South Australian ScaleMasters 2026

[THB]

Very pleasant weather and light winds greeted flyers on both days on the weekend for this annual event. While scale has always been the focus - many flyers these days bring along sport models and radio assisted types as well as some duration rubber (eg Coupe, A1 etc). The forecast was pretty dismal for the Saturday which kept some away - a pity as the forecast rain arrived overnight and very early and didn't affect flying at all. The field was in much better (grassy!) condition this year also.

The event is very casual in terms of organisation - there is no official judging for scale - flyers are asked to vote for their favourite aircraft. This year votes were widely spread across many models but the final winner was Maris Dislers with his Bird Dog.

My son Hugo won the target time competition (closest to 22secs) over three official flights. Hugo's first flight was about 30secs on 500 winds - so he dropped it to 400 winds for the second flight and got 22:06!

There was also a lottery prize of a Chinese Mills .75 for anyone who attended. No skill involved - all you had to do was write your name on a ticket. This I was able to do - and ended up winning    I have only ever flown rubber previously - so I'm looking forward with both excitement and some trepidation in building something to put it in for next year...

Some really nice flights by many different flyers were to be seen. Maris flew a large Luton Minor built by the late Peter Twiss who was a regular free-flighter here over many decades. Very stable and stately!

Dave (dputt7) came along on the Sat - had a few challenges with launching his models - which as you know are usually multi engined and quite large! He trialled a bungee launch system for his Wiking which looks promising.

I had my usual fleet of small rubber scale models - the Batwing flew very well - though a little unstable at times - particularly on full winds.

Anyway - some photos!

Tim

[THB]

More pix

[THB]

A couple more...

[Squirrelnet]

Great pictures Tim thanks for posting. Looked like a nice event

Bungee launch for Dave's Wiking is a great idea

[THB]

And here is some flight video:
1 - Maris' winning Cessna Bird Dog (it was recovered safely)
2 - The late Peter Twiss built this Luton Minor and flew it for many years (flown here by Maris)
3 - My own Stout Batwing Limousine out for a spin!
https://youtu.be/2y54GVlseRk

[Mike Thomas]

Thanks for this Tim. Nice photos and videos. Thanks also to Maris Dislers and Paul Moorfield, and all those who made it possible. I really enjoyed being there, and look forward to the next one. Mike

[Squirrelnet]

Nice video Tim. I love the Batwing Limousine...very Bat like in flight as well

[dputt7]

  Great report Tim, really captured the atmosphere. Thanks for providing transport for me on the Saturday.
   Pity about your Batwing video, that was probably the worst flight to film. It did fly extremely well.

[billdennis747]

Dave, what's the small yellow/red model you are clutching in the first photo?
Good to see you out and about.
Bill

[TheLurker]

Thanks for this Tim. Nice photos and videos.

+1

Loved the Limousine. It'd be nice to see it flying indoors.

[dputt7]

  Hi Bill, That is a model of Argentina's first aircraft the FMA Ae C1, It had a badly warped tailplane and didn't get it to fly!   
More here https://hpa.aeromodelling.gr/index.php?topic=160.0

[OZPAF]

Thanks for the report and video Tim. great to see Dave and all you fellows maintaining this tradition.

John