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On the catwalk

Surreal at Rougham

Dave Eade checks out the future of airshows? Pictures by the author and Mark Allen

If we told you about an airshow in the UK during April that featured 'Sally B', a flying Me-262 and a superb low-level display by Concorde, you would probably doubt the author's claim that he has quit the 'wacky-backy'! However readers over the years will know that we have regularly featured the annual show of the Bury Model Flying Club and it was to just that show that yours truly went on 22 April, along with a superb blue sky, a warm breeze and a large slice of Joe Public.

A regular event on the Rougham calendar now for many years, this show just keeps on getting better. The site is just east of Bury St. Edmunds on what was the USAAF airfield during the Second World War and holds model, kite and steam events during the year as well as its ever improving airshow in August (19 and 20th this year). Bury Model Flying Club is some thirty years old and this is the fifth annual display arranged by them - formed to encourage fliers to become safe and proficient in the art of flying models, the club has its own instructors and examiners to support and encourage the standards to the British Model Flying Association.

Yours truly has always found it difficult not to get caught up in the sheer excellence of the pilots and modellers on show at Bury and this year was certainly no exception. There IS a definite art in the flying - if a pilot was to roll and loop a large model of, say, a B-17, all reality would be immediately lost. The same is true with photography - correctly posed these aircraft take on a sense of total realism.

Models flown this year ranged from small sport types, especially designed for aerobatics and club flying to the superb large models of Wellington, B-17 and, yes, Concorde. Congratulations again to the Bury Model Flying Club for an excellently staged day-out in the surreal.

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