Its been quite a while since I last undertook some aero towing with my Scale gliders and I’ve never been to a formal aero tow event, so when I saw that there was an event planned for the 18/19 May at Buckminster I jumped at the chance to go along, and I even planned to stay over and camp in my van for the Saturday night.

 Daisy the van was packed with 2 scale gliders on the Friday afternoon ready for a 05:00hr morning start.  Saturday morning saw a lovely sunny day with a little low lying mist in the fields, supported by a particularly vocal dawn chorus. A Great sun rise until I got past Rochdale on the M62 where on ascending the hill onto Saddleworth moor I ran in to low cloud / fog. Thinking that it would clear as I passed into Gods own Country and reduction in altitude, but I was sadly disappointed.

The patchy mist and low cloud just stayed with me all the way past Grantham and then onto Buckminster arriving at just after 08:00 where I had planned to meet up with my friend Neil on the Buckminster campsite for breakfast. (A Bacon Butty in the new Buckminster Café)

 The start of the event was delayed due to the fog, some saying that’s it’s the sea fret from the North Sea. I wasn’t so sure given that I'd run into it on the Lancashire / Yorkshire border, but who am I to challenge local knowledge.

There was a Pilot briefing around 10:00 but the cloud base hadn’t lifted enough to start flying. One of the aero tow tugs (Greenley Tug (A huge beast) powered by a DLE 111 engine) growled its way into the air, but disappeared into cloud quickly. A hasty landing and we waited it out with more coffee until midday when the cloud had lifted enough to start flying. The conditions got better as time went by and by mid afternoon, we had some fantastic thermal weather.

There was a lot of eager flyers and models lined up for a Tow to great altitudes, I decided to hang back to watch and talk to people to get a flavour of proceedings. The activity was well organised with people lining up for a tow, glider pilot box, someone to hook your glider onto the towline, and support the glider wing until the slack in the line had been taken up and a signal of “All Out” from the glider pilot to commence the tow. The Tug pilots communicating with the glider pilot currently on tow and a variation of tows from gentle sweeping turn tows, to the all-out ballistic trajectory depending on the requirements of the glider pilot and of course the size of the glider on tow.

The models ranged from ARTF 2m scale and sport gliders through the middle ground of 3-4m models and then the really big stuff 6m+. One of which (8m – half scale….. this is not a model), even caused the bigger tugs to struggle but they achieved the release altitude eventually.…….

I noted that some pilots were using Vario feedback to identify any possible lift or sink, whilst others like me, were doing it the hard and probably most rewarding way, looking for the visual and sensation (Warm / Cold air) tell tales signs of lift.

It didn’t take long for me to get stuck in and line up for a tow, starting with my 1/5 scale (3m) Pilatus B4 glider. A lovely gentle tow to altitude saw me achieving a 12 minute flight and I was hooked, and was subsequently lining up again with just one other glider in front of me before I was being towed into the air again. 

The event was fairly laid back, no pressure to fly, you just queued up and took your turn when you wanted, the most I waited was about 5-10 minutes for a tow, some models landing and hooking straight back on to get a tow again such was the no pressure, fairly laid back event.

 I was thoroughly enjoying myself, lots of flying and then just chilling out watching, chatting with good humoured modellers about where they normally flew, type of flying they did back home and of course,  drooling over some of the really posh, and expensive models.

Towing stopped at 17:00 as BMFA restrictions kicked in for all IC engine models. However, there were some models equipped with an array of power sources. Some had EDF that came up out of the fuselage behind the cockpit, others had an electric motor and prop also extend from a compartment behind the cockpit and some who had refitted the motor shaft and propeller to the front of their gliders and took flight under their own means. There was something for everyone to admire and watch with interest. Having put my gliders into the BMFA Hangar and removed the batteries to charge them up, I retired back to “Daisy” the van for tea and medals and start preparing my evening meal. Tea turned into a beer while waiting for my chicken stew and pasta to cook. The evening progressed with more beer under a cloudless sky while watching some of the other F5J and RES type gliders flying well into the evening.

The following morning saw yet another good day, a slight breeze, a little hazy blue sky but no fog. Briefing was at 09:30 and flying commenced at 10:00. It was the same format as the day before, queue up and hook on and fly as much as you want.

More people turned up on the Sunday, but this did not cause any delay in getting airborne. I met an old RAFMAA friend that I hadn’t seen for at least 20yrs, who had brought along his fully moulded ¼ scale Salto Glider. I mention this as whilst having lunch back at the camp site, we watch the Salto being put through some serious aerobatics whilst retaining some fantastic energy. I could have sworn that he was going up while undertaking successive loops and chandelles – what a show! It was that sort of day, with some great thermals abound.

Once again, my trusty Pilatus performed well as expected. My Genesis had only been aero towed once before so I was a little apprehensive as on that occasion, the tug and glider were not in unison and the tug turned a little too tight and with a sagging tow line it snatched and sent the Genesis into a spin. It recovered well, but I didn’t get it towed again on that day. The Genesis flies well from the slope well, so I thought I’d give aero towing another shot. This tow was uneventful, with a good medium speed tow, in fact the model performed really well and looked quite comfortable whilst being towed. However, once release from the tow, I think, due to its unusual shape I felt quite disoriented by the model looking up into the bright but hazy sky, I decided that the model was probably not the one to fly from a flat field so I made a quick descent and landed. Neil on the other hand, had his Genesis towed to height and was comfortable with flying it, but I found his also difficult to maintain orientation with so I was glad he was doing the flying……… I think I’ll keep the Genesis for flying off the slope.  

Later, after a few more rewarding flights from my Pilatus I was offered the privilege of flying a ¼ scale Alsema Sagitta owned by another old friend, Brian Sharpe, who I met in Scotland some 30 yrs ago and who I’ve bumped into at various scale events over the recent years. Whilst slightly nervous at flying someone else’s pristine model, I soon became at ease and what a joy to fly. My Pilatus had the most of the flying though, it just fly’s so well that I’m even thinking of building a ¼ scale version of that.

Flights of 10 – 15 minutes were common throughout the day, with some gaining over 30 minutes, but I guess these were being guided by the vario activity. I’ve got a receiver with  built in vario and altimeter telemetry, so I may try out this technology the next time I’m out flying. If nothing else, it may provide guidance to extend my flight if scratching to maintain height instead of having to land.

 Flying continued until 16:00 where a cessation was declared on aero towing. The IC power was not allowed after 16:00, but there were still a few that proceeded with electric assist self launch.

 It took me about an hour to pack up and hit the road for a nice 3+ hour trip back home.

 To be honest, this had been one of the best events I have taken part in, in many years. I felt so relaxed, in good company and there was plenty to see. I had even had a good chat with Manny Williams (BMFA) in the office discussing all the many kits and models on show in the BMFA Buckminster lodge. They have recently opened a café on site with food and beverages on offer. I can vouch that the bacon butties are quite nice.

 I can’t wait to go to another aero tow event, the next one is at Sherlow in Shropshire (10/11 Aug) not sure when the next Buckminster aero tow event is on, but I hope to be available to go along to both.