Scale Round Up 2009
By Paul Fetherstonhaugh
The end of season scale events were held in Roundwood and the Curragh for their successful Fly Ins held on the13th and 27th September 2009. All in all a very good year for Scale, and my thanks to the Scale Association who promoted and hosted Fly Ins held throughout the year.
The Fly In at Roundwood was blessed with perfect weather, clear azure sky, light winds and a wonderful selection of scale aircraft. The perfect clubhouse provided all flyers with hot tea and biscuits, before and after sessions of wolfing down nutritious burgers from the open air barbecue. It doesn’t get better than this.
The Curragh was also the beneficiary of settled weather, and while grey predominated more than azure, the winds were light and occasional sunny spells filtered through. Perfect for flying, and so it was with a very good turn out. It really is a sight to behold the gathering of a large number of scale flyers, with impressive aircraft from warbird to civilian in different classes of scale.
The Scale Nationals held in Portlaoise were well attended and some 11 competitors took part in Clubmans, 4 in F4C and 1 in novice. A warm thanks to our ritual pilots, and a special thanks to those who took the plunge and either entered for the first time or renewed their fellowship with competition flying. It was encouraging to see such a good entry, and while I was down with a filthy dose of the flu and didn’t partake, I nevertheless had the fortune to get out and say hello to some of you, and sincerely look forward to meeting you all again.
The settled spell continues, and a weather pattern appears to have evolved in the last three years, of fresh and fine conditions from March to June, wet conditions in July and August, followed by dry and cooler conditions in September and October.
For my part, it was a privilege to serve as your MACI Scale Secretary, and an honour to meet you all, and in a short time to welcome your new Secretary. I’m sorry I didn’t get around to do the half of what I had hoped to do, and not least the half of what I didn’t want to do.
It is truly humbling to meet some wonderful modellers, not alone the excellent flyers of whom you all are, mostly, but also the gifted and skilled builders out there who are worthy of individual mention. Another day.
Thank you for your kind help and support during the year, and may I dedicate 2010 all that is best in scale. Make it your call to build or turn out a new scale aircraft for the year to come whether scratch built, kit or ARTF. Your fellow flyers may not say it, but all without exception take a keen interest in the appearance of a new model on the field.