SLOPING OFF...
...the Newsletter of Christchurch and District Model Flying Club for...September 2025
A grand day out, by David Bicker
On the last day of May two events took place in different locations at the same time. Luckily, I was within driving distance of both events & managed to fit them both in to photograph the planes & models in action.
Compton Abbas Airfield Radial Engine Day
This was a fly-in for a mixture of vintage planes, some of which had large radial engines. The regulars were there, with a Harvard & a Stearman Model 75. I counted in at least 5 Tiger Moths plus a DH 80A Puss Moth. There was a US Army low wing monoplane that I was unable to identify through web searches.
Stearman, Tiger Moth
Puss Moth, North American Navion (Ed)
Group picture
Video link includes the following videos:3 Tiger Moths, Harvard start-up, Pacific Air Transport Air Mail plane landin. NA Navion
After an hour or so there, I headed off to the WSRFC Scale Day at Whitesheet, to the west of Mere.
An excellent selection of beautifully built planes were on show & being flown. Unfortunately, an ASH 26, with a 5m wingspan had a battery failure & went in at the bottom of the hill. It was found to have been caused by a seized servo draining the battery. The pilot had a low battery warning message & then it went dead. Unfortunately it was a write-off. Looking online, I came to the conclusion that it was worth around 3000€ !
Graeme Mahoney’s ASW15b had a failed launch, sinking down the slope, then dropping the left wing tip, hitting a gorse bush. Amazingly, it appeared to be undamaged apart from a flap servo stripping its teeth. A lucky escape! The largest model that I saw flying while I was there had a 5M wingspan. It was fairly hard to spot the difference when a full-sized glider was released off its aero tow in our vicinity. They looked the same size. It was all down to perspective, of course!
Here’s a selection of pictures from the event
