Float plane Fly-in, Beale Park, April 4th 2004

Having only joined the club in January this year I was looking forward to my first club event, watching all those expert pilots making it all look so easy - I am still struggling with straight and level! but as I drove home past Beale park from an evening out about 1am Sunday morning in conditions that could best be described with words like 'torrential' and 'gale force' I didn't hold out much hope for any flying.
When the alarm went off at 7am and I looked out of the window, sky's were blue and wind's appeared light - no comparison to 6 hours earlier - but this is England!
I had volunteered the use of my little dingy as rescue boat, so loaded up with food and drink Kim and I set out for Beale Park about 8:15.
Bob and an couple of others already had an impressive selection of models lined up by the waters edge and were eagerly awaiting the curfew to end at 9am and allow flying to commence.
Bob and Ray were the first pilots airborne, both with Seamaster's I think, taking off elegantly down the lake. The wind on Sunday was from a northerly direction making take off's interesting, as either side of the runway or should that be waterway were two huge Oak trees which were to claim at least two models during the day.
By now we had the rescue boat set up by the waters edge ready for our first customer, which unfortunately we didn't have a very long wait for. All in all we were kept very busy during the day retrieving models including two from the river - my thanks to Kim for all her help and support while us big kids play.
The event was well attended with 20 -30 pilots and lots of splendid models, not all of which survived - its was a particularly bad day for Cessna's with 3 of the 4 attending going home as casualty's in some way, shape or form.
There were several 'pup's that graced the lake on floats, the battle being a bit one sided as there were only a couple of German marked Magnatttila's for them to chase. Also a Tiger and a Gypsy Moth but I didn't see them fly. 
A whole fleet of Seamaster's, about 5 or 6 in all, and some other sea plane derivations all took to the air, unfortunately one is still there, stuck in the top of the afore mentioned Oak tree!
There were also several electric models which battled the gusty conditions well giving an excellent show of (nearly) silent flight.
The weather did its best to deter pilots but was unsuccessful, despite throwing periods of bright sunshine, drizzle, heavy rain, gusty winds and all these together at time! The worst was probably the unpredictable winds - flying from the lee of the trees around the car park gave a false sense of calm, but when the model climbed above the tree line, well things were a little different. This didn't stop one pilot (sorry don't know your name) showing us you can still prop hang with floats on - he managed to sit there vertically and gently dunk his tail in the water several times, mind you several others also gave a good display of dunking their noses in too!

All in all it was a very enjoyable and successful day, so it only remains for me to thank all the helpers and Bob for all their hard work preparing for and running the day.

Pictures from Paul Joslyn

Pictures from Mick Mace