Spitties Over Popham
Popham 2025 saw the culmination of the Club project to build and fly combat with lots of streamer-towing Spitties.
Michael Oates started the project with a Club build of the small, depron, cartoon Spitfires. Much effort was put into sourcing the materials, building and testing prototypes and recruiting the pilots. As the project progressed it benefited from generous sponsorship from Deluxe Materials who not only provided prizes for the best Spitty but also sponsored the build of a ‘branded Spitty’ which was raffled at the inaugural combat at the Basingstoke field.
Of course, this Club event was preceded by several practice sessions where two teams were formed to chase and cut each-other’s streamers. This revealed the challenge of flying a dozen or more models in close proximity whilst avoiding contact with the ground. Inevitably, some casualties occurred during practice, but this served to hone our repair techniques for these little models – techniques which would be useful later!
Ever enthusiastic to get more pilots, the Fleet Club were invited to join in and several Fleet Members added to ‘The Few’ and helped to make the project even more successful.
After several practice sessions during which a few simple procedures were established to facilitate safe launching and landing, all was ready for a public performance. Michael made arrangements with the Popham organisers and arranged for four combat sessions – two on Saturday and two on Sunday.
With the stage set, 15 Spitties took off for 4-minutes of close combat. Being an unusual sight at a model show, the session attracted a lot of interest and comment. The flying was certainly exciting with streamers being cut and occasional mid-air collisions all providing entertainment for the crowd as well as fodder for the excellent commentary. Only one crashed and burned and the other casualties were mostly repaired by Colin Low between sessions, ready to resume combat in the next session.
With strong winds curtailing flying on the Sunday afternoon, only three combat bouts were flown. However, these three seemed to be very well received as well as being great fun for the pilots. The Popham organisers have asked us to come back next year, so we must have done something right!
So – Michel Oates’ concept proved to be an excellent basis for a Club project, not only providing fun for lots of people but also getting people building models and flying as part of a team.
For those interested in having a go and building a Spitty, the button below will take you the Build Log which provides all the details to build and set-up a Spitty of your own.