Fradley Fun Fly

Fradley Fun Fly

I’ve heard many great things about the Fradley club and its Annual Fun Fly event. To have seen this event first hand, I was not disappointed! 

The clubs flying site is located on an old second RAF Lichfield, known locally as Fradley. Fradley Aerodrome, was constructed in 1939 and early 1940. Initially it operated as a maintenance site, being home to the No. 51 Maintenance Unit from August 1940.  Manufacturers sent newly built aircraft to Fradley to carry out any modifications before delivery to squadrons. After the war, large numbers of aircraft were broken up and many aircraft were prepared before being sold to the air forces of other countries. The unit remained active until the closure of the airfield in 1958.

After working late Saturday night, the early start on Sunday morning proved very difficult! With the alarm ringing and my dad shouting, I reluctantly left bed and sleep-packed the car, but i didn’t mind knowing that I would pick up some of the new high voltage Savox 1268MG as well some Bionic Li-Po Batteries, which I will be using in my latest plane for IMAC competitions  – a 102” QQ Somenzini Yak 54.

The weather forecast looked promising, predicting light winds and sunny intervals, and after following Steve’s directions, we were soon arriving at the sunlit well organized Fun Fly.

John shorthouse gave his “usual pilots safety briefing” and then retired to his chair. I have to say I didn’t see him move for most of the day from it, other than to burger stand. (Ed note: John, Chris and Ollie were quietly competing to see who could eat the most)

The wind was extremely light and was directly down the tarmac runway. I couldn’t wait to get in the air! Flying started at 10:00 and I quickly rigged the planes to be on the gradually expanding flight line. But by 10.10, no one was flying! I checked in with the extremely friendly Tx Control and immediately checked out my radio and was the first one in the air!

There was a large variety of aircraft on display, from Trainers to large scale Ducted Fan Jets! Included in these was an eagerly anticipated ducted fan model of a Concorde. As the electric fans were tried and tested, a large crowd gathered to watch this magnificent aircraft fly. Unfortunately, a problem with the Speed Controllers on board meant that the flight was short lived. However it successfully made it down in one piece (even without power from 3 of the 4 fans!!) and was warmly greeted by a large round of applause.

Chris Norbury soon arrived with the FMS Mirage 4000 and the new upgraded FMS P51 in the Yellow “Marie” colour scheme. After fitting in a quick burger that came free with signing up (just the one today Steve!!), Chris was soon flying my personal favourite from Famous – the Mirage. After a few trimming circuits, Chris soon kept to grips with the Mirage and he was enjoying himself far too much. With little power left, he just made it back to the runway. We then fetched the much awaited P51 Mustang. Chris taxied the Mustang out and gracefully took to the skies. He did an excellent job of displaying the warbird, and showing it’s extremely scale capabilities. This generated interest and we happy to answer many questions.

Fradley do organise a raffle at these events and I have to say the prizes were very good, these ranged from wines and spirits through to kits that had been donated by CML Distribution.  The star prizes were the Mini P51 Mustang and the Mini Spitfire. There were plenty of very happy people on the day and the two lucky winners of the Mini Warbirds were Richard Jones & Mick Hill well done to you all! (see photo)

 All in all, we had a great day Chris and I together totalled over 10 flights( 4 of which were solo slots!). We were warmly welcomed by all of the Fradley club members, who all had their separate roles to play and made the event work like clockwork. So a big Thank you to the Fradley Club and everyone involved in making this wonderful day possible.

Ollie and Chris