Sloping Off - March 2006
Flying at Beaulieu
by Brian Wiseman
I fly at Beaulieu which is an open site and anyone can Fly there provided they have a permit. To get one of those you need to have Insurance. Several clubs meet and fly there usually at weekends. It has advantages in that there are no trees near the site but there are gorse bushes which grow up to 20 feet from the runway and are over six feet high. When the wind is right they tend to grab planes and draw them down into the bushes. Well that's my story anyway.
One disadvantage is that it is public, and occasionally people will wander right across the Runway. Very occasionally they do it deliberately to annoy us but mostly it happens through ignorance. Sometimes the Forestry people seem to want to get rid of us and then they become friends again. We actually now have a sign which says Model Plane Flying - Keep Clear. This seems to encourage people to walk right past it and go down beside the runway which make landing an interesting proposition. As a diversion every so often some laddos will steal a car drive it around the runway then set fire to it. This usually happens in the evening or night so whilst we get to see the result of their activities we never see the fire. We are in good fettle with the Forestry people because they have put up the most elaborate Peg Board you have ever seen. It is beautifully carved from wood. We do wonder how long it will be before some lad sets fire to it. There are already scorch marks on it.
I have noticed that over the last ten years the aeroplanes have become bigger and they look better. This is mainly because of the ARTF planes which are covered professionally and leave us amateurs looking rather tatty. However there are some very clever people who bring planes up there. Denis Cross is a wonderful Builder and has produced a Fieseler Storch wingspan about 5 feet with flaps and all sort of wonders.
We also have Ivor King who is a modest retiring man, rather like me although I have great deal to be modest about. He saw a Photo of a Hunter and drew the plans, then built it. See the photo. It looks really good in the air. I have not been asked to fly it. Noone in their right mind asks me to fly their planes. But I am told it flies well and it does look very good in the Air. Ian Hammond who generally flies it says that you need full throttle most of the time and it come in to land quite fast, so you need a lot of runway. At present it does not have any flaps, which would help it slow down. We have 100 yards square and it is usually enough when there is some wind to stop the plane, but on a calm day it is a job to clear the high bushes and then get it down in that space. It is amazingly light for its size and does not stall easily, Ian says it is really magnificent to fly.
It as a wingspan of 57 inches and is 58 inches long. All up weight is a surprising 8 pounds, I would have thought it would be heavier. It is pulled around by an Irvin .53 with a lO x 7 prop. This seems to be quite adequate because it flies at or slightly above scale speed. At present it has a fixed landing gear but I am told that the mark two version will have retracts. He uses Futuba Radio. The Fuselage is built up from Balsa and Ply and the wing and tail are also built up. He has had trouble with the centre of gravity so all the servos which can be put there are under the tailplane. I always admire people who can make such planes which fly well and Ivor certainly has succeeded with this one.
(I have promised myself that one da,y when I have a large Sopwith, I will fly at Beaulieu so thanks very much to Brian for this article. Where do you get the permits? It used to be at the model shop near the theatre in Southampton, but that has closed. - Ed)
