Dreaming Spires, Port Meadow 2017

I made the trip over to Oxford today for the Dreaming Spires event run by Charlie Newman of the Oxford Model Flying Club. Held on the water meadows next to the River Thames and just to the north of Oxford city centre. The site is wonderfully picturesque with a large area of grassland to fly on , though you do have to share it with herd of inquisitive cows.

The Event formed a small village of tents on the meadow with the spires of Oxford in the background



The scale event attracted 16 entries , though some entered two models, and produced a wide range of types and designs. It was an all in event with a sort of stand off scale static judging and then 3 rounds of flying. There were two twins two diesel powered 2 CO2 and the rest rubber.
I entered a Piper Family Cruiser with Gasparin CO2 power




more to follow ....

There were some first class models there. Mike Smiths Sopwith Snipe was superb. Its diesel powered by I think a Mills 1.3 but not sure. The detailing takes some believing



















So good infact that with high static score and a series of good flights it was the declared the winner

Second place went to Derek Knights ducted fan Swift.... oops don't have any pics of that one flying.
I do have a static shot of it with his very nice Auster. The Auster didn't do as well, the struts are held on by magnets and a failure on one side saw it struggle a bit and it fell down the field




I do have pics of third place Bill Dennis with his rubber Bucker Jungman, another superbly built model that flew beautifully



Bill also came 4th with his lovely Halberstadt . I really like this model full of character and a delight to watch

Here it is off on a dawn patrol

i would be terrified to launch that into the air, especially without any form of control over the flight.
"wow" you guys are brave.

Tony B

Tony - actually the letting it go bit is often the best bit , especially when it actually flies away, the reward is worth all the work.

I 'camped' next to Ivan Taylor so here are some of his models. Being a rubber duration flyer as well he has trimmed some of his aircraft so they fly like duration models, infact most his models are capable of jaw dropping performance

This is his Mustang which flew well in the competition but suffered from poor approach and landing and dropped so scores. On the power though its hard to believe its not the real thing.







He also flew his Hornet a twin rubber powered model . It only made one comp flight , not sure why, but it looked great in the air as well










Here it is returning home from a mission

Other highlights were Peter Smarts Beriev ? twin rubber model , I've seen this model around a bit before but it still flies very well




He beat me by 4 points... but who's counting ? My Piper PA14 made some decent flights the final and best scoring it managed 1' 18" which I'm very pleased with. I think the extra cooling holes made all the difference so it flies without any icing problems

Pete Fardell's Hollandair Libel was going well too




and so too was this lovely little Puss Moth by Chris Strachan

Other highlights were Ivan with his SE5a. This model was Ivan's first rubber powered scale model and has now been converted to fly with IC using an Irvine Mills . It flies very nicely too.




and here's a static shot of Bill Dennis's Halberstadt just because I like it

I think from memory it's powered by a Banks Mills .5cc




This was my first outdoor Free Flight scale competition and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. A credit to Charlie Newman's relaxed approach no doubt. If you are thinking about having go this is a wonderful place to start, friendly atmosphere in a great site and all in all a very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Roll on the Scale Fest on October 1st.

As a foot note I took my DH60 for some more trimming with it's new Redfin TBR RV and the difference to the old Redfin SP is extreme . I went home convinced I had forgotten to put the downthrust washers in as it was almost prop hanging, infact on one throttled back flight ! it looped ... More down thrust needed but very happy with the new Redfin.. Ironically I had a couple of comments from people saying how nice it was flying on Salisbury Plain !!!! hopefully I'm doing the right thing too much thrust is never enough..... now where have I heard that before ??

Thanks for the great photos.