All the latest from St John's

From time to time, CRAIG TRICKETT updates us with news of St. John's R/C Flyers, the club of which he is President in Newfoundland, Canada. Here's Craig's latest bulletin, with some very interesting news of an exciting R/C event to come.

There hasn't been a big lot happening here in St John's lately. We have started indoor flying again for the long winter months. We have several new indoor flyers this year. So far it has been fun. Our club "The St John's R/C Flyers" has recently become affiliated with the 150 RCAF wing of the Air Force Association. They approached us late last year offering their facilities for our meetings and club functions. So far everyone has enjoyed meeting each other and I hope this will be a long and rewarding relationship. They have several members who flew in WWII and later wars. There are a couple of Battle of Britain veterans as well. I look forward to hearing some stories from them in the near future.

We had our first meeting of the new year last week and once again I am Club President. Actually the whole executive remained the same. I guess we are doing a good job or no one else wants it. I'll stick with the first reason. I'm looking forward to a great year of flying.

We have one special event happening in August. Maynard Hill and his team from the US will be here to attempt a world record flight of the Atlantic with an R/C plane. There was one that made it a few years back but it did not meet FAI rules and was heavily funded by outside sponsors. The new plane will only weigh 5kg ready to fly. It will be powered by a modified OS 60 FS burning camp fuel. It will be guided by GPS with all the onboard equipment having been made and tested by Maynard's team. It will be hand launched from here and if all goes well it will be landed in Ireland about 35 hours later. I believe there will be a website on line at the time that will be used to track the progress of the flight. The guys will be equipped to make up to 4 attempts if necessary. I have no doubt that they will make it.

That's about it for here now. I'll keep you posted as the year progresses.

Great to get your news, Craig. If you get more news of the website, please let us know!

There's news of a potential new member for St John's on hotchpotch!

Tom Watson reporting on a Scale Rally in Australia

“EVERY YEAR a local Sydney club holds the best (in my opinion) scale rally in Sydney.

"The club is the Model Aviation Club situated near Menangle Trotting track south of Sydney. The club has been having these scale rallies over the last few years and they seem to get bigger and better.

"It was originally called the Moth Day and the the DeHaviland Day as some of the club members were workers at the DeHaviland Factory at Bankstown. It is now just called the MAC Scale Day.

"There is always a good rollup and they always seem to have good weather - not too hot with light winds (typical Sydney weather!).

"As can be seen from the photos, there was a variety of models and all of excellent quality. There are classes for free flight and control line models. One bloke brings a whole flock (if that's the correct term) of wonderful ·020 WWI free flight models - they are really tiny, just over peanut scale size. He flies them all! He always wins the FF contest.

"One of the more interesting models was a very large electric powered Russian Bear. It flies with great authority.

"The field is a little congested but the grass is always well cut and the take-off surface is very smooth.

"The judges simply pick the best in each category and some very desirable prizes are awarded. There is no need to produce any documents and no set pattern to fly. We just have a lot of fun flying and try to fly the model in a scale manner. My Moth almost does it by itself and I have been lucky enough to win the Best De Havilland prize two years in a row. The prize is a beautiful framed drawing of a De Havilland aircraft. I now have two of them.

"The local hobby shop - Kellets of Liverpool - gives some really great prizes and there is a draw of the entry numbers after the prizegiving. Of course, the first number out gets the pick of the table. There was a new 5-channel radio and also several nice kits - I got a T-shirt!

"The field is just near a Trash and Treasure market, so the wives don't mind going there. Lunch is provided as part of the entry and there is always a running commentary from one of the club members.”

 

Here's a couple more pictures of models at the Rally, there's another on our opening screen and I've kept a few more for the next issue or two!

Although Tom didn't get a note of the other winners' names, here's a little 'rogues gallery' of them, to record their success and in the hope that they might drop in on ModelFlight - well done, chaps. Click the pics for an enlarged view.