Affiliated to the Northern Ireland Association of Aeromodellers and the British Model Flying Association.

 

Foyle Model Flyer 2008

Welcome to the latest edition of the Foyle Model Flyer. Believe it or not our last FMF was way back in 2005, and thankfully we can say that the three years from our last edition have been good ones for our club. Our membership has remained steady and our financial position has greatly improved due to the introduction of our flying site development fee. This has enabled us to continue improving our flying site while maintaining a strong financial balance for future development.

During these three years our members have been busy busy busy. Three members of the club organised the international 2007 Jet World Masters competition which was held in Enniskillen back in July 2007, a short report is included in this issue. We have also had two trips organised by the club to the Scottish model air show, and the Duxford 90th anniversary airshow, again short reports on these trips are included. At the beginning of summer 2008 we secured grant aid from Derry City Council for the provision of an additional grass runway. Work on this commenced in August but was severely hampered by the continued poor weather. A big thank you goes out to all the members who pulled on their Wellington boots, grabbed a spade and in the true spirit of the NWMAC got stuck in. It has to be noted that a certain member of the club tried to combine his flying skills with the construction work but soon realised that a dumper truck cannot fly inverted nor do barrel rolls with sufficient ease. This member shall remain nameless but I am sure we will all take our hats of to him for his valiant attempt. If he ever gives up model flying he has already gained a good understanding of the high jump and could take this up as an alternative sport.

laying of drainage pipes around the new runwayThe runway starts to take shapeSilky smooth

As Christmas now rapidly approaches the NWMAC committee would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and new year. Hopefully Santa will have plenty of aero-modelling goodies with him. The 2008 - 2009 NWMAC Committee is as follows;

Chairman Robert McCartney
Vice Chair Michael McShane
Secretary Sean Scully
Treasurer Arthur Morrow
Safety Officer Gerry Donnelly
Flying Site Development Officer Thomas McLaughlin
Membership Secretary Alex Collins

Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank Niall McDonnell for his help as membership secretary over the last two years.

Scottish Model Airshow 18th May 2008

It was an early start (5.30am) for the four of us (Alex Collins, Paul Smyth, Tom Long and Robert McCartney) to catch the early fast ferry from Belfast to Stranraer for our day out at the Scottish Airshow. Good work by Alex on the Internet had identified a very attractive foot passenger excursion fare with Stena Line.

A hearty breakfast was had by all on-board and in what seemed no time at all we were docking in Scotland. After a very reasonably priced taxi drive, we arrived at Castle Kennedy airfield, the venue for the show. The sun was already making its presence known so it was tee-shirts all round, as it remained for the rest of the day, perfect flying weather!

A walk along the flight line presented us with a wide variety of models, both in type and size (see photos on website) most of which were flown during the day, but the model of the show for me was the massive Fiat CR42 biplane, although the twin turbine powered Vulcan was a very close second. Its rock solid high alpha approach on finals was so realistic. Two Broncos gave a very good demonstration of low-level flying and the Balfour family must be the most talented family in the UK, at least were aerobatics is concerned. They gave a number of examples of their skills throughout the day.

The trade stands were visited by all of us at regular intervals during the day with perhaps Alex securing the bargain of the day, a beautifully built BT 13 Vultee Valiant for a 91 four stroke. The rest of us satisfied ourselves with picking up some of those items you don't know you need until you see them!

One of the real delights of this show is meeting our Scottish friends and chatting over times past. Thanks for lunch Don and Eunice! After the show Bill (Grimsley) invited us back to his caravan for "refreshments" and had us in stitches with his Hillman Imp / Elephant story! Bill, you've really got to write that one down.

Bill kindly drove us back to the ferry tired but happy after a very enjoyable day at the Scottish Airshow. Here's to next year!

Duxford 90th Anniversary Airshow

At 0330 hours on Saturday 6th September four rather dreary eyed NWMAC members (Sean Scully, Robert McCartney, Alex Collins and Tom Long) met up at Homebase's car park and set of in the direction of Belfast City Airport for the 1 hour hop to Stansted just outside Cambridge in England. After an uneventful car journey with only minor slaggings having taken place, we checked in at the airport security and boarded a Ryan Air Boeing 737-800.

By 0900 we were tucking into a rather tasty Ulster / English fry, (arguments over who invented this delicacy will no doubt rage for millennium to come but thumbs up to whoever it was), and with the hire car collected we headed for Duxford airfield. Navigating through the English countryside turned out to be one of the easiest journeys yet and took a mere 30 minutes with no hiccups. Upon arrival at Duxford we were given parking directions by a number of army cadets and headed straight for the museums.

First stop was the British Air Museum which was absolutely astounding with a multitude of British aircraft on display. Included in the display were a Shorts Sunderland, BAC Concorde, Avro Lancaster, De Havilland Mosquito, Avro Vulcan and a Hawker Hunter.

It took nearly two hours to do a whistle stop tour of this museum and our cameras were rarely away from a good shooting position. It has to be said that our available time for this museum was simply too short by far and did not do it justice.

Next up was a flight line walk which took us past no less than nine spitfires, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 3 x DC3's, a Messerschmitt Bf109 (1109-M1L Buchón (Pigeon)), a Hawk and a Piper Cub (invasion colours). All this was accompanied by nostalgic theme tunes such as Dambusters and other WWII era classics which were piped through the PA system. From time to time a few fighter pilots, wing commanders and even a station commander, all in authentic WWII uniforms, popped up creating a total 1940's experience. The flight line walk led us straight to the American Air Museum, which again was mind blowing. Once top secret aircraft such as the SR-71 Blackbird, B52 Stratofortress and F4 Phantom were displayed in a domed shaped hangar with easy access to get up close and personal. An absolutely beautiful Super Sabre was also on proud display. Again hours could be spent in this museum and our available time just wasn't enough. My personal favourite was the PT17 Boeing Stearman which hung from the ceiling as if in flight.

After a very short visit to the Battle of Britain exhibition the roar of aircraft overhead could be heard so a quick dash outside was made. Display after display of both WWII and more modern aircraft stunned the crowd for nearly 3 hours and was only interrupted once by rain. In saying that there were many static aircraft on display with fine wingspans which double well as umbrellas. One of the many highlights of the air-show was an Avro Vulcan which did a number of impressive low level flypasts. Also extremely notable was a beautiful display from the 3 DC3's two of which were in invasion colours. A dogfight between a Messerschmitt, Spitfire and Hurricane enthralled the spectators, needless to say it was deemed to be a victory for the allies.

Duxford airfield was packed with countless trade stands offering everything from rather tasty Cornish pasties to beautiful aircraft prints valued at £3,000.00. These prints were signed by fighter aces from WWII and were simply stunning. We would have purchased a few of these prints for our mantelpieces but we were worried about our luggage allowance on the plane back home. Instead we settled for a few keepsakes which were hand luggage size and priced to meet a more economic orientated wallet.

Upon completion of the air-show we headed back to Stansted Airport stopping of for a Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way. Again another problem free journey was had and a very tired foursome arrived safely back at Homebase's car park around 11.00pm. Everyone agreed that it was a great experience and that it would be really nice to return to Duxford for another trip just to spend more time in the museums. Maybe one for the future!

2009 Trips

It is intended that we run trips to the following shows in 2009

Salthill Airshow (June) and The Royal International Air Tattoo (July). The RIAT airshow has been acknowledged as the world's largest military airshow and is not to be missed.

Anyone interested in either of these trips should contact Sean Scully for further information.

ARTF's

I hope the member concerned does not mind me using the following incident concerning his model, but I think there is an important message here that the membership needs to be informed about.

The member concerned test flew his large scale fully aerobatic ARTF model at the Club's site recently. The model, from the Black Horse stable was very well finished and powered with a 50cc petrol engine. Large powerful servos were used throughout and the whole on-board radio system was expertly installed and backed up with a Powerbox Management System.

During the test flight which I witnessed, the model was not subjected to any particularly stressful manoeuvres, an axle roll perhaps being the most. However as the flight progressed the model was displaying some "unusual" pitch and roll attitudes.

Our member landed at the earliest opportunity and upon inspection noted that one wing panel had completely collapsed! In effect he had a bundle of wood enclosed in a bag of heat shrink covering.

When I had a look at the wing panel I noted that the grain in the spar webbing was running longitudinally with the top and bottom spars rather than at right angles i.e. up and down between the spars. As we all know wood, especially balsa, is much stronger when loads are applied latterly across the grain than along it. The purpose of inter-spar webbing is to keep the top and bottom spars apart when under flight loads. I concluded, rightly or wrongly, that the webbing had collapsed under load allowing the top and bottom spars to come together. A consequence of this was that the wing ribs also failed, assisted by the fact that the wing ribs had been hollowed out in the manufacturing process to save weight.

Those of us who remember those pre-ARTF days when you had to build your own models from kit or plan, would be aware of the need for spar webbing to have the correct orientation, but how many of us, irrespective of experience would inspect any prospective ARTF purchase to this level of detail, very few I'm sure.

Our member was lucky, he was able to land the model without the wing failing completely in flight which would have surely resulted in the whole model being written off and possibly much worse if it had of impacted with person or property.

No doubt our member will make the distributor well aware of this design/manufacturing fault and appropriate action will be taken. No blame can be attributed to him as the model was very well assembled and high standard avionics expertly installed.

So if you're in the market for a new ARTF do not assume that all is well with the airframe. It is easy to be impressed with the high-class colourful finish that many ARTF models have. Cast a discerning eye over the airframe and make sure all is well within.

Robert McCartney
Chair NWMAC & Area Chief Examiner

2007 Jet World Masters

A year after the Jet World Masters when all the dust has settled, we thought it might be nice to look back at the event and reflect on what was achieved. Some of the things that went on behind the scene might also be of interest to members.

There is no doubt that the 7th Jet World Masters was the largest model-flying event ever held in the province. Some interesting statistics are as follows:

· 85 pilots representing 27 countries spanning the entire globe attended.
· There were 249 competition flights averaging 10 minutes each, this means that there was an aircraft in the sky for almost 42 hours solid.
· Some 400 participants in total attended made up of pilots, team managers, helpers and supporters.
· Including spectators the event generated around 7000 bed nights, resulting in a significant boost to the local economy by an estimated £400,000.00 over 10 days.
· There were only 3 crashes, two during practice and one during the competition which resulted in the model being written off. This is in comparison with the previous event in Hungary where 6 models were written off although only 67 pilots were entered, (a decrease from nearly 9% fatalities to 3.5%).
· The event was completed ahead of time even with the poor weather conditions.

As with any major event problems will arise, our first was encountered a few weeks prior to the event when our Pit Boss, Ros Wilkinson announced that she would be unable to attend. Thankfully Bridget McConnellogue stepped into the breech and did an excellent job. Her good-natured cheerful disposition was remarked upon by many of the competitors as she tactfully hurried them along in order to keep the competition moving.

The problem we had with one of the marquees being blown away and two of the team ending up in hospital is well documented elsewhere. What is perhaps not so well documented is the knock-on effect this had on the competition. The marquee we lost was to be used for static judging, team managers meetings, scoring computation and in part as a model hangar. When this disappeared into the next field, we had to find alternatives. We were able to squeeze all the models into the remaining marquees but there was no-way that static judging and team managers meetings could be accommodated. Alan Cathcart and his fantastic team at St. Angelo Airport came to the rescue. Alan gave us the use of one of the airport's large hangars for static judging and for team managers meetings and persuaded London Helicopters to loan us one of their portacabins for a scoring centre. After a bit of re-organisation static judging got underway and proceeded smoothly thanks to all who operated the shuttle system between the marquees and the hangar.

While all this was going on publicity for the event had to be looked after so I did a number of radio interviews for Radio Ulster, Q105 and Q101, Sean did an interview for Highland radio and Sean and I did a TV interview for the BBC NI Newsline 6.30, phew!

Once the flying part of the competition commenced we thought we could start to relax a bit, No Chance! After the first day Tom Wilkinson the Flight Line Director went home sick leaving Aidan (Lafferty) to step into the breach, Aidan did a sterling job achieving up to seven flights per hour, a rate that had not previously been achieved. This was even more impressive as the weather was very uncooperative and heavy rain showers were continually interrupting the competition. After the competition I checked with the Met Office and their records showed that the rainfall for July 2007 was 174% of the average!

The next bit of fun and games was when five countries lodged a protest against two members of the German team for not being registered in the correct class. The three man jury was convened and a rigorous investigation undertaken which involved interrogation of our records. Thanks to Sean the organising committee was found not to be at fault. The protest was upheld and two members of the German team had their static points deducted. This naturally led to some ill feeling between the Germans and the other countries involved including allegations of sabotaging of models.

After all this the competition needed some merriment and so we looked forward to the IJMC's traditional "Nations Night". Keith Channing and his band did a great job in getting the fun going and several new members of the "Combat Drinking Club" were elected by the end of the night. Thankfully those rather obese leprechauns that turned up at the Irish Night earlier in the week stayed away!

With the competition running ahead of schedule and very poor weather forecast for the Saturday, we decided to bring the closing ceremony forward to Friday. This proved to be the correct decision as Saturday's weather was simply awful.

In conclusion the JWM was a complete success with all three rounds of the competition successfully completed. Everyone had their correct accommodation which in itself was a massive undertaking considering that accommodation was booked for more than 450 people in over a dozen different accommodation centres, also most of the visitors did not have English as their parent or in some cases even second language. All the models arrived on time, passed their custom inspections, and were shipped home safely. Only one model incurred any damage in transit but this was minor and was sorted on site allowing the model to successfully enter the competition. The sport of model flying in N. Ireland had its profile greatly increased both with the international model flying community and the local and national public. Most important is that everyone had a great time and many new friendships were made. Anyone who saw the flights by the father and son formation team could not have failed to be impressed. The whole event was captured by Traplet Publications and the DVD is available via their website.

On a personal level I would like to thank Aidan and Sean who during the two years of planning leading up to the competition and at the competition itself, showed immense dedication, skill and professionalism with the numerous tasks they were asked to do. I want to also thank Bridget McConnellogue, Thomas McLaughlin, Gerry Donnelly, Alex Collins and Ross McKenzie who dug us out of some quite deep holes!

Would we do it again? Don't ask!!

Robert McCartney
Project Manager
7th. Jet World Masters

A Word from our Chair

With what has possibly been the worst summer for model flying weather wise in living memory now gone, we can look forward to a hopefully much better flying season in 2009. While last year was a disappointment flying wise we can still look back on 2008 as one of achievement for the Club. The new secondary grass runway should be operational by next spring and will be a significant addition to the assets of the Club permitting greater flexibility in accommodating various wind directions. My thanks to everyone who helped out in its construction. Particular thanks should be extended to Sean our Club Secretary, who developed the grant application to Derry City Council securing a grant of £1000 towards the work.

Last year we had two Club trips to the Scottish Model Airshow and to Duxford. It is likely that at least one of these will be repeated this coming year with the addition of a trip to the International Military Air Tattoo at Fairford, one of the largest airshows in the world. I would highly recommend these trips as the two last year were very enjoyable. Keep an eye on our website for details.

One of the disappointments of last year was the poor level of club membership participation in our organised events. We had good entries from flyers from other clubs but we really should have a much higher number of entries from the NWMAC, particularly for the aerobatics competition. The objective of all our competitions is "fun" and as witnesses will testify the standard is not very high! So come on put your name forward next time, I guarantee you will enjoy the experience. In the interest of the pursuit of fun the Committee is considering organising a "Combat Day", again keep an eye on our website for further information.

You should also very shortly be receiving your membership renewal form. I would ask you to renew your membership promptly. Remember no membership, no insurance, no flying.

 

North West Model Aircraft Club, Duncastle Road, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

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Webmaster e-mail: seanscully@hotmail.co.uk

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