John and I were met at Brisbane Airport by Ron Cavanagh ( ex Palmerston North Scale Guru ) and he took care of the model box . We had a day and night in Brisbane where we met up with some Northern Hemi imports for the event , namely Ali Machinchy from the UK , Mike McConville and Sam Wright from the USA . Mike is well known to those involved in aerobatics . He is heavily involved with Horizon Hobbies . Sam is known in the USA for his expertise on the microphone at various major model events . However , he is a very active modeller , has an online Scale Magazine up and running and is very social . Ali is most widely known and he is a man of extraordinary talent and skill . He owns Al ’ s Models Shops in the UK and now spends a good deal of his time travelling around much of the world with a display team . His real love is Jets . He in fact , seldom competes but when he does , he steps right up .
insulated , fitted with insect screens , have a power supply and beds . There are permanent shelters for model prep and pitting . This proved very welcome as not only did we have sunny days but one afternoon of heavy rain .
The program was arranged around having public attendance on the Saturday and Sunday and that plan worked very well . They turned up in droves . The only slight hitch was the rain on Saturday afternoon which created very muddy access ways . With the fine weather and high-ish temperature on Sunday it dried out very quickly .
As well as the competitions there were display slots for public interest featuring Ali and Mike . Ali is as skilled with a Discuss Launch Glider as he is with a Jet , a Scale Aerobatic model or a Pylon Racer . He has a Discuss type and size Glider powered with a JetCat P20 and his display routine with this is like nothing I have ever seen before . Mike put on some stunning displays with a large Citabria model . Both of them competed in Scale Pylon Racing . This is a popular discipline in Australia and is indeed a lot of fun . They ran “ Reno ” races , “ Texan ” races and “ In Line ” class racing . The In Line Racers must be models of types from the golden era of Air Racing … Mew Gulls , Hawk Speed Sixes etc .
In one of the In Line heats Ali found himself alone in the sky so he completed his laps with variations of rolling themes . One lap was a rolling circle , another inverted with a full roll down the long legs of the course and yet another with two full rolls in opposite directions down the long legs . All this with an aeroplane that someone had handed him for a test flight just the day before !
In the Reno races Mike McConville had a wing failure on a large Spitfire he was charged with flying . I ’ d been on the lights at number one pylon the day
A “ few ” beers at an Irish pub then a trip on the river to a Thai meal set the scene and our little group quickly became very much like any other group of modellers who had got together for a few days of organized model flying . Credit must go again to Greg Tracey who arranged that get-together and played host in his usual style .
The event itself was run from 14th to 17th of Feb at Gratton Field . This is a private model flying site about 2 hours South East of Brisbane . It boasts a clubhouse with kitchen , Caravan and Camping facilities along with four “ Cabins ” which are
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