WOODFIELD'S WONDERS

John Woodfield is establishing quite a reputation for lightweight vintage style gliders, as featured in a recent On Silent Wings column. Here’s his story...

- John Woodfield

There are so many different disciplines to model flying, so I always find it fascinating to see a real dedication in one specific field. We all have our place in this great hobby of ours, from the raw beginner just starting out on their foam trainer to the top-level competition pilot with his expensive scale turbine jet.

Over the years I flown all sorts of model aircraft and this recently got me thinking about why I fly the type of planes I do. I guess its greatly influenced or dictated by all sorts of factors such as available free time, budget, level of experience, available flying sites and, arguably, most of important of all, how understanding your better half is!

Lightweight vintage style gliders are predominately all I fly now, so how did this all come about?

ON THE HAMBLE

Many years ago, I lived on an old WWII RAF air-sea rescue boat, which had been converted to a live-aboard and was moored at an idyllic spot on the River Hamble. Just a stone’s throw away was an old abandoned airfield, which nature had long since taken over. There wasn’t a building for miles around, but the grass was long, and the ground was about as rough and bumpy as it could possibly be. This meant the only planes I could fly there had to be hand-launched power models or designs with big wheels and an ability to land nice and gently. The need for sturdy landing gear and soft-landing characteristics led me to build numerous Old-Timer style models, which could fly slowly and land in a short space.

On several occasions I tried bungee launching gliders, but the line would always end up get tangled in the prickly gorse bushes.