'Explosive Drama in the Northern Skies'

14 Years ago this August, I stood on a windy Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire for the press day of the Elvington Air Spectacular. My job was to fly my 1/6 scale Republic P-47D Thunderbolt fighter down an 8 foot wide 'corridor' along the runways edge. The aircraft powered by a 38cc chainsaw engine, weighing 18 pounds, and flying at about 60mph was quite difficult to keep on course due to a 90 degree cross wind!!

The reason for the 8 ft wide path was that the press men were standing to one side of this corridor waiting to take their pictures ( and I didn't really want to hit them ) and on the grass on the other side of the corridor were hundreds of pounds of explosives.

It took a day flying around and around to get the pictures; making passes about 6 to 7 feet off the ground, while the pyro guy took great pleasure in singing my eyebrows and trying to use concussion to knock me off me feet.

These were the photos that made the papers. I can't recall the photographers to credit them, but have credited the papers.The first was reproduced in black and white, several pages in to the Yorkshire Post. The second picture, with the heading Explosive Drama in the Northern Skies', was almost full front page of the Northern Echo in full colour!

Steve

Must be handy it having a chainsaw engine so if it crashes it'll cut itsself up into manageable chunks of kindling as it does so

good pictures though :tup

Believe me, they don't need help to return to kit form!!!

Steve

B*GGER!

Should be surrounded by scale ambulances and foamers

I might add that the B-17 picture was taken back in 1996 and the aircraft was repaired and flown again. The crash was caused by interference from the landing gear motors swamping the radio receivers after take off. The engines failsafed to idle and the B-17 hit the ground about 70 degrees nose down from about 60 feet.

Only about 15 to 20% new material was needed for the rebuild, and the aircraft broke up at the transport joints reducing some of the impact force. Here's a couple of under repair pics.

Steve

That looks impressive, what is the wingspan of the B-17?

Span is 17 ft 3.5 inches, Length 12ft 4.5 in, Take Off Weight 140 pounds. The wheels are caravan jockey wheels, and together with the engines were to only bought components, everything else was scratch built.

Steve

There's a video of it on HMVFTV - http://www.hmvftv.com/watch/f75b90a9d49f53f15a85/B17-Model-Display-at-Boxted

Here it is after the rebuild...

Steve

Would love to see that fly. Reminds me of the Victory Show at Cosby nr Leicester last year, where they had some RC planes & real ones landing on the same strip, at times you couldn't tell if it was a real plane flying or not.

They even had a few RC Jets including the Typhoon Euro fighter & it even had the same flying characteristics, I think the chap flying it was a British Champion. The club members there said they hope to have more in 2008, so will you be there with yours?

I haven't flown the B-17 since 2004 as I haven't had a trailer to transport it with; plus it just costs too much to transport. In 2004, it was costing £150 a weekend in diesel going to shows, and with two to three events a month, I just couldn't afford it. There are also only certain sites it can be flown off due to its size, CAA regulations and characteristics of the plane.

Steve

Just as expensive as having an MV. You mention the CAA, I heard that when models are over a certain weight that they have to have a C of A, do you then also have to have some form of licence? as well as big pockets.

thanks for link to your video (just need to delete the 1st lot of http:// in link), certainly seems stable when flying, bet you take a deep breath when landing.

Any model over 20Kg in weight must go through an inspection scheme. First the plans are approved/ammended, then there are periodic inspections of the airframe during construction. Once the plane is ready for taxi trials, a provisional Air Test Exemption from the Air Navigation Order is obtained from the CAA.

The pilot and aircraft must complete a set number of proving flights, or until the examiner is content with the performance of the pilot and plane. After that, a full one year exemption is applied for to allow flying without the presence of an examiner or to display the aircraft in public.

There are further rules for models over 80Kg in weight.

Steve

Amazing piece of work, there, Steve.

Andy