THIS year’s AIR flying competition at the White Horse Country Park has been hailed a huge success by its organisers, and boasted a huge increase in interest.
The convention of remote control helicopters, planes and drones was held in Westbury from the 17th to 19th July. This was its second year at the venue.
Organiser Matt Lodge said, “The weekend was a complete success with more than double the attendance of last year; when word gets out in our community we reckon next year will be even bigger again.
“On the Friday we began the event with a fun fly, where we invite any pilot to come and enjoy the White Horse Country Club flying site. Although AIR is set out as a model helicopter competition we encourage any model that flies. This includes drones and of course aeroplanes (we nickname those planks!).
“Saturday saw the first day of the competition where each competing pilot flies their first round to music. We have a fully internet-based judging system where we can record the scores and publish them on the day.
“The evening time, which we call Dusk AIR, saw a 5-a-side football game between pilots, then a professional juggler who also happens to be one of the pilots, finished up by a night flying competition where the helicopter is flown with illuminated blades fitted.
“This is a real treat to see and fireworks and pyrotechnics were in the background to add to the atmosphere.
“Sunday hosted the final round of the competition where again every pilot would fly taking their best scoring round through as their final score. The AIR competition isn’t set out to be serious, but more a fun event so we had extra prizes for Best Entertaining Flight, Lowest Flight and the Biggest AIR flight.
“The Best Entertaining Flight was won by Jack Bishop who had a radio mic on him which meant he could sing and fly at the same time!”
The competition winners were: Pro Class – Stu Smith, Advanced Class – Gareth Davies, and the Sport – Paul Williams.
To find out more about the AIR competition or to get involved with next year’s event, visit www.air-competition.com or find them on Facebook by searching AIR RC Helicopter Competition.
