Longhorsley Report by Dave Parry, All Photographs were provided by Neil Hutchinson & Steven Hadlow

Well this event turn out good in the end despite the weather forecasters’ reports.

Friday saw the arrival of most of the pilots and traders. The weather was trying to be kind apart from the odd downpour from time to time, everyone seem to get a bit of flying in throughout the day and club members were busy in the background getting everything ready for the show weekend.

Saturday morning dawned cloudy with a light cool breeze the sun kept popping through from time to time which took the chill off us all, the pilots started putting out their models and making their way to book in at transmitter control, I have to say that 2.4 is so apparent now that the tranny tent was looking a little bare (looks like you can put your feet up again Phil), myself, Ian Jones and John Cross went out to man the flight line on what seemed was going to be a very short day according to reports, which had forecast rain all day from around 11 ish, all weather reports seemed to confirm this so with that in mind, we made sure all pilots were slotted at least one flight before this weather front was due to move in.

As we approached lunchtime the weather front still hadn’t shown its face, we did have threats and the odd little shower but nothing big enough to stop the show, the good old weather once again had proved the forecasters wrong and managed to hold out all day so plenty of flying was had by all much to the delight of the general public.

Highlight of the show was Andy Johnson’s Victor; it was great to see this beautiful model in the air once again. Dave Johnson flew the smaller Vulcan that used to belong to Rob Greenwood, the scale detail on this model is superb but it seemed to lack the presence of the larger Vulcan that Dave owns. All pilots and club members put on the usual fine display of their models for the public with John Townsend’s 50% Magister being one of the crowds favourites, along with IAD’s Iain flying a 50% Super Decathlon with its auto engine starter “very impressive” Fighter Ace Phil Clark and crew put on a great display with their WWII fighters along with “full throttle” Andy Wynn. The lads and lasses from the SAA returned again this year after having had a successful event themselves the week before at Castle Kennedy. There were plenty of trade stands to whet the appetite of any budding modeller and the refreshments on sale in the club house were without question my favourite.

The Evening

Longhorsley’s traditional evening entertainment went down a storm again, with a free BBQ for all pilots and helpers plus a live band, there was also plenty of the liquid stuff flowing all evening making it a perfect end to a great day.

Sunday started off well with light winds at first but by lunchtime the wind was gusting up to 25 knots which saw an end to most flying, so all in all it was a great weekend, Monday turn out to be typical of Longhorsley with wall to wall sunshine and a light breeze which most pilots took advantage of and enjoyed before making the journey back home.

If you have never been to this event then you don’t know what you are missing, a great weekend, great site and most of all great hospitality. What more do you want? See you next year.

Please click image to enlarge.

Pilots briefing and the show gets underway.

Kicking off the show the New LMA Trainers, the Genesis owned by Mike Eccles & Sky-120 owned by Dave Parry.

John Townsend’s 50% Mile Magister & Ian Turney White 50% Nieuport 28

Superb display of the Pitts Challenger owned by Richard Copeland.

The Star of the Show Andy Johnson’s Handley Page Victor

Dave Johnson flew the smaller Vulcan that used to belong to Rob Greenwood

The Wellington Mk.X owned by Peter Wilson

Andy “full throttle” Wynn’s P-51 & Keith Mitchell’s B-25

The ‘new’ Fighteraces Warbirds team? “Could be” they put on a great display.

Let’s not foget the B17 Bombers from Dave Johnson and Phil Robertshaw

Iain Nichols 50% Super Dechathlon with its auto engine starter “very impressive”

There were so many Pictures sent in of this event I could have done another page, however, I decided to hold some back as you will probably see them in other show reports.

If your name is missing from any of the pictures or your name is wrong then please email me at the usual address and I will correct it.