The BMFA Nationals - August Bank Holiday weekend 2009

Nat-tastic as usual

The Nats is the British National Model Flying Championships, organised and run by the BMFA (British Model Flying Association). It's a heady mixture of all types of flying models and Barkston hosts a good part of it. There's no gliders, the gliding Nats is held concurrently at a nearby venue, and although it's not far I didn't get a chance to visit this year. However, I can assure you that silent flight will not be neglected in future reports.

My first Nats was around about 1966, a rather sobering thought as that's quite a long time ago. Through my teens and on I spent uncomfortable nights in vans, tents, braved howling winds which threatened to take the tent rolling across Barkston, etc. If you've been you'll know all this! These days I'm lucky enough to live within 30 miles of the Great Venue and since I've lived up this way I haven't missed a year. What makes the Nats so unique is the bringing together of so many different branches of model flying, all utilising that remarkable gas, plain old air. It feeds our engines with oxygen, provides lift under our wings or rotors and certainly at Barkston pushes us around as if to show it's real strength.

If you haven't able to visit the Nats, I hope our report will give an insight into the fascination of miniature engineering for flight.

Thanks to the nice people at the BMFA for providing me with a suitable pass at very short notice. :-)

//tony wright

 

Trade Stands and Miscellaneous

As usual, the Nats had a large selection of well known model shops, manufacturers, distributors and tool vendors. We don't have a picture, but PAW engines were there as usual, I used them back in the 60s on my control line models! It's easy to spend several hours in the trade stand areas and most modelling items are available, from fuel to a clevis, carbon cloth to RTF, and by mid morning on both Sunday and Monday the areas were pretty busy. It's hard not to spend some money at the Nats...

Large trade presence at the Nats	Large trade presence at the Nats	Large trade presence at the Nats	Large trade presence at the Nats
And fair weather too for the many visitors	Hard at work...	Large trade presence at the Nats	Large trade presence at the Nats
Trade	Trade	Good weather for outside displays	Some very impressive aircraft
Display	Display	Control line carrier landing	Control line carrier landing
Control line carrier landing	Display	Display	Trade stands
Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands
Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands
Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands
Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands
Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands
Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands
Now if it was electric...	Trade stands	Trade stands	Trade stands

 

Top Gun and Jets

These were displaying and competing on Sunday, so we got some shots and some good video too. Although out of the reach of many modellers these jets are a pretty fascinating sight and sound very realistic as you'd expect. The Rolls Royce Annual Jet weekend is coming up on September 25th and 26th at Hucknall, Nr Nottingham so that would be a good place to go to see more of this exciting - and expensive - branch of our sport. Like many areas of our diverse hobby I'm not an expert here, so if anyone would like to tell us more about the jets and the competition please do. The video and these stills were taken on Sunday.

Twin Jets	Twin Jets	Twin Jets	Twin Jets, also captured on video
Twin Jets	Twin Jets	Twin Jets	Display

 

Large aerobatics Monday morning

I think this is Freestyle Aerobatics and again I'll bow to anyone who's got some superior knowledge here please. These are fantastic planes and unless I have my classes mixed up (quite likely) we have some excellent footage of these flying from Sunday. I think we're talking 150cc engines, more than adequate power and incidentally, superb pilots. If you'd like to contribute more information please feel free!

Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics
Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics
Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics
Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics	Bank Holiday Monday Aerobatics

 

Fun Fly

Now, I have to admit I had a Fun Fly machine once and it didn't seem to suit my style of flying, and it kept getting broken due to the fact that it had the penetration of a Kleenex and the glide angle of a brick with very small wings. Of course it's probably me... I therefore reckon these guys are pretty clever as they can obviously fly something I can't. Sorry they are all upside down, it was windy, it was Barkston.

Bank Holiday Monday Fun Fly	Bank Holiday Monday Fun Fly	Bank Holiday Monday Fun Fly	Bank Holiday Monday Fun Fly
Bank Holiday Monday Fun Fly	Bank Holiday Monday Fun Fly

 

Control Line Combat

Fascinating to watch but impossible to film as are most control line events. The modern combat machine is fast and furious and these guys were great to watch.

Bank Holiday Monday Combat	Bank Holiday Monday Combat	Bank Holiday Monday Combat	Bank Holiday Monday Combat
Bank Holiday Monday Combat	Bank Holiday Monday Combat	Bank Holiday Monday Combat	Bank Holiday Monday Combat

 

Team Race

Highly competitive racing to a strict formula, Team Race models are very sleek, but they have to meet a number of regulations including the fuselage height and width and a minimum wing area. Plus one tank of fuel won't get them through a race, so a pit stop is necessary. Depending on which part of the circle the engine stops in, precious time can be wasted while the plane glides to the pit man. He'd better not miss it either...

Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race
Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race
Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race
Bank Holiday Monday Team Race	Bank Holiday Monday Team Race

 

F3C and Scale

It's hard enough with a fixed wing, but with a helicopter... All helicopter pilots have my respect and although I'm not an active helicopter flyer any more I do meet many of the pilots fairly regularly through the year. We have some footage of Dave Fisher practising hovering manoeuvres on Sunday afternoon, in a very choppy wind I must say, and an interview with Dave which makes interesting listening. The Scale couldn't be run on Sunday due to the wind and on Monday when I was there it was in doubt too. It does seem to have been a windy year...

Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale	Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale	Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale	Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale
Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale	Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale	Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale	Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale
Bank Holiday Monday F3C and Scale	Dave Fisher and Jon Kemp (R)	Dave Fisher and Jon Kemp	Bruce Naylor's electric Futura
Bruce Naylor's electric Futura	Bruce Naylor's electric Futura	Bruce Naylor's electric Futura	I just need to chill
Ali Newman, judging at the Nats F3C	Steve Roberts about to fly on Monday	Steve Roberts' Sylphide	Steve Roberts' Sylphide
Steve Roberts' Sylphide	Steve Roberts' Sylphide	Steve Roberts' Sylphide	2nd row of Judges!

 

Control Line Speed

Wow these things are fast. With speed, there's 9 or 10 different classes to compete in and 200MPH speeds - that being the pilot's pace around the centre yoke! I can't tell you which record was broken but just before I arrived there'd been a run at 202.1 MPH and the gyrating gentleman in blue below recorded 199MPH I think. The engines rev to 40000 rpm, and all this on straight fuel - 80:20 methanol:oil. The pulse jets are little more than a motor with wings and the sound they make is huge. Heard at all corners of the airfield huge! The reason for this is that they are basically a chamber which is repeatedly filled with an explosive mixture, which itself gets ignited by the tail end of the previous explosion. Hence they deliver their power in powerful pulses rather like a machine gun, but quite a lot faster. I don't know if there is a fuel formula for competition events, but they can run on almost any flammable liquid such as petrol, methanol or nitromethane, though mostly these are mixed with other additives such as ether or propylene oxide. If anyone would like to give us some more information about these rare and interesting devices please feel free to comment in our forums.

Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed
Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed
Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed
Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed	Control Line Speed
Control Line Speed

 

F3A

The F3A aerobatics line was of particular interest to me as I used to fly the schedule back in the late seventies - never near the top mind! Precision, precision, precision is what it's all about and modern machines are quite a bit different now of course. To get an insight into the changes I managed to get a video interview with Ashley Hoyland, Public Relations Officer for the GBR/CAA. In essence the models are larger (a good 12-14" more on the wingspan) and need larger motors. It's also pretty difficult to build a model conventionally (balsa, etc) and keep the weight down, so composite materials are the order of the day.

On Monday I was lucky enough to meet Keith Jackson, winner of the event. His Axiome model was particularly striking as it uses a large canaliser - that extra surface atop the canopy. It's designed to smooth the air over the hump of the fuselage and present a smoother airflow to the rudder. Although many people do fly without using the rudder most of the time, it's an essential control in the world of aerobatics (and gliders I might add). And you did promise to let me have a go next time, didn't you Keith?

All these models are superbly finished of course, and their heritage is clear. Although composite or prebuilt airframes are more expensive, you're generally guaranteed a straight set of bits and building a model in olden times was a very time consuming exercise, so there are some significant benefits in terms of being able to focus on a perfect radio installation. However, I'm told they can be a little fragile. We have some video of a flight, but it's a very difficult subject as a close up shows no impression of the accuracy of the manoeuvre and with a wide view the model becomes a small dot. You'll just have to visit an F3A event to see how they really look.

F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics
F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics
F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics	F3A Aerobatics	Keith Jackson's F3A Axiome
Keith Jackson's F3A Axiome	Keith Jackson's F3A Axiome	Keith Jackson's F3A Axiome	Keith Jackson's F3A Axiome
Keith Jackson's F3A Axiome

 

Nats Videos...

We shot video on Sunday, and have half a dozen or so sections to publish. They take a little time so I'll produce them over the next few days. As well as the interview with Andy Hinton from Optifuel, we also have footage from Sunday of the twin Hawk jets, Ali Maschinsky's A10 jet, the Goshawk and Lightning (sorry, shakey footage, fast jets are hard to follow), plus some Freestyle Aerobatics, an interview with Dave Fisher (F3C) and also with Ashley Hoyland (F3A).

Please note: Videos are in a password protected directory to stop the more obvious linking, the username and password are both "nats2009".

Lightning tour of the Nats Traders areas	Download
Top Gun - Twin BAe Hawks flown by Steve and Matt Bishop (HD, 78MB)	Download
Top Gun - Ali Maschinsky's superb A10 Warthog (HD, 92MB)	Download
Top Gun - Paul Dunckley's Goshawk	Download
Top Gun - Shane Harding's Lightning	Download
Large aerobatics - Mike Williams (HD, 137MB)	Download
Large Aerobatics - Nathan Attridge (? - Couldn't hear commentary, sorry if wrong)	Download
Interview with Andy Hinton from Optifuel	Download
Interview with Dave Fisher from the F3C (helicopter aerobatics) team	Download
Interview with Ashley Hoyland, PRO for the GBR/CAA	Download

 

If there is any information you'd like to add about the events at the Nats do please post. I'd certainly like to know more about most of the classes.