. It flew nicely as well.
Another nice Tru-Flite was this Short Seamew by Lionel Haines which scored the highest static score in the class. I know from watching Lionel's efforts at our indoor meetings in Newbury that this has not been an easy model to trim, but he got it tamed for the competition and it was flying well, as you can see below.
Stephen Haines brought this nice little Hawker Hurricane built from a comet plan which flew very well.
Neat Keil Kraft Luscombe Silvair by Michael Langford got the second highest static score in the kit scale class and finished 8th overall.
Bill Dennis was flying this very nice D.H. Puss Moth built from the West Wings kit design. The splendid painted finish was penalised by the judges, but I think it was worth taking the points hit!
Alasdair Deas entered this Dumas T34 "Mentor" - a brave choice for kit scale, but he had it flying nicely.
Bryan Stichbury finished a creditable 7th in class with this Skylake Models Waco SRE. Peter Boys built a red one from the same design, and did one better, finishing 6th. There was just one point between them!
When Chris Blanch won kit scale with his Sablatnig SF4 in 2012, I completely failed to get a video of it. This year he finished 5th, but on the plus side, I did manage to capture it in action!
If you look at the results table below, you may think peanut scale entries were down this year, but in fact there were eight more entries which failed to register any flight scores, and also no static scores. Certainly with my Buffalo, I didn't see the point in getting it static judged when it was getting more and more bashed about the more I tried to trim it!
There were not too many new models in the class which may explan why I took so few photos, but this one captures the top three models - Richard Crossley's Stuka finished first, Mike Hadland's Jungmann second and Nick Peppiatt's Blackburn Bluebird third. Also present is Laurie Kirby's Fike model E.
Gary Flack finished fourth in class with this very nicely finished foam Focke Wulf FW 190 D9
I did slightly better with photos of the Pistachio entries. Only 5 models posted scores out of 7 entrants, and the Dutch contingent showed us how it's done, with Roel Lucassen taking first place with his Navy Wright NW-1 and Gert Brendel taking second place with his Eastbourne monoplane, below.
A new Pistachio from Nick Peppiatt was this BAT Baboon, showing a very light structure. The two flight total of 85 seconds was by far the best in the class, and third place was achieved. It's worth noting that the top three models all scored 4 points, so final positions were decided by their static marks.
Tim Horne took fourth place with his "Screamin Meany" racer - best flight was 27 seconds
Neat Andreasson BA-4 by Bryan Stichbury finished fifth. Possibly a reduction of the Peck Polymers peanut design?
A new class this year was scale glider - a step into the unknown for those brave enough to give it a go! The concept is to include the launch of the model in the timing and judging of the flight, and the launch method can be absolutely anything. We had towline, winch, attempted air tow and even chuck it off the balcony! Of these, the hand-held winch seemed to work the best, but it's early days. For the inaugural event, the class was judged on flying only to keep things simple.
The winner was Peter Smart, who decided to go the ultra light route - he had two fine flying gliders with him, of which the Willow Wren shown here was perhaps marginally better. The covering is undoped tissue and only the upper surfaces of the wing are covered. To achieve a straight tow and a curved flight pattern, Peter uses an offset towhook. The video below shows the slow flying speed of the model as well as how to use as much of the hall as possible!
Charlie Newman went a more traditional flying scale route with his lovely Slingsby T46, which resulted in a faster flying speed and shorter flights. How these two approaches will pan out if and when scale judging is included will be interestng to see. As with all scale modelling, it will be a balancing act between weight and scale detail.