The Garden Party event was hosted by the Midlands Large Model Flying Group at their excellent flying site on Sunday 23rd June. The event was very well attended with fifty-three pilots registered. There were a wide range of aircraft to be seen from those of the early years of flight, through to modern day Jets. Photographs of some of the flightline are shown below.

There was rain promised, but this only materialised as one large shower at the beginning of the day when guess who was flying! I was the last to land and if there had been a wet tee-shirt contest I would have been sure to win! There was quite a strong crosswind all day and this did contribute to the unfortunate demise of a couple of models. The flying throughout the day was generally good though and most of the slots were full.

Flying was from 10.00am until 5.00pm with an hour’s break for lunch. Lunch was provided with an excellent barbecue run by John and Una Stevens. In addition the wives of some of the members served light refreshments all day. This went a long way to making the event a great day and was greatly appreciated by everyone.

The lunchtime break gave members the opportunity to try their hand at the LMA Proficiency test. The offer was taken up by a couple of members who were put through their paces by Dave Johnson. The traditional apple pie with cream and a glass of wine was donated by the LMA and just about everyone tucked-in.

In the speeches at the end of the day it was emphasised that this is not a competition, but the organisers wanted to present some trophies for some of the good models and flying demonstrated. The main Garden Party trophy was awarded to Glen Masters for his Beech D18. This was followed by awards to: Roy Salter for his Eastbourne Monoplane, Steve Johnson for his Pitts and Chris Gale for his Cub.

Roy Salter, the LMA Journal editor, on the other side of a camera for a change receiving his award from Adrian Roy-Evans for his Eastbourne Monoplane.

In addition a special trophy was awarded to commemorate the friendship and many years of hard work put into our sport by Peter Brotherton who sadly died earlier this year. Peter had been a member of the LMA committee for many years and was probably known best for this work as Flightline Director and the organiser of the WWI flying circus; so popular in the last couple of years. This year it was presented to the current chairman of the group, Pete Siggins. It was very pleasing to see Mavis Brotherton, Pete’s widow, make the presentation.

Pete Siggins with his Howard Pete 1930 racer. Powered by a Saito 150. This 80" plane is 33% scale. The model was built from a Dave Anderson plan from the US.

In short, the Garden Party event was again a great success. Some photographs of some of the other models are shown below.

Glen Master’s Beech, built from a Nick Zerolli plan. The model weighs 34lb and is powered by two Zenoah 38s.

Steve Thomas’ nice 33% scale Jungmeister. Powered by a 3W 75 and incorporates a smoke system.

Phil Padley was coerced into posing with his CAP231. This is an Airworld model powered by a Mackay 45.

Chris Gale stands by his 50% scale Cub.

Dave Johnson’s F15 jet. Looks and sounds great in the sky.

Tony Hooper stands next to his Avro 504. Looked really majestic in the sky thanks to the building skills of Gordon Whitehead.

Steve Johnson with his 5 cylinder powered radial Pitts 12.

Roy Salter’s 50% scale Eastbourne Monoplane. Note that with the backward facing baseball cap, some might say the owner looks a bit like this pilot (see earlier photo)!