The Great Orme PSSA Fly-In – 2nd October 2010

A good turnout with flyable conditions on the Saturday brings the 2010 PSSA season to a close.

Phil Cooke reports from Llandudno – all photos by Rez Manzoori.

Having only finished covering my refurbished T-33 at 3am on the Saturday morning, we left Derby for North Wales a little later than planned but despite my poor time management Rez Manzoori and I were still in the Great Orme’s ‘Tank Track’ car park by 11am.  The day ahead looked promising, we were greeted by breezy, sunny conditions and a large PSS B-52 could already be seen soaring whilst in the car park a number of modellers were still rigging their planes for the days events.

The forecast had promised Southerly winds and this proved to be correct.  This was forcing us to fly a new slope (for the PSSA) on the Orme, one which required us to walk for 15 minutes from the car.  We rigged 2 models each and with backpacks full of support gear and sandwiches we set off to the slope.  Upon arrival it was immediately obvious this was going to be a successful day, there were 20 or so modellers on site with 35+ PSS models (probably many more in peoples cars not rigged) and the conditions were clearly suited to PSS flying.  The Southerly face (more of a ‘bowl’ really) was working well in the 15-20 mph wind and all model types were being flown comfortably.  Many of those on site had been there since 9am (earlier in some cases!) so the flightline and pits were well established by the time we reached the slope.

Amongst the mass of models already campaigned at length this year, there were a number of new models on site worthy of note.  Arriving well prepared for the Battle of Britain theme to this Fly-In (in tribute to the 70th Anniversary of the event a little earlier this summer) Roger Ray had brought with him not only a Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Me-262 but also a magnificent Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1 – built for PSS from the DB models kit.  Spanning 78″ and weighing in at an impressive 14lbs this was no average PSS Spit, and it performed extremely well in the adequate lift throughout the morning.

Matt Jones had travelled with a car packed full of models including an unflown Hawker Hunter, built for PSS from the Lander EDF kit and finished superbly in the colourful ‘Miss Demeanor’ scheme.  Matt test flew the Hunter successfully in the afternoon and soon had it trimmed and soaring well in the ideal conditions.  The model looked totally convincing in the air and it flew with surprising pace considering its low AUW.  The model was later flown with wing tanks and pitot tube fitted which further enhanced the realism in flight.

Matt also flew his De Havilland Mosquito, fresh out of the paint shop and looking like new, despite the age of the well proven PAF kit airframe underneath!  Matt gave us an impressive electric flight demonstration with this fast twin during a spell after lunch when the windspeed dropped below that required for PSS flight.

In fact the lull in windspeed effected us for a couple of hours and sadly curtailed the planned Battle of Britain mass fly-past which was scheduled for a 3pm scramble.

With the windspeed not suited to PSS flying, a group photo was taken (title image) with all of the gathered WW2 types present – 12 models in total!  Not to be beaten by the weather, 4 electric EPSS models were flown, in good formation at times, with Tim Mackey, Simon Cocker and myself flying Spitfires, and John Bowman flying a single Messerschmitt Bf-109.  It was a shame the weather stopped us flying more PSS models for this tribute as was planned, but the conditions sadly dictated that PSS models were grounded at this time.

Later in the afternoon the windspeed increased back to 20mph+ and the lift returned, actually getting better as time went on right up to sunset!!  Rez Manzoori, Tim Mackey, Steve Kemp and I all enjoyed flights with our BAe Hawks, a common site in North Wales!  Rez had a keyfob camera mounted to his aircraft’s air-intake, forward facing, and with it produced some convincing tail chase footage – something we hope to do more of in the future – see the video link below.

Rez also successfully fitted the camera to his Airbus A380 – it can be seen here mounted on the starboard wing – and again some footage of the Great Orme site and impressive views over the South facing slope can be seen in the video link below.

Steve Kemp was active throughout the day and as well as his Hawk completed many flights with his Spitfire & Pilatus PC-9.  After all the refurb work I got to fly my ‘new’ EPP Shooting Star for the first time this year and was joined by Nigel Moule with

his example of the same type.  Both models revelled in the conditions.

Towards the end of the day Matt Jones treated us to a sunset flight with his 72″ span Avro Vulcan.  This was the first time the model had been flown in such strong lift, but it handled the conditions superbly and tracked true from launch.  This is an impressive model, totally convincing in the air with real presence.  The lift was so good that after a half hour flight (including a roll!) Matt had a little difficulty in bringing the big delta back to earth, in

the end electing to walk the model to a landing site out of lift almost back at the car park!  This really was a special flight, and brought Saturdays proceedings to a memorable close.

Flying continued off the peg until gone 6pm when we all landed out and started the walk back to the car to de-rig before dark.

On Saturday night a group of travelling modellers stayed over in Llandudno and we enjoyed a meal and a couple of beers in town before retiring.  Despite an awful Sunday forecast of rain and Easterly winds, us PSS optimists thought there was still a small chance we would be flying all day again the next day!?

As it turned out the forecast was proven accurate, and Sunday dawned with heavy persistent rain and light South Easterly winds, the worst direction possible for flying on the Great Orme.  At 11am with the rain still falling we reluctantly made the decision to cancel the second days event – the third time this year our weekend long events have been cut down to 1 days flying!  A crying shame when the turn out was so promising.  Hopefully we will have more luck in 2011 and we will be able to utilise 2 full days throughout each planned event!

With Sunday a non-starter,  there was no prize giving or trophy allocations to report on from this event, something we will have to correct at the start of next season!  Thankfully Saturday had been a successful day and at least we had all enjoyed some flying in good PSS conditions.  Thanks to all who travelled and took part – I look forward to seeing you at the next PSSA event in Spring 2011.