Sloping Off - September 2005
Where was the Wow Factor?
Have the big show organisers got it right? Reporter and photographer Brian Wiseman thinks not..
In July I went to the Model Air Show at North Weald: I try to get to one show a year just to see what I would like to fly if had the ability and the money. What a disappointment. There was the usual Liberator, which has been flying for many years and it is always nice to see it again. A Spitfire with a turbo-jet engine which went well and very little else you would not see at your local flying site. One problem is that over the last ten years the planes have got bigger and better and the flying has followed suit. So we are used to seeing 2 metre Spitfires and Hurricanes and 3D flyers very well flown at Beau1ieu.
At the show there was a Lighting with jet engine, did not fly, a jet Airliner with four engines, did not fly. And Concorde which we were told had not been booked in to fly so was not allowed to fly. There was a 16 feet wingspan glider with a jet on top which did fly and was unusual to see. It flew once. We were treated to Hype 3Ds, which I fly, a few warbirds and nothing else that you would not see at Bealieu. I have checked with several friends who went and they feel the same, it is not worth going there again. Unless they get the wow factor back they will lose their audience.
The stalls were good and there were the usual bargains. I bought a Twin Invader, well I do have two old 52 O.S. fourstrokes which are doing nothing and they did cost a lot of money, so they ought to be in a plane, and I have not got a twin to put them in and it was a bargain or nearly so.
Unless they can get bigger and better models to fly and bring back the Wow factor, I can see Model air show like North Weald slowly dying.
(Perhaps it was just North Weald: the photos and report I saw in AMI from the LMA’s Cosford show looked awesome - Ed)
