2023 New Year at Chouet

Despite the air being a little chilly early on the day, the calm conditions tempted a good few members out into the fresh air for a spot of socialising and flying too. As per usual, Mike Burton provided some mulled wine to help ease the chills and mince pies provided by myself, were also supplemented by a massive box of Jaffa Cakes ( thanks again Mike) just in case Xmas had put folks off mince pies for life 🙂 ,

A fair few models took to the air, and amongst them was a very neat Horizon Hobbies F14 ‘Tomcat’ which Tim Skillett flew on its maiden sortie. The small model was a bit of a handful at first, despite having on board stabilisation, but after a few circuits Tim had got a better feel for things and even demo’d the ‘swing wing’ function whilst in flight. A really impressive model for its size and one which I’m sure we’ll see more of as the weather improves. The grey sky didn’t help visibility much, so my flying shots are a little soft as I struggled to keep the model in focus… better shots will come in the summer I’m sure.

Chris Wilkinson flew his new (ish) XFly models Alpha Jet and this model was so stable in the air it was as if it was on rails; full details of the model can be found on the ‘Test Flight reports’ page. Unfortunately the light wasn’t great so my photos don’t do the model full justice. He also flew his other new (ish) scale model of a Zero, this looked and sounded amazing in the air.

Here are some shots taken that morning and as you can see a fair few members turned up to welcome in the new year s well as having a good old chinwag with other like minded folks.