Sussex Radio Flying Club Fun Weekend

Sussex Radio flying club is an established club for RC fliers of all ages and abilities. They cater for electric, combustion, gliders and helicopters.

The club hosts an annual fun weekend. During this event they offer visual treats watching experienced fliers soar to the skies as well as opportunities to test your skills using a trainer setup where an experienced pilot will assist you by instructing you in how to fly and keeping you safe whilst you are in the air.

They also have BBQ food, cakes, drinks, amenities and a bouncy castle to entertain the smaller kids. The bouncy castle alone kept Experiment 2 and the Princess busy all day. They also had some items for sale that were donated by club members with proceeds from sales going to Sussex Air Ambulance.

Selection of models ready to take to the skies

MrWK some years ago built a Bixler2 model aeroplane but has never had the skill or courage to take to the sky. MrWK rocked up with the trainer plane and asked for assistance from a club member called Tom who was already known to him. tom was more than willing to assist and instruct MrWK as to why it was not getting much thrust.  Typical newbie issue of prop being on backwards backwards.

The rain on Saturday risked preventing flying however luckily this mostly stayed away in the distance and only disturbed flights for a few minutes. The breeze was enough to be noticeable to the experienced fliers.

MrWK and Experiment 1 both had a go on the clubs dual control trainer plane. This went well and offered us a first taste in flying.

Tom checked over MrWKs Bixler 2, configured the trainer mode on the controllers and threw the model into the sky. It was nice to see the model finally flying. Tom handed control over to MrWK and for the next 5 minutes laps of the field were performed with the safe knowledge that when things went astray Tom would bring it back under control. The Bixler 2 is the type of model that flies on its own if left alone so it’s very forgiving of novice over adjustments. 5 minutes of flight is about the max you can expect on a single battery charge so Tom brought the plane in for a controlled landing. Luckily MrWK brought multiple batteries.

After a battery swap Experiment 1 was ready for his go. This time MrWK threw the model and Tom guided the place to the sky again. Experiment 1 was a quick learner and after a little instruction was performing laps of the field. He even managed to perform a full barrel roll under instruction. Tom only taking control for landing.

Some low flying across the landing strip

After some food and drink at the BBQ some of the family sat down to watch the experts fly. The princess went back to the bouncy castle. Bounce, bounce, laughter, bounce.

There were some excellent pilots at the event. A number of members brought more than one plane and there were many differing styles. Tom himself brought at least 3 planes but the one that stood out was the Dornier DO-335. This is a beast of a plane measuring 1.73m in length and has a wingspan of 1.72m. Other members were clearly impressed.

Dornier DO-335

When the Dornier is flying around you really notice it. With a thrust of around 3000w from the dual front and rear motors it flies around like it owns the sky despite weighing over 6kg. It has retractable undercarriage and even after a hard landing due to the wind was soon ready for flight again.

Dornier DO-335 front prop is not something to mess with.

Such a good time was had on the Saturday that all three kids wanted to go back on Sunday. What are parents to do but to facilitate? So back we went, this time sans MrsWK.

The second day was a little windy for any trainer flights. Instead the braver pilots put on a good show. The gliders were of special interest as they were very graceful to watch and went up so high that it was not easy to see where they were headed. Only something a proficient pilot could manage.

Big thanks to Sussex Radio Flying Club for the entertaining weekend. We enjoyed it so much we are investigating the possibility of joining. At the very least we may pop to the flying field and watch on a sunny day soon.

Tom braving the high winds

 

2 Comments

  1. Glad this old club is still going strong I was chairman a very long time ago along with Chris Foss Ricky Shaw
    it was then the largest R.C. club with over 200 members we met every Friday at Shoreham Having got permission to fly our planes when the Airport shut down at 8pm .We would come down from Mill Hill this
    this was before Hang Gliders got us kicked off the hill. they didn’t know how to fly them but they learned
    by watching us flying parallel with the hill. Before that they would Just keep us flyers amused by gliding gliding straight down and into the bushes at the bottom. this is a fantastic club with a long heritage and long may it go on. I started with a Mc Gregor galloping ghost single Channel.
    Regards to all Happy memories Doug.

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