A blustery start to our 2024 flying season!
With the forecast still dominated by the lasting effects of storm ‘Kathleen’, strong South Westerly winds and blustery conditions were expected for at least the first half of our season opening event at The Great Orme 13th/14th April.
Saturday was particularly challenging at times, with 65mph SW winds measured on the edge and some aggressive rain showers passing through from mid afternoon – which did eventually put stop to play. Impressively, a lot of ‘high octane’ flying was achieved prior to the rain. The lift (out beyond the narrow compression layer) was massive and smooth but landings proved difficult to control down to ground level with the rotor evident in the LZ catching a few out on finals and causing damage. In the gusty conditions some models were even damaged in the pits having been blown over from their resting position! Sunday was far more pleasant, with 35mph winds and sunny spells throughout the day. Indeed, in hindsight you couldn’t have had better PSS conditions for the SW slope, which drove a higher attendance and non-stop flying from 10am with over 30 pilots present for the majority of the day.
As you might expect for our first planned outing of the year, there were a number of new models on show and some new PSSA members attending their first event with us at The Great Orme. 
From what I witnessed, there were at least 8 maiden flights with new BAe Hawks by Dave Gilder and Jason Absalom, an Avro Lancaster by Harry Twist, a MiG-15 by Clive Gudgeon, (left) an Aermacchi 326 and Sea Hawk by Phil Stone, a Sea Hurricane by Paul Jubb and a Dornier Do-335 by Martin Gay and Gordon Studley all successfully taking to the skies for the first time at this event.
With so much flying achieved, pilots votes were collated for ‘Best Flown Prop’, ‘Best Flown Jet’ and ‘Model of the Event’ and on Sunday afternoon we broke from flying for a few moments to enable some prizes to be presented.
Many congratulations to each of the winners, especially to Jez Billington who was presented the PSSA Ron Collins Memorial Trophy for winning ‘Model of the Event’ with his superb Hawker Hunter (right) which flew superbly on the Sunday.
Best Flown Prop – Harry Twist – Avro Lancaster ASR3
Best Flown Jet – Andy Meade – Messerschmitt Me-262
Model of the Event – Jez Billington – Hawker Hunter
The group made the most of the weekend away and on the Saturday night there was 21 of us who enjoyed a hearty meal and a few beers in The Cottage Loaf in town, much needed after a day of being blown about in those blustery conditions on top of the hill.
Many thanks to all who travelled long distances to take part in this event, it really was a great start to our 2024 flying season. More photos from the event can be viewed HERE.
Our next event is set to run May 18th/19th at The Great Orme once again, where we will be marking the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day Landing operations by bringing together as many aircraft from that theatre adorned with the allied invasion stripes as we can. We’ll run dedicated D-Day flying slots and show all these allied aircraft together for the camera – More details on our EVENTS PAGE – I hope to see you there!