The first LMA flying event of the season was held at East Kirkby over the Easter bank holiday weekend. During the last few years the weather has proved to very unpredictable but this year the east coast area of England enjoyed the same “tropical” conditions as the rest of the UK. This enabled the LMA to give a “full repertoire” of model flying from WW1 days to the present day jet fighters. East Kirkby is a former WW2 bomber base which was the home to Lancaster squadrons and in addition to having a very comprehensive museum which incorporates a fitted out wartime control tower, it is the home of Lancaster “Just Jane” which does regular taxy runs on Museum open days. One of the attractions about this event is the fact that you can purchase a crew position during the taxy run so that you can get the feel of what the flying conditions in a Lancaster might have been. The model flying area allocated is an excellent large grass area which enables all those lack of winter flying skills to be re-honed leaving plenty of room for the odd wayward short or long landing. It also provides enough area to provide some good formations of WW1 and WW2 aircraft.

Getting the LMA show season off to a start was Emilly Hooper with her 100cc powered SDD Greenley towing the LMA banner and she was quickly followed by 6 other assorted LMA trainers with engine sizes ranging from 35cc to 80cc plus an electric powered version. This slot emphasised that the LMA is not all about B17’s, Lancaster’s and fast WW2 fighters. It was good to see the “Baldock team” in good force and they put on several excellent flying formation displays with their WW2 fighter collection. In a similar mould Phil Clark and Andrew Crosby of Fighter Aces also performed a very good WW2 fighter formation display.

At the other end of the scale it was a rare first opportunity for the public to see Ian Turney- White’s latest masterpiece which is a 2/3rd scale Hanriot WW1 biplane – this aircraft has a wingspan of 5.8m, weighs in at 88kg, and has a 425cc JPX micro light engine with a hand carved propeller which was crafted by Ian himself. The large grass area proved ideal for Ian first public outing with this model after his 2 hours of test flying in private as required by the Over 80kg LMA procedures. Ian’s display consisted of stall turns, and loops, together with some low fly past for the cameras. Many of the public commented that they thought the aircraft was a full size version! As East Kirkby is the home of Lancaster “Just Jane” it was fitting that Tony Hooper, Andy Johnson, and Phil Robertshaw should fly their 18’ Lancaster’s together accompanied by the Wellington of Geoff Graves and Ken McCormick’s B17 flown by Dave Johnson who was the previous owner. These bomber formations helped to re-create a WW2 bomber station atmosphere for the attending public.

The public show days were Saturday and Monday which gave the opportunity for some informal relaxed flying on the Sunday. It also provided the opportunity for 3 members to take their LMA Proficiency tests – all passed successfully – and for Andrew Crosby to start his Over 20kg test flight programme with his F7-F Tigercat. The aircraft was built from the Scalewings kit (made in Austria) has a wingspan of 112”, and weighs in at 59lbs. Powered by 2 Zenoah 62cc engines it has the paint scheme of “King of the Cats” based at Pima Air & Space Museum in the USA. This model looked and sounded just right in the air and Andrew completed two very successful flights. Some of the LMA members who belong to the local club who fly at East Kirkby not only participated in the show but also laid on an excellent barbecue on Sunday afternoon for everyone which provided a very social and relaxed atmosphere. As there were over 60 models flying at this event it is impossible to give a complete overview of all them, however the pictures accompanying this article will help to give a more comprehensive feel of this very successful event which is now a firm favourite in the LMA public show calendar and a welcome additional attraction to the Museum’s comprehensive display of WW2 artifacts and memorabilia.

RAF EAST KIRKBY 2011
former WW2 bomber base which was
the home to Lancaster squadrons

Report by Tony Hooper
All Photographs were provided by Neil Hutchinson