elegtrig fly. in - York Model Aircraft Society

ELEGTRIG FLY. IN
Bruce Corte vrbifs the annual York Racecourse erectric fly-in
his event is a bit special to me;
I used to attend regularly, years
ago, before I was into electric flying
ai all, and it's safe to say that the
wonderful models flown then by luminaries/
pioneers like Mike Proctor and Eric Leadley
really inspired me to fly electric. Like many
:'-
-{'
others, I now have a garage-full of unused lC
models as a direct resultl
The venue is special too. the huge mown
grass infield at York Racecourse. part of the
Knavesmire (for many years the site of public
hangings in York includrng that of Dick Turpin!),
but seriously ii is a wonderful flying site.
Mike ran the meeting
for several years as
,.;ii
John Rutter with his van-load of models, captured here
displaying a pair of flat-plate'Simplicity' delta
72
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the Ebor Electric event
but more recently, after
a few years'absence
the event has been
taken over by York
Model Aircraft Society
with Mike's blesslng
(the man himself was
flying in France over
t
the weekend of the event). Club Chairman
Jon Edison and SecretaryAdrian Barker run
the meeting these days with stalwart support
from YMAS members including Treasurer
Paul Mclean. Plus they organised brilliant
weather for this year's Fly-ln - all boxes
ticked!
Men and Models
With luck, most of these models appear in
the accompanying photographs. John Rutter
brought a shed-load of models; John is a
prolific publisher of plans and many of his
models have appeared in this magazine. His
yellow elevon model -'JetTitch'- flew well
John Rutter's o/d scale'Orlik'
is a great pertormer now it's on
brushless/ LiPo power
Events
rui
Ihis is John Rutter's'Arrow', loosely
based on the Dornier Do335'Pfeil',
and is a very smart-looking, extremely
i!!!+e_
Now that's a launch! Perfect follow-throtugn fro,* Ray Smith dispatching Dave
Langley's EDF'Vampire'
unusual craft
on a Wemotech 50 mm fan and 20 mm
in-runner. 'Simplicity' is an all-flat foam
effort and his big 'Orlik'scale aerobat has a
retracting mono-wheel to protect the prop;
originally flying on 15 NiCads, but now on a
55 2200 LiPo, the 'Orlik'has a very low wingloading and is a very capable machine in the
air.
For me, one of the models of the day
was John's 'Arrow'- loosely based on the
wartime Dornier Do335'Pfeil' (Anow), the
'Arrow' is a 'pushme-pullyou'with two Turnigy
2805 outrunners on 7" x 5" props and a
1500 35 battery, and this small but very
adventurous model flies a treat.
Ted Remmer's own-designed Heinkel
He177'Greif' (Griffin)
Bill McLeod's'Vulcan' made many
Bill McLeod also flew this spindly-
sorties on the day
I
Dave Langley was enjoying his flying. His
foam EDF de Havilland 'Vampire'with retracts
made several sorties, hand-launched with
u/c up by Ray Smith. The 'Vampire' handled
grass landings well on its undercarriage.
Dave was also the would-be pilot of a big
twin-pusher'Vulcan' built by Chris Gunnee.
The team hoped to maiden the big bomber at
the event but things conspired against them,
culminating in several scary take-off runs with
the big 3-bladed props biting the grass as the
nose tried to lift.
A more successful 'Vulcan'was
campaigned by York-based full size flying
instructor Bill Mcleod; his green camo'
pusher example was rarely out of the air and
Bill also flew a spindly-looking gyrocopter
successfully throughout the daY.
A gaggle of my old muckers who fly from
Wombleton Aerodrome (really!) in North
ooki n g Gy roco pte r s u ccessf u I I Y
Barry Hurst from YMAS flew this slinky-looking black tricopter
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Neville Weaver's'G-Boat' came
from a plan and has a PYlonmounted motor- good for
grass-patch landings too!
Phil Danks' Fw
190
is a great flyer and rock'steady in the air
The unusual shape of Alan Wales' Multiplex 'Sonic Liner'
canard/ pusher
Yorks came along, largely to spectate, but
Ted Remmer brought several models. His
own-designed Hein kel He- 177'Greif' (Griffin )
is a prototype I haven't seen modelled
before. Perhaps no other aircraft of the
German Luftwaffe was potentially so useful,
but so troublesome as the He-177. An
unusual feature of the type was the use of
twin engines in each nacelle driving a single
propeller, which caused endless problems.
Ted's example flew perfectly however!
Barry Hurst from YMAS flew a very
slinky-looking black tricopter with three
28132 motors and control board purchased
online. Phil Danks arrived with a big Fw
190 that looked (and sounded) like it meant
business. The kit is from HM Performance
- unfortunately not available any more. The
power system is an E-Power 8L4030 385 kV
motor on 65 LiPos, turning a 17" x 10" prop.
The sound system is by Model Solutions
of Canada. Phil has introduced his own
sound files, which
he has taken from
the only original
Fw 190 BMW 801
engine still running.
The big radial engine
sound on start-up
is absolutely (and I
hesitate to use this
over-worked word but
here it is completely
appropriate)
awesome!
Neville weaver
singte-channel fanatic shaun Garrity plus model with a
an interesting model. simTlated escapement driving the ailerons only. The Tx is a
His 'G-Boat' iame from 1i'channel reed set, converted to 2'4 GHz
a plan - it's a big flying
Alan Wales is something of a Multiplex fan
boat with a high-mounted motor.
had several models from the German
and
wanted something capable of landing
grass and not damaging props - the 'G-Boat', company's range. His Multiplex'Sonic
Liner'canard is a capable flyer and is an
does this admirably. I don't think it has,
extremely unusual, futuristic shape, based
fact, flown from
-
flew
Neville
on
water!
s-*t
Alan Wales'big Hangar 9
'Mustang' is an electric
conversion from lC
in
Events
suffered structural failure, probably as a
result of Sam's enthusiastic aerobatics!
ln Conclusion
Final words from YMAS Chairman Jon
Edison:
"York Model Aircraft Society (YMAS)
originally approached Mike Proctor with a
Martyn Bowles flew this 60th anniversary edition 'Junior 60+60'. Mafin has kept the
original Moki spark-ignition as ballast and filled it with lead! (inset)
on Boeing's'Sonic Cruiser'study. Alan also
flew a big Hangar 9'Mustang', which is an
lC conversion based on articles in the model
press. The model flew extremely well.
Single-channel fanatic Shaun Garrity
brought several models including one with a
simulated escapement driving the ailerons
only - don't make it too easy for yourself
Shaun! The Tx was a slight overkill - a '10channel reed set, converted to 2.4 GHz with
Phil Green's help. Another of Shaun's models
was an all-sheet XB-70 'Valkyrie'look-alike
from a '60s plan, again originally for single
channel.
Martyn Bowles had a wonderful 'Junior
60+60'; i.e. the 60th Anniversary edition. The
model originally had a Moki 40 spark engine
fitted - following its electric conversion and
fitment of an Axi2812012, the Moki was refitted in dummy form, now with its cylinder
head full of lead! Martyn had several items
in the bring-and-buy sale including a nice
big Tony Nijhuis Fw 190 with E-flite electric
retracts, 1400 Watt motor, spinner and prop,
S0Aspeedo, Rx battery servos and a 65
5000 mAh LiPo fitted. lt may still be for sale
contact the club if interested.
Several of my indoor flying buddies from
Boulby Heli Club were present at York. Justin
Findlay and Paul Lukaschek were happy
flying electric soarers up to silly heights, while
Justin also piloted a tiny EPP electric glider,
the 'Mini Swift' at all of about 15"/37 cm span
(l have actually seen one of these fly with a
full FPV camera rig installed...).
Clubmate Matt Hardy flies a natty line
in ornithopters and two of these were
frequently in the air. The smaller one,
though tiny and with a slightly video-game
looking controller, is far from a toy, with full
range from ils 2.4 GHz radio and it's fully
controllable too. lt will glide quite well if you
manage to stop it flapping when the wings
are fully extended.
Sam Boylett did lots of flying but suffered
one of the few crashes of the day when the
carbon wing-spar in his EPP flat-plate foamie
view to resurrecting the very successful
Ebor Fly-ln that Mike used to run. This was
the second year that we had organised
the event. Bad weather on the first attempt
kept the crowds away, but as you said
Bruce, great weather this time made for a
more successful second attempt.
York Knavesmire is a great venue and
has been used on a number of occasions
for World Model Flying Championships.
The inclusion of the essential 'bacon butty'
stall made the day for me, but given the
weather maybe we should have had an ice
cream parlour as well! Plenty of models on
show and flown by a dedicated group of
flyers made for a great day out, with a lot
of compliments and a reassuring "we'll be
back", which made all the effort worthwhile.
Given some great publicity from the likes of
Q&EFI, let's hope we can go from strength
to strength." Q&EFI
Fffigm
Gontacts
YMAS:
www.ymasfl yingclub.com
Loads more images:
http ://tinyurl.coml/orkElectricFlyl n
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