Quote from Colin Watkins on May 17, 2022, 2:56 pm

So the day came - and went!

The forecast had been quite poor, so much so that I emailed BMFA to ask what would happen if no one turned up! The response was 'Well just count those that do!' I was rather hoping for something that allowed me to stay in bed if it was pouring down!

I was woken early on the day by the sound of torrential rain! However when I looked at the clock it was very early in the day, so I closed my eyes and waited for the alarm.

When I woke up again the rain had stopped and the sky looked pretty clear! Even blue!

The wind was reasonable, so it looked like a proper flying day.

I got to the field early, but Mike was already there and had already persuaded the cattle to go in to the overspill field.

As we removed the electric fence it dawned on me that the sky was almost completely blue and the sun was quite warm! In fact it was a perfect flying day. (Note to self - don't trust the BBC weather app.)

As we sorted the fence. other members arrived and started to get themselves ready for the excitement to follow!

I had published a timetable of events for the attempt and set about insisting advising that everyone stuck to it! It was mainly taken in good spirits and most members were well behaved, so things gradually fell in to place.

We had a short briefing at about 11:40 after everyone had made a trial flight just to make sure their model was actually flyable. We fixed a take off order so there wouldn't be any 'After you! - No after you!' delay in proceedings.

Then we walked with our models down to the take off area for the group photo. I had set up a camera on a tripod with an elaborate remote shooting system based on an app on the phone and Wifi on the camera, but actually Scott's PA took the photos!

It seemed sensible to take the photo before the record attempt for reasons that are probably obvious to the experienced flyer.

Members had behaved so well that there was actually a delay before takes offs were made. Everyone stood still, models at the ready, waiting for me to give the take off order  signal. Mike said he felt a bit nervous which I thought was reasonable as I was taking off immediately after him.

We had planned to start takeoffs three minutes before the record attempt time of 12:00 but we didn't actually need three minutes. Everyone was in the air within about 30 seconds!

We were using my watch (radio controlled from the Lake district and accurate to 1 second in 300000 years!) as the main timepiece for the attempt. It seemed some time before the alarm

which I had set went off and I declared the attempt to have been successful!

There were seven of us to add to the countless thousands up and down the land who were taking part.

Something to tell the grandchildren - although we might need to make it pop up in TicToc to get their attention!

 

 

Thanks to all members who behaved themselves long enough to have taken part!