Report by Chris Bland

This was my second year at Binham and my first visit to the new flying site. Everyone said Andrew had prepared a nice runway and they were absolutely correct. Great runway and great facilities for us to enjoy. We are very lucky indeed to have such a welcoming landowner and LMA member.

When Rose and I arrived Friday evening, Andrew gave his usual very warm welcome explained where the water, toilet, etc was and the times that we could fly. He asked that we only flew electric models in the evening. So using petrol all day and, after the BBQ that Rose produced, electric flying at night, this sounded perfect to me.

Rose spotted just one little problem for me "aren’t we parked in a field full of grass and you are allergic to err grass pollen" . No problem so far states I confidently, not a sneeze, sniffle or eye water. Must be over it for the year, time to come off the medication soon, I state.

Next morning we awake to a very nice day and get ready for some action. Binham is a small village and we decide to first of all pop out to the local shop and get some provisions. Well blow me the shop was extremely well stocked with full-size and model aviation magazines. We are obviously regular visitors and a good source of local income!

Back at the field, my Wilga is soon in the sky and I’m joined by some of the other nice models people had brought along, see the pictures below. By lunchtime the sun had brought out the pollen and, I am suffering quite badly and can’t see properly. I decide to stop flying (whilst I still had a model). In the evening my eyes are a little better and so after food and a couple of beers I decide I should get some electric flying started. Soon I have competition with Dave Johnson doing opposition passes with his electric toy. We keep missing each other (somehow) and keep most of the other people present entertained whilst they are still scoffing and enjoying drinks. Dave Horton had unfortunately broken his model on Friday and so was at the weekend with nothing to fly. "Come and have a go with my Twin Jet Dave", I shout, "its no problem to fly". He takes me up on the challenge and is flying quite well. "When the motors stop, just place it in the long grass, no need to try and land close to us", I advise. Well the motors do stop, and I have never seen a TwinJet drop out of the sky so fast. Dave claimed I had given him a breezeblock to fly, I thought the model glided quite well! Still, after picking-up the wreckage Dave kindly offered to get me a replacement model. No problem says I, it was an old model and anyway and if you let someone else fly your toys you should accept disaster could result. I have another one at home to build anyway. Just get me a beer Dave at Cosford in a couple of weeks time. Good idea says he ….. you know I have still not had that beer!

Sunday was another nice day, but more windier, however people again got in some good flying. For me the day was unfortunately a complete disaster, I was becoming quite ill. Rose suggest we scarper, a shame that I had to end a long weekend early. Still, in my books, this is one of the best events on the LMA calendar and if I can sort out my hayfever I will be back next year.

Some pictures from the event …

Colin Hammond’s nice B17.

Roy Salter brought along his latest model, and promptly sold it to Dave Johnson. That’s another slot in the shows booked with DJ performing then! This is not really an issue for Roy as he seems to have the skill and experience to be able to produce new large models in about a week. Dave spent most of the weekend playing with this new toy.

More chatting goes on than flying at these events. They are great stress relievers. Bring on the fly-ins, I say.

A Flair Tiger Moth being prepared.

All sorts of models in the very large and not quite so large category were present.

Dave, come and test fly my new Dac comes the cry. Well to do this involves much pre-flight fiddling to get the two large Super Tiger motors in this model to run properly.

Eventually all is ready and a couple of short flights are made. More work is needed on those engines, but its now confirmed that it flys right and can handle engine out situations (or maybe at least the pilot could!).

This super, own designed, model is back with the LMA. It’s very nice, but what makes it so special….

..well this does. Just look at this home designed and made engine with a double bank of cylinders. The sound is just fantastic. An engineering masterpiece.

Final photo shows another from the Johnson very large collection of models. It only just managed to take-off before running out of runway though.

A great weekend with LMA friends. As you can tell, I’m a fan of Binham.