BuiltWithNOF

Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
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CHILLIWACK 2015

 

Once again I made the pilgrimage to Canada to fly at the Chilliwack event and renew friendships. This year the main players had formed a new Club, the Chilliwack Electric Fliers and moved to a new site on native Canadian land. Here there was a lake with its long axis along the prevailing wind and 100 metres away and the other side of a rather grand pavillion, a grass strip cut out of the rough pasture during the preceding months by a band of volunteers, with assistance from the gravel company who work the land next door. Even in its undeveloped state, this was a fine location and has since been much improved with a longer grass runway and better parking. Even the lake has had a diving platform taken away, so the water is an uninterrupted mile of flying zone.

After the now compulsory “getting lost in Vancouver” interlude, my hosts Hal Norrish and Ivan Pettigrew were as welcoming as ever and I unpacked the three models I had made in the preceding months: a 52” span depron Grumman Albatross (this was in 14 pieces in a carry-on box), a 50” span sport seaplane of my own design and a 32” span DH 60 Moth made from a free plan in RC Model World. The last two were in a 36 x 12 x 12” cardboard box in the hold of the Air Canada 777.

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More fliers arrived over the next 24 hours and on the Saturday the largest model I have ever seen was uncrated and bolted together into a 1/3rd scale Piper clipped wing Cub. It took off in about 20 metres and flew superbly: the big question was “could it land in the rather short 50 m strip?” It did, time and again, in a demonstration of piloting skills. Extreme model builder Ken Stuhr was there with an extraordinary Junkers flying wing project. There was general amazement when it flew perfectly, stable, controllable and really rather attractive. Ken milked the well-deserved round of applause to its full!

On the Sunday we had a BBQ in the pavillion and after all the flying was done, the presentation of prizes. Somewhat to my embarrassment I got a plaque with “best flyer from Christchurch” on it, but at least all three planes were in one piece.  The Albatross performed well, the Little Gull seaplane was a hit but the Moth needed a whole ounce of lead in the nose before it would fly at all. The first flight without nose weight was heart-stopping!

After the event I trundled westwards to Vancouver Island and stayed with Frank and his family in Comox. We flew every late afternoon in the calm and again all three models did well. I fitted the optional floats to the Moth and it actually seemed to fly better with them on than the wheels. Frank’s club have a bowling green strip in the middle of a forest, so it is a bit intimidating having a very narrow flight zone. “Mike’s corner” got a bit overused and eventually some over-exuberant flying wrote off the Little Gull completely and it ended up in Frank’s bin. The man himself had his brand new unflown Vaillancourt 100” Hawker Typhoon out to play, but a fault in the engine, traced to the carburettor, stopped it flying.

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I left the Moth in Frank’s workshop (no point in lugging back a big half-empty cardboard box) and reluctantly returned to the UK. What a wonderful holiday, wonderful people and a great way to go flying.

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Later...the Albatross won the RC Groups “Scratch Built Scale” build off #4 held earlier this year

Mike R

 

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