Home

   Gallery

Nationals, 23rd, 24th and 25th August 2014.

We were lucky at Cranwell on Saturday and missed the shower they had at Barkston, a touch windy but quite flyable for r/c models. Sunday, less wind and no showers, then Monday......

A comprehensive change in the layout at Barkston, aimed I was told, to get the flight lines with a greater separation. The camp site seemed larger than ever, the trade area, once you got to it, gave you plenty of room to move about and seemed to have about the same number of stalls. Parking on the grass to the west of the trade area gave you a good, if long range view of the display line. The jets here appeared larger and faster than last year.....

Control line was well represented, with more circles than I remember previously. I had parked by one of the speed circles and got out for a close look at a pulse jet. I had only heard these previously, not watched one. Although behind a mesh barrier the general noise and speed of the model had me step back and stand behind the car.

Control line aerobatics were a treat that I had not watched closely before. Elegant models, with the electric powered ones very quiet.

Scale, the usual superb collection of models. The commentary here was excellent, a little about the builder of the model, a description of the task being flown as well as interesting background information about the full size aircrsaft that was being modelled.

Click for some snapshots

The most impressive trade stand was Sequoiasystems.co.uk. We have become used to kits where cutting is done by a computer controlled laser or cutting device. A vast improvement on the thick lines and crushed balsa of years ago. However Sequoia seem to have taken it a stage further. A very neat sample that I took away is shown on the right (about half full size). You can just see shapes of the cuts in each of the four corners. The two assembled kits hanging up on the stand were a delight to see.

I am a sucker for trade stand demonstrations and although I passed by the "welding aluminium" bench as something I was unlikely to use I did spend some time watching the Gyro-Cut demo. www.craftyproducts.co.uk At its best with plastic film it does seem to cope with thin tissue, the trick being to have a specific cutting board with a sticky surface to hold things in place.

I left the Nationals at about 14:30 as I knew that South Rauceby, not too far away, was due for a fly past of a Spitfire and Hurricane then a few minutes later both the Canadian and the BBMF Lancasters. Possibly they would be seen from Barkston but it was very impressive to have the Lancasters pass directly overhead. An excellent end to the day.

Tony Beckett