Wings and Wheels 2007
Simon Cragg Reports
On Sunday the 24th June 2007, 13 members of the club went on a trip to Wings & Wheels at North Weald Essex. A suitable mini-bus was arranged and the first pick up was at Wareham station at 5.30am! After collecting the rest of the happy travelers from Toys R Us and the Bear Cross pub, orf we jolly well went. The closer we got to the M25 the worse the weather got. With torrential rain and dark skies the mood in the bus darkened in proportion.....well I suppose it was June so what else should we have expected?
We arrived at 9:15am without incident and drove straight into the somewhat muddy parking area. Luckily we had Ron's disabled sticker and were directed to a good hard standing adjacent to the end of the flight line. We arranged to meet back at the bus at mid-day to load up those recently bought "must have" items and decide on a time to go home.
The weather was windy (probably 20 mph +/-), cold, and with a leaden sky and light drizzle. However, in true British tradition there were still people wandering about in shorts eating ice cream, and others sat outside the various eateries munching their way through (overpriced), burgers etc. The trade tents were excellent with all the big names in evidence. They appeared to be doing a roaring trade helped in part by the shelter they provided from the elements!
After Rod and I wandered around to check out the bits on our "lists", we decided to get a brew. First mistake! For a polystyrene cup of luke-warm pond water they charged a £1. (Made a mental note to take large flask next year). Most of the trade stands were filling up by now, and it was sometimes a bit of a shove to get anywhere near the counter. This was probably due to people sheltering from the drizzle as much as the popularity of the modeling gear for sale! To give some idea of the prices, I paid £11.00 a gallon for Irvine Sport 5 and £12.00 for 2300 4.8v 4 cell RX packs. Generally the prices were lower than the average model shop. Rod picked up a couple of 3" pilots for £1.50 each and two 88mm spinners for £12.00 each.
The bring-and-buy was very well subscribed too even though all the models on display were gradually getting more and more soggy as the day went on. Malcolm put a couple of items in for sale, but as far as I know had no joy in getting rid of them (mind you they were electric, so I'm not that surprised!).
We all met up at 12 o'clock as planned, and the general opinion was that we should leave at 2pm due to the conditions which were not getting any better. Everybody scurried off to get those "must have" items. I made my second mistake! Having not brought any lunch (could not think straight at 4am. when I went and collected the bus), I decided to purchase a burger...they started at £3.00...say no more
And what about the flying? Simon continues....
Well, throughout the day and despite the conditions a continual flying display was provided. DB sound was still his enthusiastic self! The pilots did their very best to provide entertainment on a day when nobody would have even turned up at our club site; an excellent effort from them to say the least. So, who were the stars of the show? The German brothers who flew their fixed wing and helicopter models VERY close together. A variety of (expensive looking) ducted fan jets. A "Warbird" slot for some large P51's etc. A huge Wellington (which hopefully motivated Glenn to fly his!). Some 88" wingspan Yak's performing 3D at VERY low level. The only incident was during the Weston UK slot, which involved a Tigershark delta crashing in the middle of the car park area due to radio failure.
As far as I know, not many photographs were taken by club members. I didn't want water getting at my camera's "innards" anyway! We met up at the bus as planned and the three seats we had left vacant for modeling goods came in useful, as quite a few boxes were squeezed into the back. We left the show at 2.15pm just as it really started to rain heavily. Still, no traffic jams and straight onto the motorway. We arrived back home safely and all passengers were deposited at their respective drop off points.
All in all it turned out to be a pretty good day, with an excellent show put on despite the poor weather. Fingers crossed for WW 2008!
Our thanks to Glenns photo's and Simon's ingenuity for the gallery.
