| A Little About the Club and Flying Site
With the increasing success of our Annual Fly-Ins,
it is interesting to look back over half a century when Langar Airfield
was the venue for a much earlier series of Model Airfield Rallies.
Life long aero modeller Doug Bolton was still at school
when he attended these events and in this article previously published
in a 1993 Newsletter, Doug looks back and gives this very interesting
account of Model Flying at Langar Airfield:
Langar Airfield, by Doug Bolton
The Club has been flying at Langar since 1967. However,
this was not the first time the airfield had been assailed by happy
aero modellers. Some 20 years earlier, a series of very successful
and highly acclaimed rallies were held there.
Following the end of WW2, there was a big upsurge in
aero modelling. It had been a popular hobby during the war, in spite
of severe shortages of balsa (obechi wood was a poor substitute)
and a ban on powered model flying. Enthusiasm grew enormously when
materials became available again, and the introduction of small diesel
engines transformed the free flight power scene. With a new branch
of the hobby, control-line flying, coming over from the U.S.A. it
was hardly surprising that clubs were flourishing. (There were not
the debilitating distractions of T.V. and computer simulators to
cope with either!)
Several of the local model clubs, led by the South
Notts. MFC. formed the rather impressive sounding Nottingham Area
Council of Aero Modellers, to promote aero modelling and start organising
rallies; at this time (around 1947) this meant catering for free-flight
and control-line models. (Practical R/C. was still a few years away).
To enjoy free flight lots of space is needed, in short, an airfield.
Langar presumably was the nearest one to Nottingham that was available.
It is my recollection that the first of these rallies
was held in 1947 but there doesn’t seem to be any reference
in the "Club News" sections of the Aero modeller magazines of that
time until reports of two very successful events held in 1948. The
first of these, in March attracted 267 entries from 22 clubs from
all over the Midlands area, for the Free-Flight Duration (rubber,
glider & power) and Control-Line Aerobatic events, in spite of
poor weather. (It could be just as bad in those days). A rather dull
photograph appeared in the July 1948 edition of aero modeller. The
second rally of that year in September, had slightly fewer entries
at 245, but attracted almost 3000 spectators. This was quite remarkable
(an understatement if ever there was one! -ed.) bearing in mind that
not many families owned a car and petrol was still rationed. Many
clubs would have hired coaches, also, aero modellers were generally
younger and fitter in those days (all that chasing after Free-Flight
models?) and everyone owned a bicycle. Many local enthusiasts would
therefore have cycled to the event.
The prospect of carrying relatively fragile Free-Flight
models on a bicycle sounds rather daunting, nevertheless the usual
technique was to put the models in a largish model box which was
then strapped to your back with webbing straps. The alternative was
to tow a trailer – indeed if you aspired to flying ten foot
span Free-Flight Gliders which were starting to become popular, it
was the only way. Unfortunately, using a bicycle to tow a trailer
is very hard work, also. The trailers were invariably home made and
usually fitted with pram wheels which were prone to falling off every
few miles or so.
Control-Line models, being fairly small and more robust
could be carried on one’s back via a loop of string. The snag
there was that oil from the engine dripped onto your clothing. Enthusiasts
could easily be identified by the dirty oil streaks down the back
of their jackets.
During the winter of 1948-49, some clubs in the Nottingham
area decided to amalgamate into one large club and the Foresters
MFC was born. There was some controversy at the inaugural meeting
over the name but the only alternative proposed but rejected was ‘Trent
MFC.’
The Foresters got off to a good start with another
well-attended rally in September 1949, which was notable for the
near perfect weather conditions. As a result, spectators were quite
disappointed at the absence of prangs!
Sadly this seems to be the last of the Langar rallies.
It was some time after this that the Royal Canadian Air Force moved
into Langar, so maybe the airfield was no longer available. In the
early fifties the Foresters acquired the use of Tollerton airfield,
albeit shared with full size flying. Also, there was a steady decline
in Free Flight in deference to Control Line and R/C, neither of which
needed so much space. Alternatively, the organisers of the Langar
rallies may have just run out of enthusiasm!
Were any, now famous names flying in the Langar rallies
of those days? Well the placings in the contests do list a couple.
A certain Mr. J. G. Eifflander of Macclesfield was an up and coming
Control Line aerobatic flyer, later to become synonymous with the
world famous PAW model diesel engines. Another famous (or infamous!)
Control Line competitor was P. Russell from Worksop. Pete of course,
still writes articles for the R/C. model magazines and for many years
was the proprietor of the model shop in Worksop.
Not surprisingly, aero modelling has seen many developments
since those far-off days. Nevertheless, vintage enthusiasts still
enjoy flying the model designs of that era (with R/C. assist) and
some of the features of engine design technology have hardly changed
at all.
Oh, and yes, Langar airfield is still there.
Doug
DOUG BOLTON
Doug, who was one of the founder members of NRCS,
and was Secretary for many, many years, died in hospital in December,
2004.
Secretary's Note:
The REAL history of Langar started in 1942, (just about
the time I was born) when the MOD built the airfield for Bomber Command.
In late 1942, the first users of the airfield, 207 Squadron, with
Avro Lancasters, flew many missions fom here, mostly to bomb Berlin,
often with Incendiary and the unreliable and dangerous 'Cookie' bombs.
One Lancaster, with a full bomb load, crashing on take-off and making
a large hole in the ground to the North of the 01 runway. Over 270
aircrew lost their lives on missions from Langar, all in the space
of nine months.
One famous mission was the trip over Berlin with Wynford
Vaughan-Thomas of the BBC, which he recorded live on a disc recorder,
the first such event.
The airfield then reverted to care and maintenance
until used to store Horsa gliders for the invasion.
I hope to account some of the tales of 207 squadron
in the future - there are some remarkable stories!
Bob.
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