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| Still early, still wet. But as soon as the gates
opened people started arriving. |
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A Damp Start
The 21st Anniversary of the Wings and Wheels Spectacular held
over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th June at North Weald Airfield,
Essex got off to a rather damp start with heavy rain and cloudy
skies. Yet despite this the modelers and spectators poured through
the gates, and by nine o'clock the pilots were gathered for the
safety briefing from the Flightline director Ken Bones. Dave
Bishop of DB Sound greeted everyone in his own inimitable style
and tried to convince us that the rain was in fact “liquid
sunshine”. Undaunted by the weather, transmitters were
booked in and shortly thereafter the rain stopped and the full
programme of flying commenced. |
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| Covers at the ready when displays and retailers started to open
up. |
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| Dave Bishop was there as always redefining rain as 'liquid sunshine'.
It was still very 'liquid' at the pilots safety briefing. |
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| By mid-morning everywhere had pretty much dried out and
the show was filling up. |
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| Flying Starts at 10:00 |
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| With two Hangar 9 150 size P-47 Thunderbolts and a 60 size
Hellcat the Horizon Team of John Norris, Perry Lambert and
Darren Goule were joined by Mark Hinton with his Hangar 9 P-51
Mustang for the mid morning and mid afternoon display slots,
all ably assisted by Alan Leighton and Ted Galbraith. |
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Indoor Heli's
When not flying outdoors the guys took the opportunity to fly the
electric Blade CX2 helicopter in the indoor flying marquee.
It has to be said that both the outdoor and indoor displays
were well received by the spectators, with the guys flying some
very spirited warbird manoeuvres during their outdoor displays,
with nice tight formations and stunning low passes being the
order of the day! Well done guys, it takes more than a bit of
rain to keep the Horizon pilots on the ground. |
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| Horizon UK showing off! |
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| Not only was this the 21st anniversary Of Wings and Wheels, it
was also the first time that Horizon Hobby UK went “public” with
a fantastic display stand designed by our very own Christopher
Delves in the new distributors’ marquee. On display was the
very latest Spektrum 2.4 Ghz radio systems together with new products
from Hangar 9, ParkZone, HobbyZone, Evolution engines and Losi
cars. The FSOne Flight simulators, two of which were set up and
running throughout the weekend saw a constant queue of people wanting
to try their hand at an array of virtual Hangar 9 and E-flite planes
and helis. The |
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| volume of people that visited the stand over the two days was
truly amazing and at times it was bursting at the seams with people
eager to see the latest products. On hand to answer any questions
from the public were Horizon employees George Land (Sales Director),
David Spashett (Surface Brand Manager) and Keith Helmke (UK Sales
Manager), who worked tirelessly throughout the two days to make
sure the public got the very best from their visit to the Horizon
stand, with the new Formula 1 Sundowner racing plane from Hangar
9 being particularly well received. |
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To sum up then, despite the weather trying
at times to “rain
on our parade” the weekend was a resounding success for Horizon
Hobby UK and as the crowds left on Sunday evening the main topic
of conversation from the team was, “hey we’ve got to
do this again next year!” So well done everyone who took part
and made it a fantastic weekend and thanks to everyone who stopped
by to take a look at our stuff.
TG |
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