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Sandown Model Symposium 2003.

Not many GMC members attended the 2003 Sandown Model Symposium, mainly on the grounds that the year before wasn't too good. But those that did go this year (Dave Wilkinson (me), Shane Browning, Thomas David and Jess Druce (friend of the club and Shane's neighbour)) had a wicked time. We were not only there as enthusiasts, going to buy some of the special offers on sale and to witness some top notch flying, but we were also involved with the other side of the show...the Flying side! Pete Rondel from Jersey contacted me earlier in the year to see if I was going to Sandown. When I asked him why he said that he was after a relativley unknown pilot to team up with a load of big names to show off a new plane that he had had some input at the design stage.

I gave him my word that I would be able to get there and have a plane built in time etc etc, and in the meantime, he kept me updated on developments of the plane until it was ready to be shipped to all thee guys who would be flying it at the show. The plane in question was eventually revealed as the Capiche 50. When I saw the first pictures of it and heard about what it was like I thought 'hmm, nice, When will mine arrive?'

I got the kit near the end of March and built it and had a few flights with it, but that's another story. On to England...

The four of us left Guernsey on Thursday night, arriving in England at about 9pm, with a three hour or so drive ahead nof us to Guildford, where we were staying, roughly 20 mins from Sandown Racecourse. The next morning we met up with Pete Rondel at a Little Chef, had a bite to eat and headed off to Kempton Park Racecourse, which doubles up as a model flying site when not being raced around. We got there before the guy who had the key to the gate (Chris Pegg), but Dave Stephens was already there. Chris arrived then it started raining, so we headed off to the nearest pub for a game of Darts whilst we waited for the rain to stop. once it had stopped, we went flying. Dave test flew his new Capiche 50, then I had a go with mine, then Pete tried his Cougar with a new WestTech 36 on it...Phenomenal power, easily the best 30 class motor going! Then Malcolm Corbin came along with the prototype electric Capiche 50 E, which was superb with the motor/bnattery combination. Electric power really has come on recently! The weather conditions were not ideal, force 4 gusting 5 across the landing area! But that was nothing compared to what would greet us at Sandown!

Being my first trip to Sandown as not only as a spectator, but also as a pilot, I had to carry out a test flight to prove that I could handle a plane in the tight(!) airspace. I was psyching myself up for it when it started raining again, at about 4:30pm and it didn't seem like it was going to stop. I kept on looking around for some bright sky, but it never came. At about half past 6, it seemed to ease off considerably, so I though Sod It, filled up and went for my test flight. 58 seconds of the most turbulent flying ever. Heavy Drizzle, and a force 5, running at 90 degrees to the runway area, coming over the Grandstand. The air really gets a swirl up coming over that stand, even in little wind, you can watch the windsock, and within a couple of minutes you are guaranteed to see it swing right through 360 dgrees and finish up pointing straight into the air! Imagine what thats gonna do to a poor little plane floating around on half throttle!! Kite flying anyone? Anyways, I got the thing back down again to a huge cheer from Malcolm nad Dave, followed by a huge shout of "Welcome to Sandown". Ten minutes later, the wind had died a little and the rain had stopped. Typical!! Half a dozen guys flew their test flights after me with much better conditions than I had. Fair play to them to, the turbulence still looked a nightmare.

All this excitement, its still only day one!! Now we were getting hungry. Trying to find somewhere to eat in Guildford that start with Burger or Mc, and end with King or Donalds is a nightmare. After about an hour, we found somewhere that we weren't going to say no to after so long of trying...Guildford Kebab House! Gorgeous Kebabs at a decent price, nearly went back for seconds! Then it was Mini Piper time,and the test flight of mine, that I had only finished a couple of days before. Flew quite well, about as well as any other mini piper, till it caught by the wind, and broke the fuselage where the wing bolt goes in. Big roll of tape wrapped around the fuz seemed to do the trick! Flew it again...fine. Shane crashed his into a tree and broke the tail off, Thomas crashed his into a tree, a fence, and several times into the ground, it wasn't looking pretty!

Saturday Morning, and the first day of the show dawns sunny but breezy. We arrived at the course and unpacked what needed unpacking, and put the Capiche in the outdoor pit area, and prepared it for flight. Of course, we weren't the only ones doing this. All the flying Capiche's were put in the same part of the pit area, next to the Weston Models flight team, which consisted of Cougars, Magnums, and a the Hype 3D's. The Pilot's briefing was at 9:30, and as Shane had the assistants pass I had been given with my pilots pass, he came along aswell. Just a light-hearted yet serious going over the rules, where to fly, where not to fly etc. Believe me, at an event of this magnitude there are no half measures, everything is done by the book or not at all.

After the main briefing, Pete Rondel called all the Capiche pilots togther as some would be flying in different slots...RCM&E, Carbon Copy, and Super Tiger Engines. It was during this quick meeting that I was asked if I fancied flying a small electric Messerschmitt 109 or Spitfire, as featured recently in RCM&E, in a group of about half a dozen. Of course I wasn't going to say no!

I was not going to be flying anything until around 12 o'clock, so I went had had a look around the stands, and bought pretty much all the radio gear I needed for the X-cell Fury 60 I had just started building. When my first slot came up I was a little nervous, but nothing compared to the day before, as the wind had dropped considerably and it wasn't raining! I had an Ok but rather uneventful flight, just trying to keep out of the way of the other fliers, fliers such as Dave Stephens and Paul Skinner, doing what they do best. After about 8 minutes we were asked to think about landing by the flightline marshall, and most of the landings were uneventful despite the turbulent crosswind. We took the planes back to the pit area, cleaned them up and filled the tanks ready for the afternoon flights.

After a while another RCM&E slot came up and it was the turn of the little WW2 dogfighters. I got given an ME109 to fly, set up on a Futaba Skysport, (a bit of a come down from my FF9!) which had only been flown once before. There were 3 Spits and 3 ME109's in all, but one of the Spits was covered in the Sauber Petronas Racing Scheme with a more powerful motor, which Dave Stephens would be flying. We got all of them in the air, but being so small they were a real handful, and it wasn't just me, all the others were commenting on the lack of performance in the windy conditions too. But it was fun just being back in the air again. We had a bit of a chase going, then we came in one by one then cleared the flightline for the next slot.

There was lots of other brilliant flying to see aswell. The guys from Motors and Rotrs were up to all sorts of flying with different Graupner models such as the Extra 300, Venus 40, Mini Piper, Funky Chicken, Plus helicopters from Graupner like the NH-90 Turbine helicopter, and Miniature Aircraft, such as the Fury Extreme flown by Jamie Cole, one of the country's top young heli pilots. The AHA (Aerobatic Helicopter Association) were there demonstrating the kind of manoeuvreing needed to win the World Helicopter Championships. Centruy helicopters were there demonstrating many of the range of scle helicopters they produce for the 30-50 size market, plus the new 6-90 Predator Helicopter, fitted with a turbine engine. Also in the Way of Turbine heli's Bob Johnston had the new Robbe Nova Cuatro with the SPS turbine. We had seen this heli fly at the Charmouth Spring Fly-in 3 weeks earlier, but at Sandown Bob was really pushing it to its limits. He was doing everything with it that he would normally do with an IC helicopter, which was amazing. One other heli piolt worth mentioning is Russ Deakin, who showed off the new Henseleit 'Classic', basically a 3DNT with a different Canopy on it, to aid the orientation problems of the 3DNT.I dont think I have ever seen a heli display like it!

Fixed wing flying featured more heavily throughout the weekend. Obviously the Capiche Team was out in force, giving there all in the Capiche 50's first public outing. Also for the RCM&E displays there were the mini fun-fighters anda also the new enlarged for Speed 600 Tucano, based on the earlier 400 size plan feature. As previously mentioned the Motors and Rotors team were demonstrating all the new Graupner Kit. West London Models did a formation display with two very Very quick electric gliders, there were 2 Big fun fly's, the 3DD, which looked absolutley amazing, appearing very light for there size. Of course, the highlight of the display must have been Christophe Paysant Le Roux, one of the best, if not THE best, pilots in the world. He put on fantastic demo flights over the 2 days, flying the Majestic, Synergy 90, and the new, even more advanced than the 90, Synergy 140! This plane really was superb, and CPLR did a full 3D freestyle routine with it, which included everything from one-roll rolling circles (very hard) and prophanging and torque-rolling, even in the blustery conditions. Unfortunately, the poor runway meant that nearly every time he landed on Saturday, the undercarriage mount broke, but that didn't stop him flying on Sunday, oh no. On the Sunday, his take-offs featured Inverted (!) hand launches from his father Jaques. Very effective.

My second Capiche slot of the day came up, and again I flew Ok, just trying to keep out of the way a bit, trying to demonstrate some of the slow flying characteristics plus doing a couple of harriers, knife-edge's etc. By now the wnd had gained a little, and my landing turned out a little heavy, and broke the UC mount out of the fuselage. But it did not put a dampner on the day, I had had a ball. Shane, Jess and Thomas had really enjoyed it too, hence our enthusiasm to get the plane fixed for the next day. After the flying had finished for the day, we headed to our guest house, where we spent about an hour gluing the undercarriage back on, and giving everything a check over. Then we stuck it on charge and went out for something to eat. Last night Kebabs, tonight...Pizzahut takeaway. Yipee! After we finished our pizza's, we went for a drink in the pub across the road. Very nice, and our first proper drink of the weekend.

Sunday again dawned sunny, with almost no wind at all. We had ur breakfast, put the gear back in the car and headed off to the track, meeting up with the Capiche guys in the model compound. Up until 10 o'clock the day went pretty much the same as the day before. Thomas had the 'assistants pass' for the sunday, so that he could have a chance to stand on the flight line and watch the pro's up close.

The first Capiche slot of the day promised to be a good one, with CPLR, Dave Stephens, Mike Williams and others plus me taking to the air together again. The flight was going well, I was getting quite comfortable with the plane, until disaster. There was a loud cracking sound followed by the site of my Capiche disintregating around the wing seat. The wing floated down, and the fuselage became an unguided bomb, coming down next in mud next the golf course. Obviously the wing seat had let go somehow, but at first glance no-one knew why...it'd never happened to a Capiche before. I was gutted, and went off with one of the flightline marsalls to gather the bits. When we got back to the flight line, Dave Wilshere was flying his turbine NH-90, and a few of the Capiche guys came over to have a look at what was left. We had a quick chat about what had happened then decided to go and stick the whole lot in the car. I was in quite a hurry because the first electric fun-fighter slot of the day was coming up. I got back to the compund, and one of the yellow Capiche's was being carried out in pieces. I asked what had happened, and it was exactly the same as what happened to mine. It was then we realised that the mounting plates in the fuselage were mounted 3mm away from the wing seat so as the bolts were tightened, the plate was bending and weakening. All of the others were checked and, if necessary, modified.

The electric slot came up, but not all of the pilots from the day before showed up. There were only 3 of us for the flight, myself, Peter Rondel and Dave Stephens, with Pete the only Spitfire pilot. We all got hand launched and got well into a chase around the sky, just like a real dogfight. At one point, Pete and I were side by side, not far apart, and Dave came through with a roll between the 2 of us, how we didn't mid air I don't know. Dave's battery went flat early, leaving Pete and I to it. We had quite a good chase going...he couldn't pull away from away and he couldn't out-manouvre me either. I remember when the motors started dropping off, he said to me to land first so that the british plane could get the glory, but I wasn't having it, so we came in together wiht a formation landing on the long grass. The crowd loved it. 3 little elctric planes putting on almost the biggest show-boating flight of the weekend. Fantastic.

Other Capiche slots went on through the day, with me playing helper to the other guys, and it was still great fun...I was able to watch them and see just what the plane was capable of once it had been gotten used too. There was also another slot for the leccies in the afternoon, but the wind had come up a bit and the flight wasn't particularly good, but at least I was still there flying, on the the fight line at the Sandown Model Symposium.

We spent pretty much the rest of the day wandering around the stands, buying little odds and ends, andn a few other bits besides, and watching the flying displays. CPLR, Motors nad Rotors, Weston UK, Bob Johnston...all big names, plus all the others I've already spoken about.

After the show had finished we packed up all our stuff, and then we headed for the nearby Cafe Rouge, where Pete Rondel had booked a meal for all the Channel Island guys (us, the Rondel's and the Munns family), the Carbon Copy guys, and the PLR's. This was a very fun gathering, and a little special too. We mixed mainly with Jersey guys, but spoke to the PLR's as well. Well, we tried too anyway, except that Thomas doesn't speak French, and he was sat next to Jaques Paysant le Roux, who doesn't really speak a word of English, and Jess who has the most wicked sense of humour, opposite Thomas. We had a good laugh, chatted about a lot of fun stuff, and some serious stuff about flying safety etc, and alot about Capiche 50's. Pete told me that I'd be getting a new fuselage as my wing was Ok...I'll drink to that!! After the meal and then drinks we headed back to the guest house, watched the highlights of the Spanish Grand Prix we had missed, and that was that. Sandown 2003 finished...nearly.

On Monday, we had our trip back down to Poole for the teatime ferry, so we headed off, Mini Piper batteries charged, and we kept an eye open for somewhere to fly them. After a while, we found quite a large field, on top of a hill, which rolled downwards towards some large trees about a quarter of a mile away. The trees were Ok, but about half way along, some power lines ran across the field about 30 feet up. "Don't try this at home kids" was the motto of day, as we decided to fly anyway. But for Thomas the lines weren't something to avoid, they were something to try and loop around!!! Thomas' Piper started the day looking second hand, after a hour here it look like a fourth-hand, clipped wing Piper. It was absoluteloy trashed, but it still flew...ish. It was great fun, almost the most fun we had had all weekend. After our frenzied flying session we headed off through some B-roads to chaeck out some of the scenery. We came across a little village called Burley, where we found a nice little cafe, so we stopped and had a slice of cake and a cup of tea, then went for a look around the village.

We got to Poole quite early, but 4:30 came round soon enough and we were on our way back home. We found Pete Rondel and Chris Munns on the boat and stopped and chatted to them for quite a while, then we got off the boat, and that was it. Our 4-day excursion to main land finished. We had had a great time, and it will be one we will never forget. Hopefully we will get the chance to go and take part again next year, but even if we don't, we can still go and soak up the atmosphere of the show, and spend all our money at the trade stands.

Well hopefully, you've got this far without being too bored, so now take a breather, put your feet up, and check out all the pictures.

Pictures page 1.
Pictures page 2.