Bumpy Green were invited to attend the Beds swap meet on 3rd March 2002 in Woburn village hall in Bedfordshire. This event held every year has definaltey earned itself high ranking in the english swap meet scene. Always a very busy event with some quality bargains, excellent attitudes from both buyers and sellers and a great place for a haggle.



A small hall with it's own permanent parking right next to a huge playing field. Bumpy Green in the form of Tony & I arrived early to set up a display table.



With the painted Twin-Jet on display along with a number of articles printed & mounted on card stands. Also a folder full of printed out articles from the web site & CDs of the movies were handed out to anyone taking an interest. The table was just inside the main entrance which meant anyone turning left into the hall came to us first. The rule of averages says this is a 50/50 chance so we couldn't have asked for better positioning.

The most prominent article on display was the Paint Your Twinjet readers models. One of the featured models was on sale on a stand behind us.



Here you can see it being inspected by a potential buyer (on the right)



A much clearer shot of the fabulous paint job & the very happy new owner.

The attendance was very good, with a large number of tables & a huge range of models including, ready to fly planes, kits, half built models, engines, spares as well as model boats & cars.

Even 30 minutes before the doors opened to the public the queue outside was good 20 or so people. With 5 minutes to go a quick sneak outside for a last minute ciggarette & I lost count at 45 as people were arriving



Early on, the crowd was thin & moving nicely



The small hall soon filled & 3 deep at some stands was not unusual.



Some haggling taking place at the next table.

At one point everyone seemed to grind to a halt as the hall was so full nobody could move. Once a few loiterers had been moved along the flow began to move a little better again. By 3pm people were already packing up empty tables having either sold everything or needing to rush home for a Sunday roast.



Click this picture to see a full size panoramic view of the crowded hall.

Hard earned thanks go to the following organisers & helpers.



Archie & Tim the organisers of the event seen here at the closing stages when I was able to pull them away from their duties (or was it counting the money from bacon roll sales) to pose for the scrap book of Bumpy Green Visits.



Special thanks to the girls in the kitchen who served delicious bacon rolls & coffee to the hordes of people who streamed in from 10:30 onwards.



Finally NO thanks to Tony who didn't even get me a cup of tea - the skinflint.

I spotted this little gem nested among some much larger gliders & very nearly overlooked it.



A 1.5m Hand Launch Glider (HLG) with very narrow moulded fuselage, carbon boom & very thin sectioned polyhedral wing.



Seeing this full size motor glider circle overhead as we packed the car at the end of the day was a nice bonus way to round off the great day we had.

Definately look out for next years date and if you are in the area its well worth a visit.

Article by John Kent for Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
8th April 2002

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