Weston Park Model Show 20003

The 3 big W shows occurred last month, Weston Park was the first on the calendar. Set in the grounds of historic Weston Park, the lands themselves are listed as far back as the Doomsday book during the 16th century and was part of the medieval deer festival. Wild deer can still be seen grazing freely on the park lands. The house was built in the 17th century by Elizabeth Wilbraham who inherited the house after the last male Weston heir died. The house was considerably expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries with the arrival of railways and greater public access. Set amongst acres of woodland, lakes and meadows the historic site is home to many events including musical festivals, opera, horse trials and other equestrian events, garden shows, bonfire night displays and formal dinners throughout the year.

Held every year, it is one of the main shows of the season with displays of model aircraft, radio control boats and cars, classic and military vehicles, full size aircraft coming and going and aerobatic displays from professional pilots. Also there are a large number of trade stands, a huge swap-meet-style bring and buy sale, arts and craft, food stands both sweet and savoury, a children's fairground and beer tent for the grown ups. Also at night traders, pilots and campers can enjoy music and dancing to go with their beer until the early hours of the morning.

Starting with the least exposed areas of the model show, the model boats and cars. The Telford model club put on a fine static display of model boats and the boating pool also saw some action over the two day event. Some of the models displayed by the Telford Model Boat Club The R/C Car racing track is well laid out and offered a challenging course for the 2 days of racing events. Several clubs were in attendance as well as a large number of privateer racers. A duet of electric 4 wheel drive buggies being charged whilst the gas powered Stadium Trucks race. Various classes of racing are catered for with both electric and gas powered cars in a number of classes competing. Military vehicles and Classic cars on display. The Military Vehicle Preservation Group had a nice display of restored trucks and Land Rovers while the Classic car line up was small it featured some very luxurious cars of their time. Traders are an important part of the model shows providing a concentrated selection of models and accessories all in one place. Bumpy Green used Sigma Signs stand as a base of operations for the weekend. Mike Mayne of ATS Mayneline sets up his new bright red marquee. Our neighbouring stands were Black Country Models and Glens Models who arrived surprisingly late due to heavy traffic and the fact he drives down from Scotland for this show. Lots of rides and inflatable chutes to keeps the kids busy. Evenings were spent recovering from the days activities, usually in the beer tent with music and a disco laid on and a constant supply of beer, spirits and soft drinks. Plenty of people headed for the beer tent disco, funny how the bar is busier than the dance floor. Not forgetting some of the un-sung heroes of the show, the Ambulance crew on station all day to offer medical assistance when needed. Ambulance crew ready to spring into action & the Wrekin Club, busy all weekend. Not forgetting the Wrekin Model Flying Club who organised and ran the entire event all weekend and did a jolly good job of it too. Dave was presented with a Wrekin Club jacket and honourary life membership of the club. Finally, the Master of Ceremonies and the voice of almost all model show commentary ~ Dave Bishop of DB Sound did a fantastic job of keeping everyone informed throughout the weekend.

A huge variety of models were again on display with some just out for the show and not being flown. Every class was catered for, small electric fun models to large aerobatic aircraft. Meticulous scale detailing goes into some of the warbird's and equal care is taken to prepare the high speed gas turbine jet models. A trio of large Lancaster's were on display but didn't fly. One of the Lancaster's being wheeled out. A very nice Me108 Taifun in Swiss colours. A small electric Lancaster with 4 x 400 motors was to spell the end for the Funky Chicken flown by Dave Wilshire during a mid-air collision. A fine pair of Grumman warbird's ~ a Bearcat and an F7F Tigercat, the latter flown by Ken Bones. Superb 1/4 scale Hurricane of John Jackson & the new YT Int. Sea Fury flown by Ian Redshaw. Hawker Hurricane P2992 (used for radar & gun calibration in 1943) took part in DB's war. With excellent pyrotechnics display provided by Haverfordwest Model Flying Club Dave Horton's Cosmic Wind & Shane Harding's F-15 ducted fan. Kangaroo Sport Jet ~ it takes just minutes to reassemble after transporting. 2 pairs of gas turbine F-15's in formation. Turbo Raven, aerobatic gas turbine prop plane & Tsunami, a twin boom type jet trainer. The Ripmax Display Team Rapiers in close formation. Ripmax usually have something spectacular to show off their models and the display team put on a great show with low swooping Rapiers popping balloons just inches above the runway. Another Dave Horton model, this time a Fokker DR1 accompanied by a French bi-plane. A nicely done Steen Aero Lab Knight Twister & an immaculate US Navy Stearman. Pitts special in Marlboro colours & a lively Stampe SV.4C ~ this model is over 20 years old. Another great looking Stampe this time with Grandma & Grandpa matching pilots. PT19 ready for another flight & a bright Fokker Eindecker which had a very detailed pilot. US Army Peashooter & a Bumpy Green regular, Russel Bates with his stunning WOT4. Ali Mashinchy's 42% Extra doing it's stuff. Paul Carr with his 33% Extra in it's new colours. YT international's new GeeBee racer & Dave Wilshires Gas Turbine NH90 TTH. Paul Heckles and his amazing Robbe Millennium Mk II. Helicopter instructor and aerobatic expert Paul Heckles put his Millennium Mk II heli though an amazing display of control and finesse. There are not many who can match this mans superb skills.

The Toffee Bomber is a favourite children's activity during which a specially designed cargo plane drops a few hundred toffee's onto the runway. Lined up for the run and Toffee's away The children line up ready and then make a mad dash to fetch them (once the bomber is well clear) Kids make a dash for the toffee's. Check out this little guys smile ~ better than treasure. Another great attraction at the show are the rockets. Some are quite small and travel a few hundred feet whilst the bigger versions leave a plume of black smoke and can reach altitudes of thousands of feet. Countdown complete, rockets away. The rockets then return slowly to earth on a parachute to be used again.

One of the most spectacular attractions was the SU26 aerobatic display performing manoeuvres no other piston engined plane can manage. The Amazing SU26 aerobatic aircraft. Another full size was the Pitts Special in the same Alpine colour scheme as the Su26. Coming in slow for a perfect landing on the Weston Park airstrip. The Tipsy Nipper 66 actually has a small wing span than some of the model aircraft on display. This could almost be mistaken for a large model, it really is a small aircraft. High drama when the Kitfox announced it was on approach with engine trouble. Kitfox on finals only just clearing the trees. It went on to make a perfect landing. It seemed to only just clear the trees at the bottom end of the runway but went on to make a superb landing. The Griffin HT1 of the Defence Helicopter Flying School. Finally the full size helicopter of the Defence Helicopter Flying School was present with the pilots giving talks and answering questions about the helicopter and the flying school.

That pretty much wraps it up for this report. A marvelous weekend with great weather (even if not the best for photography) with full size displays and models flying throughout the weekend. Alex Whittaker, Michael Parry & Tony Brock all with camera's ready. At the shows I usually get to chat with a chap who's work I have admired for years and being the stills camera man for Bumpy Green share a common interest. Alex Whittaker, photo journalist and columnist for RCM&E is eager to impart his knowledge and experience to a relative novice like myself and through his advice and guidance I have progressed greatly since the early days of my fixed lens Fuji to capture some fantastic shots. My thanks go to him. Bumpy Green would also like to thank Weston Park for hosting this great event, the Wrekin Model Flying Club for organising the show and everyone who came along and took part in a wonderful weekend. See you next year.

Article by John Kent from Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
July 2003

 

Comment by phil on 00000000000000. Rating 5

could you send me some pictures of the toffie bomber

Comment by L Todd on 20040708163532. Rating 5

Excellent article, I particularly liked the comment about the stearman as it was mine.

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