May Welsh 23 - 25 May 2026

[Squirrelnet]

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!!!

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Squirrelnet]

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 

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

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Squirrelnet]

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 !!!!!!

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



 

[Tim Horne]

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.

[DaveL]

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.

[Squirrelnet]

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

[Mike Thomas]

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

[Jmk89]

Looks like a great venue