My lovely Aimi granted me Friday night away, so I didn’t have such an early morning to deal with. This meant I could get there and have a chilled evening drinking with James and Cerb, Sam and Karolina, smashing down Pringles and Haribo bears.
Up at the crack, like normal, I wandered over to where I’d dumped all the gear in the hangar the night before. The benefit of a big wide open hanger is that you can create any track you want without anything in the way. The downside is that there are no features for you to play with and so the whole track needs to come out of your head. This is more of a challenge than I’m used to. Usually in the pub there are a couple of pillars and tables to play around with. Tell a lie, there are PVC frames hanging from ropes on the hangar ceiling which were used to hang model aeroplanes up during exhibitions. These would be useful to hang gates from and I was determined to use them.
After about an hour I had set up a course I was pretty happy with and managed a couple of test flights. This hanger is big and the track is big which means it’s a very fast, and wide open track. The gates we use are only about 500mm diameter and usually I’m hitting these after just having exit another corner. Now we’re blasting across half the width of that hanger before trying to thread the needle at top speed, it’s a challenge. Track setup, I head over to the new cafe the BMFA had just finished renovating.
The whole estate that the BMFA run from is set near buckminster. It’s a great big huge open field on a plateau overlooking a nearby village with a farmhouse a barn and a load of outbuildings. The piggery had been converted into a hanger to store gliders during the winter. Just this year they had finished converting an outbuilding into a cafe with outdoor seating area. It’s a real testament to the flying community in the UK that donations and volunteers all come together to make this possible and provide great facilities.
A little after the expected kickoff time of 9 am whoopers arrived and started laying down laps. This event is a very chill affair as it’s the first time we have ever used this venue. There are lots of race events in all sorts of disciplines up and down the country where you can race in competitions and leagues for prestige and honours. Blades over Buckminster has always been a chill weekend away to just fly as much or as little as you want and hang out with mates in the model flying community. I’ve been told this is the first year that Whoops have taken part and made use of the hangar. The BMFA are happy for us to whoop all day and all night and so “Le Whoop 24hr” was born.
As the day progressed it was great to meet people from the other disciplines. They wandered in from time to time and I went over to chat with them about what whoops were and our clubs, and learn what they enjoyed flying. All of them knew what drones were but none of them had seen any so small, or so fast. It was great fun to introduce them to another model flying hobby. I had a beginners whoop set with me and many of them had a go.
I also wandered out over to the five inch drone racing track that Cerb and James had set up. I don’t have a 5 inch racing drone. I don’t even have a 3 inch racing drone anymore. But I was confident that even in this strong crosswind my little 65mm whoop would get around the track at least once. I was correct, but it was the most hilarious flight I’ve ever taken with the little craft.
There was a long sweeping right-hand bend that brought you round to start the lap in front of the pilot line. My little whoop struggled to go anywhere on the way upwind. Because I fly in angle mode, anytime I add more throttle I end up gaining altitude because into a headwind I’ve hit my angle limit! Then, following the course, I ended up turning right but with my craft banked hard left to battle the wind trying to drag me into the next field. Then on the way downwind I could probably have kept up with a 5 inch.
James also put up his FPV plane. This was good fun to chase with the Whoop without fear of damaging it. A bigger drive would have chopped it to shreds, but ducted whoops are safer for everyone. Just another reason whoops are the best!
As evening rolled around it became apparent that my plan to arrive on Friday night had been a good one but that I had neglected to go food shopping before arriving. Ever the gentleman, Jaggers popped out to get some supplies and, combined with Sam and Lindsays chicken, I cooked up a pasta for six of us.
This sustained us way into the night, when the track really came alive with the LED lights. I don’t care what anybody says… LEDs make things better! The whole room glowed with multicolor LED lights and the whoops made beautiful and colorful light trails around the track. Especially my ridiculously bright one on which I had mounted the LED filament out of a house bulb. This thing was so bright it lit up the entire room and you genuinely could not look directly at it without burning out your retinas. But it was great for light paintings.
Jaggers and I really started hammering out the laps, chasing the fastest times between us. Getting a consistent lap without crashing was really hard but when we did we both managed sub 16 second laps which we counted as an achievement. The flying lasted till the small hours of the morning but as the last pilot left the hangar for their bed, I turned off the LEDs and followed them. This was the first year we had an event at Bob and now we know what the venue is like, I know we will be back.