5th FF AREA MEETING - Ashdown Forest - 18 June 06
Words and photo from Gary Oulds of Crawley DMAC (full 5th Area results)
'Orchestral manoeuvres in the park'
We set off for Ashdown a little earlier than usual in an attempt to avoid the London to Brighton cycle traffic through Turners Hill, but it didn’t quite work out…. keen cyclists are obviously much earlier risers than most aero modellers, but on the whole it wasn’t too bad though and we were still probably one of the first to appear on the Forest, pulling into Friends to check the wind direction. Despite some grumblings from those that appeared later on saying it would have been ok flying at Friends at the time it was not. The light southerly would have just put models straight into the woods…. so we had to move, driving swiftly round to the Roman Road car park to grab a good spot early. Ken Taylor appeared shortly after we arrived, we listened to his tale of selfishness and woe…while he broke the surreal silence of the Forest by ground running his Dixielander in preparation for the days flying (why so glum Ken?). Brin had nothing to fly himself today so naturally he had elected to opt out of helping his old dad today ………and on Fathers Day too.
The others appeared shortly after this and all started preparing models and provisions for Camp Hill.
It was already starting to get pretty oppressive humidity wise before we’d even started flying, the slightly hazy cast across the sky probably filtered just enough of the sun off to stop the day becoming completely unbearable, along with a sometimes welcome cooling breeze. But generally by midday it was mad dogs, Englishmen and aero modellers.
It’s important to be well prepared for these conditions to stop from dehydrating - plenty of drink and sun protection was the order of the day. Judging by my burning arms and orange complexion today some obviously faired the sun better than others.
In F1H, Crawley flyers Terry Knight, John Oulds, Robin Willes and Tony Clark along with Maidstone’s John Richardson all flew pretty well in the conditions, but just failed to capitalise. I was happy to help as mainly ground support timing wise and do some retrieving for Crawley rather than fly today, just doing that I still managed to run out of ‘go juice’. Anyone who ventured across that valley stream and on up through the ferns knows it was pretty draining stuff, conditions were really tropical.
There was pretty good support for F1B with five flying including Alex Cameron enjoying a change of scene from the place you’d normally find him, (at the end of a towline glider) getting to grips with that alien stuff… rubber! Mike Richardson looked like he had also enjoyed the day making a welcomed return to flying despite a prop break, which prevented him completing his fifth flight. This years Nats Wakefield champion Geof Stringer managed to squeeze in his final flights quite late on in the day, as did Ken Taylor who flew… well just about everything he could really, and to his usual high standard, aided by brother Bob supporting also flying power.
In the end it was professional aeromodeller and part time musician Neil Allen who was the only flyer to max out in any class, flying open power. Once again he undoubtedly put in the performance of the day, managing to somehow find the time to put in straight maxes off three highly impressive power runs, only to then have to whisk off early during the afternoon for band practice back in Worthing, he then rushed back to Ashdown at 6pm in time to put in a fabulous 6.21 fly-off score which floated majestically across the Forest…. leaving Ken his tracker. Neil was last seen heading due south back again to Worthing for the evening’s performance with the orchestra he’s in…How keen is that?
Geof Stringer, Mike Cook and a couple of other East Grinstead flyers were waiting for Ken to appear parked up at Bushy Willows nr King’s Standing, ready to search for Neil’s model. It was eventually found some 2 miles from the take-off point.
Well done to Neil… amazing what a great team effort can do, well done East Grinstead. I’m sure Neil’s grateful for all the support he got on the day… (I’m exhausted just writing this bit)
The final curtain call as ever though really belongs to Ashdown and all those that were supporting the flyers and non flyers etc. I hope everyone was ok, it was certainly another hot exhausting but very enjoyable day.
Everyone seemed slightly orange looking at the end of it. (The future is bright then)
Thanks also goes to C.D Mike Cook who did another great job running the show - never more alert than when he’s asleep!
Roll on the next meeting…