If you wanted to see the cream of lightweight flying, Hall 12 of the National Exhibition Center, Birmingham was the place to visit. Held over the weekend of 26th -27th November a wide range of exhibitors, associations and traders gathered together to show how accessible and varied sport flying can be and how much it has to offer.

The Flying Show is the UK's biggest indoor full size aviation show covering the whole spectrum of lightweight sport flying. The show features everything you could wish or want for in the world of sport and leisure aviation. This is one of the fastest growing areas in flying where you can catch up on new foot launched Para-gliders, competition hang gliders, the latest flex-wing micro-light and much, much more.

Organised by the British Model Flying Association (BMFA) in a specially netted off area of the exhibition hall the indoor model flying displays took place and the visitors were kept entertained

throughout the two day event.

From Horizon Hobby, John Norris, Perry Lambert with son James and Darren Goule were joined by Matthew and Trevor Poots who flew over from Northern Ireland and Ali Mashinchy jnr to join in the fun.
It was a great opportunity to display to some of the amazing models from Parkzone and E-flite including the amazing Micro Beast aerobatic biplane, the striking Gee Bee Racers, delta wing Micro Strykers, the highly aerobatic pylon racing Polecats and from the WW2 era some tight formation flying with the twin powered Mosquitos and the Micro F4U Corsairs.

Helicopters displays are always popular and the "Blade" series of mini helicopters were a popular attraction and there was an amazing amount of interest shown in the fantastic Blade mCPx demonstrated by thirteen year old James Lambert in spectacular style with some extremely low inverted flying

just a few inches from the floor.

Another model that really captured the imagination of full size pilots was the superb miniature jet turbine helicopter in Police markings. Equally captivating was the unique E-flite Hyper Taxi with its vertical take off and landing capabilities coupled with high speed 3D aerobatic performance and some on board electronic wizardry it was a remarkable performer.

With the inspiration for many of our models coming from the full size aviation world it was nice to see the interaction between modelers and pilots and whilst many modellers might not take up full size flying it was clear from the response our models received that many full size pilots cant wait to get their hands on a R/C model and it is hoped that they enjoyed their weekend as much as we did.

So well done guys and a special thanks to the BMFA for organising the flying

arena and allowing us such a unique opportunity to promote our hobby and who knows,
as a result of our displays there might be some converts to RC flying, lets hope so!

TG