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Jersey International Model Air Display 2003.

So, GMC invade Jersey 2003, along with France and the UK. Is that a good thing or a nbad thing...well, in this case its a very good thing. But before we go there, the guys from Motors and Rotors, Dave Wilshere, Jason Huntley and Trevor Skedge, came over to Guernsey for a day's flying on the Friday before JIMAD2003. They came over in a huge van full of models, and a few kits too. The morning consisted of flying of fixed wing stuff, including the test flight of Dave Wilshere's Capiche 50, and only the second flight of my newly rebuilt post-Sandown-Wing-departure Capiche 50. There was a far bit of C arnage during the day, including a few spectaculars in the morning. Dave Wilshere did his first Capiche landing on a fence, damaging the plane enough to ground it for the weekend. But probably the most spectacular of the day was when Jason Huntley was flying a new NoLimit 3D funfly, built by Gavin at Motors and Rotors. Doing a nice gentle loop, the fuselage split in two on the leading edge of the wing (where have I seen that before?). Later in the day, when Thomas arrived after he finished school, they gave it to him, inclusing a brand new Supertigre 51 and 2 brand new servos built into the wing. Lucky beggar!

The afternoon also had lots of fun, and a big problem for me where my Fury 60 was concerned. Late afternoon I was preparing it flr flight, but when the motor started there was a horrible clattering noise...the clutch rubbers had gone!! by now it was nearing 4:30, with only an hour and a half left till the vans were to be loaded. Luckily, Julian happened to have some spares at his house, so I rushed off to get them, and get back to the site to see if I could fir them in time. I had to completely remove the undercarriage, fan shroud and engine assembly to change the clutch rubbers, and having never taken the engine out before, I had serious doubts. However, at about 5:50 it was ready to go! A complete engine change in less than an hour...I was well chuffed (and knackered) even though there was no chance of running it up to check it before going to Jersey.

That evening we all went for a Chinese, chatting about all things modelling, as you do! Saturday dawned sunny and calm, just perfect for a weekend away flying in Jersey. Once we were there, we all went our own ways. My dad, Thomas and I hit the high street to go and check out the model shop. As we were browsing our way around the shop who should walk in but the PLR family, the friendliest family in aeromodelling, no doubt!

At the flying site in the afternoon, we saw all types of planes flying around. Dave Wilshere even had time to check out my Fury and tweak the setup, 1% here, 2% there...sorted. Not much had to be changed before he said it was perfect, so I set off on a mission of showing Pete Rondel what a "mortal" pilot can do with a model helicopter. He especially liked the wall of death manouvre, asking me how it was done. That wetted his appetite for his that he had yet to build. I wonder if he's started it yet? Nick Vining and I also gave the diamond dust a quick whirl, which got a mixed reaction. Nick and I thought it was going pretty quick, but we had guys come up to us saying that it was all noise and no speed, and that their Magnums would beat it easy. What they didn't know was that I was flying on less than half throttle. Tee Hee.

For the evening, the Jersey club had orgnised a party inrespect of the fact that it was the anniversary of the twinning of the Jersey and Cherbourg clubs, to be held at the St. Brelades social club, near Quennevais, and about a half mile from the airport. While there was daylight, everyone their went to the field out the back, and we indulged in some Mini Piper and Funky Chicken Fun. You have never seen so many planes in such a small place. About 5 chickens and a dozen mini pipers all in one little bit of sky. As far the pipers went, combat was the name of the game, and there were planes crashing into each other all over the shop! Even my slow, heavy, many times reapired Mini Piper was mixing it with the best, Flring through Thomas's, Jason's and then I think Trevor took mine out. More tape, and it was back in the air again. But the real fun was yet to come.

After the buffet meal, alcohol, speeches and raffle, a handful of us went night flying, including Christophe Paysant le Roux. Infact, the majority of the night flying consisted of Christophe and I doing formation flying. Great fun, until I started watching the wrong mini-piper! By the time I realised something was up, mine was halfway down Quennevais main road! But I managed to get it back, and carried on flying until the battery died. That was alomost the most fun we had all weekend.

Sunday morning dawned very sunny, very warm and very calm...perfect. We got to the site mid-morning, set up all our gear, and awaited the pilot's briefing, informing us of the site boundaries which were not to be overflown under any circumstances. After this, we watched as more and more people turned up, and waited for the show to start.

The show started bang on time with the Trainers slot. As usual, this consisted of slow flying planes with no aerobatics, as you would expect of a slot demonstrating the type of aircraft normally used for learning. Then things got turned up a notch with sport and aerobatic, featuring aircraft such as a couple of Capiche 50's and the like.

A real crowd pleaser was the Mini-Piper Cub Combat. 8 or so Mini-pipers mixing it just like the night before, except this time with an audience. Unfortunately, mine had succumbed to its injuries and would no longer stay in the air. Time for a new one. But what the crowd really wanted to see was action. Hence the timely arrival of the Speed Freaks round. Diamond Dust time! We were third up, after 2 Magnums and before another one. Then the fun started. With 3 Magnums doing formation runs, I got the DD to the opposite end of the site and as the Magnums began a run-through, so did I. I don't know how close we all got, but with a closig speed of well over 400mph and one hell of a lot of noise (4 motors doing well in excess of 20,000 rpm) there wouldn't have been much left in the case of a head-on mid-air. This carried on for about a minute, until I caught the Magnums in a climb, and overtook them on the run back down over the Runway. Diamond Dust 1, Magnums Nil.

Another good slot, which saw only one aircraft in the air was Christophe's solo slot with the TOC Extra. It should have been a duet featuring Benoit, Christophe's brother, but rudder servo problems grounded the plane. However, the CPLR solo was very good, basically a freestyle routine flown to music which included some pattern style aerobatics, and a hell of a lot of 3D type manuouvres. Ever seen a 3 metre, 35lb plus plane prophanging inches from the ground with power to spare with your own eyes? Never turn down a chance to see this. It is absolutely amazing.

The Streamer chop slot was carnage. 3 Panics died in this slot, 2 of them because of me and the Club 2000. You see, the thing is, if you hit one panic when another is close underneath it, there is a chance that the one you hit could hit the other one on the way down. This was just the case...2 broken panics with nothing but gravity between them and the ground. The resultant hit was extraordinary. One Irvine 61 with intact propeller coming earthwards on its own will hit hard. It dug a 2" hole in the tarmac runway, and to be pulled quite hard to get out again! Then the tug took out Mick Wilkinson's Chilli Breeze which got written off. In revenge I went for the tug...not the streamer, the tug towing it. And I got him... I took the wingtip clean off! Wow!

As is traditional at this type of event, the final slot was the stake chop and limbo, which can be quitea plane-killer. This one was no exception (as if not enough had been broken already!). Again with the club 2000, the aim was the poly stakes and the other planes. Well, I did a pretty good job with the poly stakes, chopping them down very low. Once a bit too low. Coming through the stakes, the nose dipped slightly and the plane did a full power tough and go. With no wheels. In a split second, the 9x6 prop became an 8.000013 (ish) x6. But it carried on flying until it was the only plane left in the air.

My landing brought the weekends flying display to a close. And what a weekend it had been. After the clearing up, throwing away broken planes etc. we said our goodbyes to everybody, and headed for KFC for a bite to eat. Once on the boat, we chatted to the Motors and Rotors guys who were on the same boat as us until we got bakc to Guernsey, and then that was it. The weekend was over. A weekend full of great fun, which we will be sure to repeat in the Battle of Britain event in September...GMC Invade Jersey 2003 part 2 is on its way. We'll be back!!

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