Sunday was the first round of the NI Aerobatics held at Ballymoney.
Very good turnout with 20 pilots, with 13 of them in Basic.
Weather could have been kinder but apart from the odd shower, all the rounds and the prize giving was completed by 4:30pm |
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Ballymoney as usual put on a great feed on their new BBQ, shown here in front of the very smart new shed.
Oh no, don't tell me here as well, coleslaw out in the sun!
(private LFC joke). |
The flying was non stop and each flight overlapped, Harry seen here about to Land and Gordon has just taken off.
Robert, Harry and Gordon were flying in the sportsman class. |
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Harry's Big Yak coming into land with one wing down allowing for the cross wind. (yeah right!) |
Roberts misswind about to touch down after another round winning flight. |
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Shaun Flew well in the Basic with his very nice Edge 540 |
Judges watching the flying as David gets his Sukhoi ready for his flight. |
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Everyone gathered round waiting on the results |
The letterkesh crew clapping someone, probably not Phelim :-) |
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Phelim well pleased with himself taking the top spot in the Basic, even though we wont't hear the end of it, he did fly very well. |
Harry Got Third place in the Sportsman Class. |
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Gordon was second in the Sportsman Class. |
Robert flew very well and took all three rounds to win the Sportsman class. |
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The LetterKesh flyers all had a great day with eight pilots in the event.
Christopher was the highest placed in the Basic with 5th place and Shaun, Seamus and Ciaran done well considering it was their first competion.
Shane also treated us to one of his first class 3D heli displays at lunchtime |
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Grant Capell Memorial Fly-in Sunday 18th April 2010
We had been forced to Cancel our Annual Grant Capell Memorial
Fly-In at Letterkenny, but that was not going to stop the show going ahead after an offer from our 'Sister' club to use their site.
We had A very good turnout even though the short notice prevented getting out all the usual invites.
After a little sprinkle of rain when we arrived the day turned out to be great and flying continued all day with some staying till Dark (still dont know if the Gibsons have left yet!)
Thanks again to the Kestrals club for allowing us to hold our fly-in with them. |
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The Letterkenny boys were out in force some of them seen here with there models |
Harry was released this week of cooking duties, and I had intended running the BBQ but I managed to let Peter do all the work :-) |
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Robert on a low pass with the Harpoon |
George Irwin clocked up a good few flights with his Boomerang and enjoyed the great site |
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Christopher getting up to his usual tricks with the new Trex |
Much of the days entertainment was provided by the Letterkenny prangster display team (or was that demolition darby) Shanes prangster seen here after a mid air. Add some bullet tape and off again ! |
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Was back in the forty's since a Spitfire landed in this field, which apparently led to the field being used for flying ever since.
This spitfire is only a small foam one but looks very realistic coming through the trees. |
Harry was not impressed when christopher landed his spitfire close to his pride and joy and decided to blow him out of the way on takeoff :-)
The nice condition of the runway can be seen in this shot despite being after only its first cut. |
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Even Concorde Managed a flyby |
Unfortunatly we never got to see the nice big club fly due to engine problems. |
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After the burgers were all gone, Nigel brought out the sausages, only one snag, he forgot to defrost them, so they looked more like a chicken!
After a careful seperation procedure Nigel managed to get them on the BBQ and frying pad for our evening tea!
The cooking area became the hub of the activities (chatting/slagging) for last part of the day, and if you look closely in the picture below on the right, you can see Gordon getting a sneak lesson in 3D flying from Shane, rumour has it he wants to learn how to tic toc! |
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Draperstown Fly-in Sunday 11th April 2010
What a fantastic days flying at Draperstown on Sunday at the first 'Dissident Kestrals' fly-in.
Weather was superb, very warm and light winds, thanks to Robert, Harry and the lads for organising a great day. |
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Harry was the main man and kept us fed all day.
We had him tied to a post so he could just reach the saucepan, it was the only way to stop him flying :-) |
Robert had his hands full most of the day with some B tests and Examiner ratings.
Richard McMaster is doing his pre flight checks here under the watchful eye of Robert before he completed his flight and obtaining his Examiner rating for the Balymoney club. |
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Sunday 14th March 2010 Drag Racing Display
Few of us got a bit of Jet and aerobatic flying early on Sunday morning at the Dragster Racing Day at Enniskillen.
Last flight of the morning session got the three Boomerangs up together, time was short but worth the trip to fly from a nice wide and smooth runway! |
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NIJets Jet Fly-in Saturday 6th February 2010
The first NIJets Jet Flying Day finally took place, not at Ballykelly as we had expected but at the North Down Club in Kirkistown.
Phelim organised a great day, and the weather stayed kind with low winds.
The North Down club provided great hospitality and kept us fed with Burgers.
Ten Jets flew, with all the NIJets pilots taking the opertunity to complete the first schedule of the New NIJets Achievement Scheme, all under the watchful eye of Robert and plenty of help to all from Gordon. |
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The North Down Club are one of the few clubs to be lucky enough to have use of a old WW2 airfield, which obviously is great for jets, but also means plenty of hard standing for parking and setting up models, much drier on the feet this time of the year. |
It was'nt all jets, there was also the opertunity to fly prop planes and heli's. |
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Andreas Balsiger travelled up 200 miles from the Midlands club with his Simjet Powered Sprint. |
Northern Irelands newest Jet pilot George Irwin from the Dungannon Club taking off his Boomerang powered by a Wren 54. |
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It was definatly the day of the Boomerang, with five Intro's, one sprint and one Elan. |
Chris Robb brought along his Hawk with an impressive smoke system but unfortunatly never flew. |
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Phelim had also organised some prizes,
Robert got best flight of the day with his Harpoon.
(The box of choclates disappeared very fast, probably going to be used as browney points when he gets home.) |
Gordon won the Best model with the L39
(Was later a suspect in the missing box of quality street.) |
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Andreas Balsiger got a prize for the longest travelled
(He said he was going to eat the whole lot by himself on the way home). |
Harry and Me tied for the most flights of the day, He is a hard man to keep up with !
We may appear in the picture to be very happy :-), but an evil plot was being conceived by the taller one, as the apparent shared box of sweets went missing, I heard later though,
that a Grey Van was spotted throwing Quality Street wrappers out the window on the way to Armagh ! |
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A very succesful first NIJets, Jet Fly-In, everyone had a great day and we have to thank the North Down Club for allowing us to take over their flying site.
Looking forward to the next one ! |
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