Annual Scale Day - 27 July 2025
This year the Scale Day was held on Sunday 27th Jul, and as we’ve come accustomed to, the field was in excellent condition even if the grass was looking rather parched given the prolonged spell of very dry weather we’d being experiencing. Somewhat predictably, we were greeted with a steady northerly crosswind (so much for the forecast Easterly straight down the strip!) and the obligatory summer grey cloud cover all day, making photography and model orientation interesting at times.
The pilots briefing by Bob McAlpine and myself, took place at 10am by which time it was obvious that there was going to be a good attendance, and the carpark was filling up quickly. By noon I counted at least 30 assorted flyers and spectators, and as the afternoon rolled on a more turned up to see the spectacle.
This year we welcomed eight guests from invited local clubs, and Arron MacDermid who travelled down from Northamptonshire with an interesting array of foam board models including two Vulcans and a Nimrod. I was also pleased to see Tony Nijhuis arrive with George Worley; Tony again brought a collection of his own design models featured in the RCM&E magazine. Andy Nash from the Reading DMAC, brought two autogyros that caught my eye, autogyros are not something we see very often.
Bob and Peter Love once more took on the duties of running the BBQ providing a timely supply of bockwurst and burgers, these were supplemented by some excellent cupcakes brought along on the day, thank you to Brian Davies’ wife.
Many thanks to Micheal Oates and Chris Sayer who looked after the Tabletop sale of Mike Hutchins remaining effects and other items from members, on behalf of Alan Haskell who could not come.
Throughout the day there was a constant line of models taking to the skies, including some good attempts at formation flying, instigated by Dominic Mitchell I think and some very low passes by Mike Inwood. Fortunately, there was only one serious model casualty, although a few of us tried.
By 2:30pm a confab was had by the committee, and it was time to give out the prizes. The trophy for best scale model flown went to Mike Inwood and his Hawker Sea Fury. A runners-up prize for flying something quirky and out of the norm went to the Autogyro of Andy Nash. A consolation prize was awarded to Brian Davies after the unfortunate loss of his Flair Magnatilla.
Flying then continued until around 6pm when the last of us ran out of batteries. Overall, a very enjoyable day was had by all. A big thank you goes to everyone who helped make it happen but also a big shout out to Colin, James, Tony and Roy for all of the excellent photos - more of which can be found in the Gallery.
Roy Thompson.
Events Officer.