Another Vintage Day has come and gone - and what a vintage day it was! Fine weather in the week beforehand and a good forecast for the day helped to bring in flyers from across the country, from Norfolk to Dorset. Twenty-six visitors registered to fly, the largest number since I inherited this job from Mike Barton. Nine SAMAC members also flew. For any statistics fans, about half of the visitors had been before; and about half of all flyers were using 2.4 GHz equipment. This compares with thirteen visitors in each of the two previous years.
Many people brought more than one model, and the conditions encouraged plenty of flying, so the air did become a bit crowded, and there were sometimes eight or nine models in the air at once. It did get rather exciting at times, so it looks as if we may need some system of limiting numbers on the flight line if we get such a big attendance again. However, although safety is obviously paramount, I want to keep things as informal as possible, because several visitors have remarked, both this year and previously, on the friendly atmosphere at our events, which I gather they do not always find elsewhere. They also like our free "bubbly"!
Before flying commenced we paused to remember David Boddington and Phil Saith, both elder statesmen of aeromodelling, both of whom died recently. David always came to our Vintage Days, with large and interesting models which he flew all day long. Last year his Tomboy departed in the general direction of Aylesbury and was never seen again! He and Phil will both be sorely missed.
In previous rears we have always tried to include one or two competitions, but interest has dwindled lately, apart from the growing band of "Tomboy" enthusiasts, so in future we will not try to run any other comps. This is a great advantage for me, as Tony Tomlin from the Raynes Park club runs the Tomboy comps at all the Vintage rallies, so all I have to do is get the results from him. This kind of admin I can enjoy!
Some time ago Bill Roe nobly volunteered to put one of Mike's old models back into flying condition. Mike built his "Willis Petrol Monoplane", a 1955 design of 8 foot span, over twenty years ago, and flew it regularly. Of all his vintage models, I think it was his favourite. Bill has done the necessary repairs, and duly brought it along, but unfortunately the wings took exception to the hot sun and went a very funny shape, so flying has been postponed. Another notable non-flyer was Tony Tomlins "Ionosphere". a strange tailless device designed by Peter Fisher with engines at front and rear of the fuselage pod. The non flying was not for any technical reason, but simply that Tony ran out of time after spending the day running the Tomboy events.
Steve Payne and I had to think long and hard to choose the winners of the Michael Barton Trophy (for SAMAC members) and the St Albans Challenge Trophy (open to all). The DMB Trophy went to Jonathan Lewzey for his Vic Smeed "Mamselle”, a pretty little model which flies as well as it looks. The Challenge Cup was more difficult. One strong contender was a “Spook", a striking design with a gull wing. Gull wings always have a strange effect on Steve - they make him go all weak-kneed and slobbery - but kicks and abuse revived him, and we looked again at the other possibilities. We finally settled on John Towell's Junior 60. A classic design, it has always been popular, especially in the early days of R/C, because it would happily lift the pound or more of valve radio and dry batteries that was needed then, and crash fairly recently when the said radio stopped working. I remember selling the kit at £2/18/0, including turned balsa wheels! You will see some at almost every Vintage gathering, but I don't think I have ever seen one better than this. A simple black and yellow colour scheme, no frills or fancywork, but everything absolutely perfect, just the way I think a vintage model should be.
