The September speed meetings took place over a weekend when the weather was looking really threatening and might spoil the weekends flying. However good contest management expedited the competition flights and thus missed the rain.
Jet flying took place at Barton while at Buckminster the F2A and the majority of the 12’s flying was happening.
At Barton we saw the welcome return of Matthew Hart, along with the regular Barton competitors. The highlight of the Barton weekend was Matthew flying a monoline fast jet which went at 209mph on the first flight, then 210 and then back to 208. Of course 210 mph is very close to the UK record for fast jet which is 212 mph.
Fast Jet flight 210 mph BARTON JETS 24 SEPT 2023 – YouTube
Saturday’s practice saw a variety of models being flown including a re-engined Newton 29 by Dick Hart and a 12 model by Matthew Hart. Barrie Lever noticed a crack in the tail pipe on his recently under performing Sport Jet and this was swapped out for Sundays competition.
Barrie Levers Granddaughter Nellie Chester-Sterne holding Matthew Harts fully repaired 12 class model.
Sport jets at Barton seemed a little slower at this meeting with Matthew setting the fastest speed at 145 mph. Ken Morrisey again flew the Atlantis all metal model but seemed to have lost the good form from the Nationals.
Kens development Sport Jet model ‘Atlantis’
Down at Buckminster the 12 group were again breaking records with the 12 models, Peter Halman with 153 mph for 100.59% of the record and Paul Eisner at 151.7 mph for 99.74% of the record. Paul also flew F2A at 290 kph.
Peter Halmans winning Open speed model (ex F2A airframe) 12 class . Powered by an Irvine.
The results are all very tight at the top of the Johnny Hall league with the final meeting in October required to decide the overall league results.