St Albans Open Vintage Day, 2nd June 2008

Another vintage day has come and gone, and was blessed with our usual good weather, although it did look a bit threatening from time to time.

I think the mixed conditions of the previous few days, together with a rather iffy forecast for the day, may have deterred some potential flyers.

You have to be pretty keen in order to embark on round trip of well over 100 miles, and some other regulars to, in uncertain conditions.  Especially at £5.00 a gallon!  However, we had a total of 21 registrations, including 13 visitors, many people bringing more than one model.  The 8  St Albans members who flew was rather more than unusual - can vintage be taking hold in the club?

There was plenty of flying going on all day with vintage models of all shapes and sizes in the air.  The weather improved during the day, with quite a lot of lift around in the afternoon.  The red kites looked on during the morning, but must have got bored with watching us trying to do what comes so naturally to them, so they left us to it.  They did not have thermal soaring all to themselves, one tomboy fitted with electronic altimeter recorded 1179 feet, and others reached similar heights.

The Flying Threes and Handicap Duration Classes have been getting very few entries recently, so we dropped those in favour of our new “Vintage Precision”, which got 6 entries, the most popular events at present are Tomboy and, from this year, Tomboy Senior. This is the original 1950 Vic Smeed design of 36" span, enlarged by David Boddington to 48"  to make it easier to see at higher altitude (old age does not improve the eyesight!).

Only three Seniors turned up, but I expect to see more in future, as they have all of the virtues of the 36"  one (quick easy and cheap to build) and at the greater size does not make them easier to see.  All you need is a Mills at 1.3 (original all replica), and there must be thousands of those hiding in lofts up and down the country!  “Precision” is intended to appeal to the many vintage flyers who don't normally enter contents, as well as those who do.  Some people felt he would be too easy to be interesting, but the scores suggest otherwise, and it seemed to work well in practice.

The St Albans cup was won by Nick Skyrme with his magnificent file Falcon, an 8ft model which floats past in the most stately manner, with its Laser 75 Diesel burbling gently.  And impressive model, both on the ground and in the air.  The Michael Barton trophy went to Roger Traynor for the Sportster, powered by an Elfin 1.49 replica diesel from Mike's collection.  It flew the very well on its first time out, and the paint scheme was well worth the effort.  Also flying well on its first outing was another Vic Smeed design, Mam'selle, built by Keith and Jonathan Lewzey.  The frantic overnight engine change was certainly justified!

Thank you to Colin, Gerald and their army of helpers, who between them do all the hard work both before and on the day, so that all of I have to do is turn up in the morning and tried to look busy!  Tony Tomlin, one of our regular visitors, who ran the Tomboy events for me, wrote to me afterwards, and I quote his first paragraph:-    " Just a few words thanking you and your willing band of helpers for another top class vintage event.  My friend James Parry and I always agree that most clubs would learn a lot from the excellent organisation of your event.  As always with some sun shone the most of the time when the winged it seemed to drop as we arrive!"

So we seem to be doing it more or less right!

RESULTS                                                           Total

Precision           1. Chris Ward (Fly Baby)             14mins 26secs

2. Mike Conrad (Jaded Maid)       13mins 56secs

3. Brian Rapier (Spartan)            13mins 11secs

Tomboy 3s        1. Tom Airey

                        2. Stephen Powell

                        3. Tony Tomlin

Tomboy Senior  1. Tom Airey

                        2. Tony Tomlin

                        3. David Boddington

St Albans MAC Challenge Cup      Nick Skyrme (Falcon)

Michael Barton Trophy                 Roger Traynor (Sportster)