A bracing ‘End of Year’ Fly-In at the Orme

Having deferred our plans by 24 hrs in an attempt to avoid some heavy persistent rain, we met at The Orme’s tank track car park on Thursday 29th December for what proved to be a memorable and fun days flying – no competition, no organised element, just a relaxed meet (if you can call flying your model in 55mph winds relaxing!?) to end our 2022 flying season…

We benefited from the change of date – we stayed dry all day and even enjoyed some winter sun in fairly mild conditions, but the event will be remembered for the high winds which were ‘top end’ for most considering the types of model being flown.  I measured the windspeed early doors between 50-60mph at the edge – all launching had to be performed with help from the lower shelf to avoid the compression zone at the crest – and landings proved a little ‘bumpy’ at times with very little penetration once the models were aligned back into wind – but despite those complications there was huge, constant lift on tap and some great flying to be had – with the right model.

Nine pilots were present at our peak around noon and we flew pretty consistently from 09:30 to approx 15:45.  The daylight hours are so short this time of year I actually arrived at the Orme before sunrise and waited in my car on Marine Drive for the sun to pop up over the Little Orme – a gorgeous start to the day.  As well as the flying there was the usual fun and games with some good humour mixed well this time of year with plenty of Christmas cake, Mince Pies, Chocolate cake etc which all made up into a nice little social – particularly in the car park where there was a bit of relief from the wind.

A good range of models were flown, including a couple of maiden flights – very brave indeed!  The types which handled the conditions best were of course those models with a little higher wind loading and those built robustly hence best suited to those slightly less refined landing moments – the turbulence in the last few feet of any approach is always more in charge than the pilot in these sort of conditions.  So big kudos to all who travelled (some huge distances travelled once again) for the few hours of fresh air and sunlight – it was a great way to end the year!  We extended play by a couple of hours with a pre-booked meal in The Queens Head just down the road at Glanwydden, which proved an ideal way to end the day after our tiring session on the hill, setting each of us up for the drive home in the dark.

A few more photos from the day can be viewed HERE.

I wish all of our members a very Happy New Year and I look forward to flying with you again in 2023 – Next seasons events dates will be released very soon  – and do keep an eye on the February issue of RCM&E magazine which has a full pictorial report from our October event – in shops from January 20th!