Elvington 2011

Elvington 2011 Report by Tony Hooper, All Photographs were provided by Neil Hutchinson

“Anyone who was not at Elvington missed an excellent event which the LMA are confident will continue to be even more popular in the future.”

Elvington was always a very popular and well supported LMA venue in the 1980’s and 90’s and it was very good to re-visit this site in August 2011 after several years at Rufforth. In keeping with tradition there was an excellent variety of flyers and traders and , just as importantly, the public attendance was also excellent. An additional attraction is the Yorkshire Air Museum on the site so in a way the location and amenities are very similar to Cosford which is also a prime LMA event.

The runway at Elvington is over 2 miles long and it was held on care and maintenance as an emergency landing area for the Space Shuttle if ever such an emergency developed – so no problems with utilising the space for our large models! In terms of the variety of models present there was a very close comparison to Cosford but Elvington had the additional advantage of very good flying weather all weekend so practically every pilot was able to have 2 or 3 slots every day. In true tradition the LMA trainer slot started the flying each morning and afternoon – it was good to see an increasing number of Sky 120’s – owned by LMA Committee members Mike Eccles and Dave Parry demonstrating that Committee members show a keen interest in the smaller type of model. They were well supported by some Greenleys, Lowleys, and Emily Hooper’s 100c tug towing the LMA banner.

There were some excellent “balbos” of fighters and bombers – some 15 models flying at one time on Saturday but it was decided that the fighter and bomber formations were able to perform in their own particular style far more effectively if they flew as fighter or bomber groups separately. This decision was completely justified when the Fighter Aces team put on their display and managed to fly in very close formation together utilising all the Elvington sky that we had available.

Don Bellingham came all the way from Weymouth for the weekend so that Dave and Andy Johnson could fly his HP W10 and the Airspeed Courier in the Flight Re-Fuelling re-enactment – this was well received by the crowd who admired the formation precision. Andy and Dave also put on a magnificent display with the Victor and Vulcan – this event was the last we will see of the Vulcan which is being retired by Dave after many, many years of show flying including flying at Elvington in the early 90’s with 2 Zenoah 62 pusher prop engines. However, watch this space , as Dave has another larger version of the Vulcan in the pipeline which he hopes will be ready in time for next year’s show season.

A tarmac runway always attracts quite a number of “jet jockey’s” and the jolly band of aviators from the Blackpool area who included Dave Swarbrick, Harold Dowbekin, Mike Conlin, and Tim Reid put on some fantastic “duo” displays with the Panthers, Tsanami, and Boomerang XL. These slots were complimented by the Parker brothers who flew their F16 and Viperjet to a very appreciative audience. It was pleasing to see 3 teams put in an excellent performance over the weekend – these included the WW1 team from Catton in the Midlands, Yorkshire Old Far!x’s, and the Gee Bee team from Nottingham. If we include our other friends from north of the border, the pilots at Elvington demonstrate the geographical extent of the LMA over the whole of the UK.

It would be a flawed report if I did not mention that we did have one incident which could have been quite serious but fortunately there was no damage to the model or injury to a person – however, it does remind us from time to time that this is a hobby where we must always be vigilant and try to maintain the highest standards of safety possible, not only at public events but also the more informal fly ins. The safety record of the LMA over its 25 years of existence has been “second to none” and we must learn lessons from any incident for maintaining that standard in the future.

Anyone who was not at Elvington missed an excellent event which the LMA are confident will continue to be even more popular in the future. The excellent pictures taken by Neil Hutchinson to supplement this report should give you the flavour of this show.

Please click image to enlarge.

It was good to see an increasing number of Sky 120’s – owned by LMA Committee members Mike Eccles and Dave Parry supported by The Assault Glider Trust’s & Emily Hooper (towing their banners)