Woodspring Wings Show 2009



Woodspring Wings MAC is one of the few model-flying clubs in the UK to own its own site and each year the club hosts the South West's premier model air show at their model airfield in Yatton, near Bristol. The flying field and the two adjacent fields (also owned by the Club) total about 21 acres so there is plenty of room to display model of all shapes and sizes and that’s exactly what happened over the weekend of the 4th and 5th July.

John Norris ably assisted by Darren Goule manned the Horizon Hobby display marquee throughout the weekend displaying the latest models from Hangar9, Parkzone and E-flite with the new E-flite Sukhoi SU26M, designed for electric power getting a lot of attention.

The informal atmosphere of the Horizon Hobbies marquee allows modellers and non- modellers alike the chance to ask questions about any of the models we distribute and any aspect of aero-modelling in general.

Saturday was a fine sunny warm day with a slight increase in the wind later in the day, Sunday started of overcast but still warm there was the threat of rain sometime in the day, which we had on three occasions.

Flying started each day around 10 o’clock and finished at 5pm with an amazing array of models continuously displayed to keep the spectators enthralled, everything from slower WW1 aircraft right up to modern fast jets and a very impressive pair of helicopters flown together in time to a musical background.

Each day also saw some stunning model rockets launched which could reach heights of up to 5000 feet and because of the location of the flying site relatively close to Bristol Airport special clearance had to be obtained before they could be launched. One of the show organizers was in contact with the Air Traffic Controller during this part of the show as these rockets far exceeded the normal maximum height allowance for model flying.

Darren managed to get away from the very busy display marquee and grab a flight with his E-flite Diamante and flew a nice aerobatic routine with Ali Mashinchy flying his electric powered Hangar9

Sundowner 50.
There was a good retailer line up for customers to take advantage of the many “bargains” on offer and if they could not find what they wanted on the trade line there was also the swap meet tent to tempt them. This large tent also doubled as an indoor flying arena.
The BMFA had a stand there along with other societies to do with flight and a flight training school were on hand to provide all of the relevant information to prospective pilots, modellers or full-size

On Sunday some very nice scale helicopters were flown and these included a R22-Llama-Long Ranger and a Cobra.

However there is always one model to catch the eye and in this case it was the WW2 Junker 52 of John Menhennet which had a wingspan of 163inch and weighed some 40lbs. Three 4-stroke engines equating to an impressive 50cc power it and the flight performance was very realistic. The Junker is famous for its corrugated metal skin and this was skillfully replicated by putting spaghetti on the mould for the skin panels, which gave just the right size of corrugation.
An ingenious solution, expertly done, a splendid scale model!