The Bumpy Green Team were invited to an electric fly-in at Pillerton Hersey, an historical village in the depths of Warwickshire.



This event takes place each year at about the same time. The land is made available by John Lewthwaite a friendly farmer who is also a keen electric flyer and one of the instigators of the BEFA (Bristish Electric Flight Association).

The place seemed very quiet and it started to rain but having travelled all this way we decided to persevere and having chatted to a few people and seen some of the excellent models we were glad that we did...... Read on!

On arrival we all had a wander around to see what people had been up to in the electric scene over the last year .This event was a real eye opener. The inventiveness of the model builder never fails to amaze and astonish. The variety of models is the main reason for our love of this hobby, nobody has to do the same thing and today was a perfect example of just that.


Transmitter control is among the most luxurious we've seen (it's usually a tent) and the rain kept a few people and their models warm and dry inside the cars.


With the arrival of the sun, thing soon became a bit more active and the flightline was soon the busiest place in the field.


A few of the splendid models from the days flying getting an early flight in.

Wannabe.

One of the first People that we spoke to was Alan Benningham and he told us that his model, the 'Wannabe' was his own design. He should keep designing as this model flew very well and was highly aerobatic running on a Jetti 45/3 Brushless motor with 16 cells. Wingspan about 53"


Le Blon.

Norman Gadd of Berkshire had 2 beautifully hand built planes with him, unfortunately the blustery conditions were to much for these lightweights and they had to be content with being on static display.
Stunning 1910 Humber LeBlon. Hand constructed; right down to ply rimmed wheels with cotton spokes: from a single photograph in a library book and some dimension figures. This 46" span vintage model is powered by a Speed 400 driving an inline 4:1 gearbox that swings a hefty 12 x 10 prop. Drawing 11Amps when held static using a 7 cell 500mAh pack. Micro ESC, 3 channel micro r/x & 2 micro servos. Rubber/Elevator operation and will fly for 3 minutes on the above setup.


Other notable features are the hand painted pilot and the extensive rigging used throughout this model. 3 cylinder dummy engine and fuel tank, hand made steering wheel and superbly crafted and rigged undercarriage legs. Most impressive is the own design propeller saver using a pegged drive plate and a captive spring holding the prop onto the drive plate.


Antoinnette.

Normans second own design vintage model, although not quite finished is a 1909 Anoinette. Weighing just 5 1/2 ounces when flying it uses 8cell 50Mah pack and tiny motor (280 I believe but please correct me if this is wrong) using a unique and unusual drum type propeller gearing system.

That unusual drum gearbox.	Hubert Latham flying the real "Antoinetta" on his historic attempt to be the first to fly an aeroplane across the English Channel in July 1909.

Pico-Javelin

Interesting variant of a classic - Brian Pickering's stand off scale Pico-Javelin.


Originally a MkI Pico-Jet that came out worse for wear during a mid-air collision. Brian rebuilt the fuselage with a small ply box and carved blue foam to create this easily recognisable shape. Using standard 400 motor and Gunther prop with servos moved to a forward location in each wing to help with weight distribution and elevon response (as opposed to internal servos and unreliable bendy push rods) Also featured were the distinctive T-tail, removable canopy/top hatch for easy battery & r/x access. Wings are stregthened across the middle with ply braces running the whole depth of the wing.
Painted in standard British grey/green/blue camoflage livery. Flies very nicely

A nifty little fun flyer called E-PLUS, flown by a very happy looking modeller.



A very bright colour scheme made this sports acrobatic model stand out well.





Brightly coloured biplane flew very nicely.

Sea Vixen

Richard Jones's De Havilland Sea Vixen FAW2. Built from the Chris Golds plan. Richard has made an excellent job of detailing this model. The main deviation he made from the plan was to rebuild the centre of the fuselage to give it its proper shape rather than the flat plate profile of the original plan. A very nice rendition of this beautiful aircraft and one that you dont often see modelled. The aircraft is powered by two superplex motors and the Wemotec mini fan on 10 x 2400 cells. Bunjee launch is the order of the day for this model to gain flying speed, hoever once up to speed the model flies very efficiently and looks great in the air. With a flight time of only three minuites you can tell that these motors are very hungry beasts but as we witnessed they are very powerful and do the job well.

All hands, stand to launch stations....	Vixen held against the tension of the Bunjee...

Dolly drops away as the Vixen climbs...	Could you tell it from the real thing?

Bearcat

While on the flight line we were all impressed by the Grumman bearcat of Adrian King.


Built from the Balsacraft kit. Powered by an Irvine 600 and seven cells the Bearcat has plenty of power even in the very windy conditions of the day.


Ryan NYP

Bob Mahoney had his award winning 1:4 scale Ryan NYP 'Spirit of St Louis' on show, but it was a little too windy and blowing in the wrong direction to risk a flight.


With a span of 112" (2.8m) and weighing in at 23lb 9oz (10.6kg) this superb model is powered by an Aveox 1415 2Y running 21 x 2400mAh cells.


Cub.

Unnamed flyer, but with that grin who needs a name to make your mark. The blowy conditions kept this great little model dancing about and no doubt the pilot on his toes.

Here is the little Cub mixing it up amonst the huge gliders, searching for lift at high altitude.


Grasshopper.

Nicely done United States invasion colour scheme. This Piper Grasshopper put on a great performance on the day with a number of good flights and a very bouncy dead stick landing.

Mind that caravan......	Mind that tree (actually it was nowhere near)

Lightning.

Nice P38 Lightning




Spitfire.

Lively little Spitfire in invasion trim.

A nice treat during the day was the 'City of Lincoln' Lancaster from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight passing directly overhead. These pictures just don't do the experience justice and cannot convey the wonderful sound the four Merlin engines make as it flys over.

This event simply involves being the last one to land your model. And with the wind creating some good lift some of the big gliders were up there with the birds (literally at one point) An excellent competition where everybody had an equal chance to win......

Everybody ready.....	And they're away.

You can just make out 6 of the planes in this shot. Some got extremely high over the course of the contest, so much so that after a while there was a limbo called where all models had to be flown past below the height of the tallest trees. This in attempt to bring the high flyers back down a bit but it was to no avail, all the planes came right down for the flyby then straight back up again.

Some of the contenders in the last one down contest.

Bob Mahoney ~ 'Where's my Glider then?' ~	~ 'Oh ...... there it is!' ~

The most unlikely model came second. A high wing cabin Sports model that had been struggling just to gain hieght in the turbulent conditions and seemed to be on full throttle all the time. The motor lasted for a good thirty minuites. This model outlasted all the expensive machines and gave a really good account of itself.


The winning model had been flying since 1973 with various modifications.
Now equipped with an Aveox motor, a 15x9.5 prop and 3:1 multiplex gearbox.


The juice comes from seven 3000mah cells. and the model was flown by Les Smith.



Despite the strong winds and excellent lift, Richards plank didn't do so well.

Although slow to start, as the weather improved so did the days flying. A lot of fun was had by all and especially the first up last down competition for gliders.


Some of the prize winners collect their silverware.


Dave Chinnery takes the cup and is so overcome by it all he drops it!!! (sorry Dave we had to include it)


Dave and his cup winning model.

Article by Choddy, Chinman and Grot from Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
21st March 2001

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