Covering a bit of ground over the past few weeks, there have been a few great events on; the Croydon Electric day, Moe Seaplanes and the Bendigo Scale Aerotow.

Late October the Croydon club had an electric day, run by our own John Bird, and it turned out to be a great day. It started out with a lovely drive out through Lilydal and Yarra glen, and the country side got better and better. The clud has a perfect setting, being in a valley, on the end of a private airfield. The day was a mixture of glo power and electric, and it highlighted how noisy glo power is, and just how far the electrics have improved. Mark Connely had some electric ducted fans, and after a bungee launch and a lap to get up to speed, they really honked along, easily keeping up with the fastest glo models, and on top of that, it was realistic for speed and sound, and is as clean going home as it was when it arrived!

Ray Cooper and I both had 1/4 scale motor gliders and smaller non-scale powered gliders, and the perfect day of thermals really made them look good, thermalling to great height several times on the same battery pack, and then doing nice landings on the smooth runway. Then David Hobby towed my 1/4 scale Bergfalke (10lbs) up to good height..... That shut the sceptics up!

The thing that was apparent on the day, is that it's a little harder to find the "sweet spot" in electric, and for newcomers, the Electric Flight Association, or our group in VARMS are a great asset to find the required setup.

A map of the Lake Narracan area. Under 2 hrs from home, has a normal flying field and the lake, good facilities, camping was available, boating and swimming in the area, and a top bunch of locals.

Then mid November I went to a float plane day at Moe, after spotting a flyer in Addies shop. When I arrived about 12, the land side of the field was in full swing, with a good mix of models... big scale aerobatic jobs, heli's, prop hanging fun fly's, and electric models in all shapes and sizes.... except glider !

A small electric model, with a brushless motor and lipollys.

The lake side of things got going after lunch and the water was smooth, and huge. I had lots of flights with my "Seadart", a pattern type plane with the fin on the bottom to act as a water rudder. I had just fitted another motor , so some running in was in order, but after only 3 flights the motor would hold a tune , and is considered a 'good thing'.

Same model, showing the jetty, and the smooth water, this photo taken mid morning. This photo taken from the clubhouse area, with the flying field the other side of that

I also had 2 flights with my electric motor glider.... and that surprised a few.... more than 2 channels and more than 2mtrs! The last flight was late in the day, and it did look impressive floating serenely about in the still air. Then I had 1 more flight with the float plane... right on dusk... Top Stuff.

Then a BBQ meal at the field with some other happy campers, inc VMAA pres Murray Ellis, all washed down with some glider fuel.

Sunday was more of the same, another still day, lots of normal models on the grass strip, and about 50 float planes in all shapes and sizes... piper cubs.. Little sticks... north stars (a delta with a tail) ARF'S... a couple of small electrics, and the Beaver, shown in the photo. There was plenty of hooning, a fair bit of nice scale flying, and some aerobatics as well. Often 4 or 5 models in the air at a time with no problems, although there was 1 'mid-water '... at idle speed ! Another top weekend, and less than 2 hrs from home.

DH Beaver on floats... Same as Theo's, with a Moki 30cc glo A really impressive model, comes from down Geelong way

AND... then we had the Bendigo Aerotow, an event that is nearly as old as VARMS. Saturday this year was hot and muggy, but there was still a fair bit of flying done. Our trip to Ballarat a few months ago has created some interest, as we had several flyers and spectators this year, plus the host club have been aerotowing as well ... so Saturday had a good crowd... and Sunday even better . Saturday night we had tea at the Marong Pub, plus the customary glider fuel... hardly noticed the election... Although some were fixing the worlds problems...

Sunday dawned a bit windy, but as forecast, it dropped before lunch

Michael Lui had a Schweizer 2/22, that was last seen at Horsham in many bits, its previous owner dropping it, bit by bit from a great height on tow, and Michael has done a great job getting it all back together, although he says it wasn't easy. Another model we don't see very often is Mark Doyle's Reiher, about 6mtrs of ARF, superb quality, looks a lot lighter than it is when flying.

Michael Lui's 2:22.... well worth fixing

the open hanger... realistic

Sunday had some boomer thermals, and quite a few made good use of them, half hour flights being quite common.

And special thanks to the tug pilots, Tugger Tony, Best Tugger Greg, and John G...

The queue

Leon Carlos and his 1/5 scale Bergfalke... a club project

And finally, on a serious note... I heard the low battery alarm go off on one of the tugs, and the pilot waisted no time in getting rid of the glider and getting on the ground, maybe 30 seconds and he had no radio about 10 seconds later. I'm sure there were some lessons learned, and there would be no chance of getting a glider down in that time.

Bendigo members and 1:26 Schweizer

Reiher landing

Bring on December... and Santa boing his annual fly past !

Col Collyer