christchurch and district model flying club

A visit to Cosford June 2006 By Brian Wiseman.

I expect that every hobby has its share of magic. To me it is magic when I take off from the flightline and push the throttle forward. The planes moves at increasing speed along the runway then takes to the air. This is a moment of magic. To make them roll and loop and do all sorts of aerobatics has an element of magic in it. I am not a technical person but to be able to make a beautiful plane fly in an attractive way has an element of magic or poetry in it.

I was at Music in the Air once and the music was good something patriotic was being played when, out of the blue cloudless sky came a lone Spitfire. Most people stood up, some applauded, many had a tear in their eye. How can we describe either the scene or the emotion. I certainly do not have the words.

In our hobby here are so many branches, we can fly electric, small or large, Scale pattern ship. fun flyers, which seem to be called 3D flyers now. All have their interest. At present I fly I.C. planes which can do aerobatics. I expect that I may go over to electrics, but who knows how much longer I shall be able to fly and is the change worth it. I am old enough to get a free T. V.Licence , so cannot have many more years flying in me.

Each year I like to go to one Airshow and this year it was the Cosford L.M.A show. It was magnificent. We travelled up on the Saturday morning and stayed overnight so we saw both days. It was too far for me to drive there and back in a day. The weather was clear and dry , but boy was it hot. What did they have? There was many first and second world war fighters, and bombers. The highlight of the show for me was the Comet Racer, one of my first memories as a child was the air race from MildeDhal1 to Melbourne. The Aerodrome was just over the road from our house. and Father and friends went to see the takeoffs. Me being only three was not allowed to go. In remember being cross about that. The Comet won the race. The model which is very large flew well and looked good. There was also the famous Me 262. Which really does look good in the air. I know we claim to have invented pretty well everything, Steam Engines, Radar, Jet Engines T. V. etc. so how did the Germans have such a wonderful plane out before the

Meteor. There were two Wellington Bombers, a Hercules. We were told the only time in the air for Concord, an Airbus, and The Comet Airliner a wonderful sight. Many Warbirds and a wonderful Swordfish.  There was the usual stunt man making a plane stand on its tail and do things which I cannot do with a plane. Glider towing and two large white gliders with Jet Turbines .fixed on top which flew around in formation ( mentioned in the last issue ). Another dose of magic.

It was possible to walk in the flight line to get a close look at the planes.. It certainly is a branch of the hobby which I can admire from a distance. Never likely to fly such planes myself I really do not think I would dare to take some of them off the ground. There were many planes which did not fly including a Lightning, but so many that did that there were usually several planes in the Air at the same time.

At these shows there are always one or two crashes. It is always very sad to see a plane go down, but it makes me feel that these marvellous pilots are human, because that have the same problems as I do. One chap took off a Hornet, the engines spluttered and would not go right. You know, and I know he should have shut the throttle and put it down. But we both know that once it had become airborne we hope the engine will clear itself. Well it did last time! This time it did not and he could not keep it in the air and it came down and broke up. Another chap was in a Spitfire formation went through the sun and started flying the wrong plane. There was another who got the landing wrong.

Ali M flew nearly all daya real feat of concentration. One of his Jets must have been going over 200 mph and he took it down to about three feet, It was so fast he needed a lot of sky to fly it in. I got to thinking, which I do sometimes. In my youth none of this was possible nor was it imagined, we are certainly very lucky. I wonder what it will be like when my great Grandchildren are old men?

Brian Wiseman Sept 2006

Return to the Contents page

[Contents] [Chairman's Chatter] [Editorial] [Slicker 50] [Diary of a Flier] [LMA Cosford] [LiPoly Batteries] [Christmas Tale] [Plane Crazy] [Answers] [Sloping]