HPA

A free flight event in North Wales, now running for the second year.
We are lucky to have access to a number of spacious flying areas; a flat field and slope-soaring hills and a sizeable indoor hall.  Read the event details here

The weather at our outdoor flying site.

  Provisional programme for May Welsh

Friday 22nd:
Meet up for drinks and a meal. 1930 at Woodfired Shack, Bangor,
205 High Street, Bangor, LL57 1NY;
https://www.woodfiredshack.com/

Saturday 23rd:
All day flying outdoors
Evening meal - 1930 at '+39', Menai Bridge,
https://www.plus39cafe.co.uk/


Sunday 24th:

0900-1300
Indoor flying
Outdoor flying in the afternoon
Evening: a meal out - TBC.
   
Monday 25th (Bank Holiday , UK):
All day outdoor flying.
Cost of event £25 per person

Full details on the SAM1066 website

The May Welsh is approaching ain a couple of weeks time over the May Bank Holiday so I thought I'd post a link (see above) to the SAM 1066 website which has details of the event organised by Martin Pike

Martin had the idea of a mass launch of one particular model as light hearted competition for the weekend so today I made a start on the Canarsie Canary a design by Don Ross

I modified the wing seat slightly in the interests of simplicity but it flies ok as a chuck glider while I wait for a 3d printed nose block from Allan  who's kindly printing some for us

Hopefully it will be a good weekend away playing with aeroplanes

Hopefully as well we can any prep pictures here as well as pics of the event

Hi Chris

I have a couple of these props, they are 5.5" Dia and they fit a 1/8" X 3/8" motor stick. You are welcome to one if they are what you need. I can bring it to Trinity next week.

Regards John W

Thanks for the offer John. I can't make the next Trinity unfortunately due to a clash with the OMFC Spring Duration comp but Allan is posting a 3d printed one down to me

I am finding the appeal of low investment high return models like the Canary. I have a great book by Bill Dean with some very simple designs.

I have fussed over all sorts of models, had the highest of hopes dashed and cartwheeled grotesquely over the fields. Fiddled and diddled till the Devil led me to the bar-stool.

Then I found the Twin-fin Terror and that started me on a bunch of one day designs.
I highly recommend taking on lofty scale subjects it's a great exercise, but have a bunch of simpler models to keep the spirits high!

Hi, I am new to HPA. Greetings from North Wales.
I am the organiser of the May Welsh event 23-25 May 2026.

I have made two Canaries, on the basis that someone might turn up without one....or I might lose one. I hope to fly them tomorrow.

M

Really nice idea, Martin!
Mine's now ready, after I found I already had the necessary hardware in my box of bits. I was going to add a nice Tweetie-Pie decal, or maybe do a carefully applied sunburst scheme, but it's late and the Sharpies were were on hand, so instead we have the Fardell 'Flaming Canary'...

All set for the trip up tomorrow...I think I have everything  8)

Many thanks for introducing us to the Canary, Martin. I would like to build a couple that are accurate to the Don Ross plan. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the Don Ross book, and the plan doesn't appear to be on Outerzone, or on the Hip Pocket plans gallery, probably for copyright reasons. I could estimate dimensions from the photos you have posted. Some dimensions are visible on the photos, but not all.                   It would be nice if you could help with the following:-

                          Fuselage length
                          Tailplane span and chord
                          Fin height and chord
                          Dihedral height at tip
                          Decalage if any
                          Down and sidethrust if any.

Once again, thanks Mike.

Fuselage length - 12"
TP spa n  and chord - 5"  1.5"
Fin height and chord - 2 3/8"  1.5"
Dihedral - 1.25"
Decalage - wing front platform is 1/32 x 1/2 x 1.5
Trim - left/left

How 'bout I scan the pages from Ross and email to you

Thanks for that Jeremy, very useful. I would really appreciate it if you could scan the pages from the Don Ross book for me. I think you already have my email address. Mike
 

Email on its way with scan attached

Got it already! Thanks muchly, Mike

The May Welsh is a joy!
(Just going to leave this here...)

Those Magnificent Men And Their Flying Machines!
Ron

As Pete has already said the Weekend was fabulous. Organiser Martin Pike even arranged for some calm weather on Sunday.

On the theme of Bleriots the undoubted highlight of the weekend for me was flying my CO2 twin powered model of the 1909 Bleriot XI (ex Hendon Flying school) in formation with Pete's excellent model of the earlier Cross Channel Bleriot XI complete with Loius Bleriot Flying it

Here's another shot of it because I enjoyed it so much

Also a shot of Pete - A man eating a sandwich in Bleriot T shirt, next to a book on Bleriots, in front of a box with a Bleriot in it !!!!

It's difficult to convey the size of this site it is huge. To give it some context the base of the mountains, so the other side os the "swamp" as it is affectionally called is about a mile away, the peaks about 2 miles. The mountains also present an imposing backdrop towering above where the normal horizon line would be, they present much more of wall than they appear in the pictures

In the final pic the group of modellers are just right of centre!!!

I have a few pictures which I'll post later but here's the Editor of Aeromodeller practicing what he preaches with a Canarsie Canary which Martin had as a one model mass launch fly off

Retrieving a 12" span grass coloured model in the 'Swamp' sometimes needed a team effort but after 3 rounds over two days, the first in strong wind, we managed not loose any of them

It was great to meet Andreas Koch (Rubberfly) as well, who as well as flying and winning some of the comps was avidly filming as well so no doubt there'll be a video on youtube from 'Rubberfly'in the future.

I have some video too filmed by  myself, Pete Fardell and Tim Horn which I'll put together shortly under the usual Squirrelnet28 banner

Ok some more pics.

Saturday was a tad windy with a steady 8mph but occasional gusts upto around 20 which made flying tricky

We still tried though. Dick Dastardly made a few flights and even managed some impromptu  cattle rounding up on Sunday  :o

Rory Pike gave us some RC flights to watch including his 4 rotor converter plane

Much of saturday saw many the scale models stay firmly in the boxes

Sports model were the order of the day . This is Allan Patrick's Bowden Midget as featured in Aeromodeller

Tim Horne was hardier or braver than some of us and tried a few scale models including this racer and his Sopwith triplane

Tim also brought along this lovely peanut model of a Martinsyde Semiquaver. It's beautifully built as ever with Tim's models and it also strikes me it could make a nice design for a larger model for.5cc I/C ....not sure I could do it with no dihedral though. Despite the original having a V8 power unit it has a deceptively short nose too

Pete Fardell had many flights with his Popsie. Finding models can be tricky though if don't get a good line on it as they disappear into the long grass and even with it's red and yellow colour scheme a Popsie hunt was needed later in the day

Organiser Martin Pike did a superb job setting up and running the weekend all with a lovely relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. Over the weekend he also organised two group meals with were great with great company. This was the second in a cafe/bistro in Menai

Martin also had time to fly a variety of models including this nicely trimmed Jimmy Allan Spartan Bomber and DLG FF Glider

Sunday dawned calm and sunny so Martin also seems to have triumphed with organising the weather

As well as the formation Bleriot flying already mentioned (did I say it was the highlight for me) Martin and Andreas had a few goes at biplane formation

With the clamer weather many of the scale models emerged

Tim with his gold ..er... not sure and forgot to ask

..actually on the subject of Bleriots here's a shot of mine and Pete's enjoying the view

I had a few flights with the 'new' GWE6 Bantam.. well built 2024 but only just maidened. After the calm of Lodge Farm a couple of weeks ago the the more turbulent air of the 'swamp' early on was more tricky for it but with a few tweeks it was going OK. Interesting even my normally very sedate Cessna had few odd moments so I didn't tweek the Bantam too much as it was hard to judge what was actually going on

 Thanks to Pete and Tim for the pics

I flew the Cessna as well which was great to see cruising over the mountains

The wind actually calmer down as the day went on making the conditions pretty much ideal

Pete launches his Popsie
Simon Hayes flew his Senator to great effect, lovely model and clearly well trimmed
There were a few casualties through the day though.. Tim's Hep Cat decided to reshape it's fuselage after an early landing in the turbulence with a wound motor!!!
I had some fun with a 1/2 size Rocketeer, a prewar design by Maurice Schoenbrun from 1939 powered by a .5cc mills

Pics by Pete (I think) or Tim

The main competition was in the form of a single model mass launch and last one down. Martin choose the Canarsie Canary from the Don Ross book which was an excellent choice and we all made the effort to make one, Allan Patrick even 3d printed some extra prop hubs for those like me that didn't have one.

It's a simple sheet model powered by a 12" loop of 1/8 but capable of quite good duration nd in case of Saturday with the higher wind speed distance as well

We decided to limit it to 2 rounds on Saturday as retrieval involved a long walk and group effort to find them but Tim Horne won just ahead of me and Pete Fardell . Sunday we ran another round in calmer air where Andreas Koch was the run away winner from the more closely spaced me and Tim Horne

It was a great fun comp with beer for prizes which I'm afraid ticks all my boxes

Our May Welsh Canary Champion - Andreas Koch

The whole weekend was wonderful fun, it really was a group of aeromodellers out in their natural element doing what we do best, though we did have a few uninvited spectators at one point which... (pic 2)

The models flown were not just FF though, Rory, Allan and Dave entertained us with RC displays and Dave not only flew jetex but also a rocket with helicopter, sycamore type, payload

I'm already looking to next year, the event has the benefit of being in a stunning part of the world but if the weather is poor there is an indoor session on the sunday so you know you get fly something...I mean look at that site !!!!!! ;D

I have some video from the trio of me, Pete and Tim but it'll be tomorrow before I get that on youtube now



 

Thanks for the photos and report Chris. It was a great weekend and I am definitely planning on returning next year. The flying site is vast (Chris might have mentioned that!) although it is well named as "the swamp" and a pair of wellies is highly recommended to keep your feet dry while retrieving.
If anyone is interested, the gold coloured model which I had is a Vultee V1a built from a Megow plan, 30" span.

Thanks to Martin for organising this very happy event..even if we did have to beat a retreat on the Monday lunchtime, from the searing heat!  After seeing the Jimmie Allen BA Parasol on Andreas' youtube channel, I had to build one of these, and after a few adjustments, obtained a nice flight today - will be looking forward to flying it again soon.

Great to meet you Dave, you have a fantastic site on your doorstep and clearly the means to enjoy it  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D

I liked it all, so please consider everything liked. Mike.

Looks like a great venue

There's now a video here of the two days flying

Great video, Thanks to all that contributed to the report and the weekend.

Andreas Koch's May Welsh film is now also on YouTube. Thanks so much for this, Andreas; what a great little movie. It really captures the essence of what was a wonderful weekend. Viva the May Welsh!