Our association, the MMAFA has been organising this annual open weekend for the past 12 years. This year the event was organised on the 3rd and 4th April where we invited the general public to come to our flying site at Ta’Qali. The aim of the show is to introduce the public to the pleasure of our sport and hobby of constructing and most of all, flying model aircraft.
Once again after last year’s success we invited the internationally renowned flyer from Italy, Sebastiano Silvestri, who accepted our invitation and performed during the two days of the show. Sebastiano was no doubt the star attraction of the show and thrilled everybody present with his yellow Katana and with his incredible freestyle flying capabilities. Accompanying him this year was also Roberto Laghi, a well known jet pilot in the Italian sphere and also a Jet World Masters competitor. Roberto thrilled the crowds with his JetCat powered L-39 Albatros. On one occasion the nose gear did not come out and Roberto showed the crowd present the slow flying characteristics of his L-39 and landed the aircraft on just the main gear with only minor scratches to the nose. We also had the pleasure of hosting Sandro Rognini, another well known figure on the hobby, who put his petrol powered Diabolitin through its paces with great ease. Sebastiano, Roberto and Sandro also entertained the crowds during the short breaks, each flying a Hacker powered 3D park flyer, the Look @ Me biplane designed by Sebastiano. These small biplanes seemed to defy all gravitational principles and torque roll for minutes on end.
John Blake from the United Kingdom, a specialist in helicopter flying and 3D aerobatics, was also present for the show. Although he did not bring any models with him, due to not having enough time to tackle all the issues associated with transporting his models to Malta, he showed us his capabilities on the sticks by flying Jesmond Bajada’s Webra powered Raptor 60 with extreme expertise. On Sunday morning unfortunately for John, the Webra quit on him whilst in an inverted hover only a foot above the runway. John managed to land the heli inverted with minimum damage and only ruining the main blades showing everyone his experience and airtime on the sticks.
From the local scene we had a wide variety of models on static and being flown over the weekend. The flying models line up, ranged from turbine powered Kangaroo’s, four stroke powered WW 1 biplanes, petrol powered giant scale aerobatic planes, petrol powered giant scale models and a range of small sport flyers and a couple of high wing trainers.
One of our new attractions this year was the Air Raid simulation which took place both on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Martin Mifsud and Stephen Warrington flew their P-51 Mustangs to attack the control tower, whilst Mario Vitale, the demolition man, was in control of the pyrotechnics. The overall effect of the control tower with the bastions of Mdina in the background, the Mustangs flying up and down the runway, the bombs exploding around the tower and the specially choreographed music on the loudspeakers made the whole sequence quite entertaining on both days. Due to its success the Air Raid shall be repeated and improved upon in the future.
The children present on both days had a field day catching toffee dropped from two models- a Big Lift flown by Franz Zammit Haber and a Piper Cub flown by Joe Chetcuti. This attraction is very popular with the public and the participation and expressions on the children’s faces will ensure the continuity of our Toffee Run slots in future Open Day schedules. The public is also involved in our Best of Show competition. The public is asked to vote for the model they like most. This year Wayne Galea won the competition with his scratch built 40% Giles 202, Brian Busuttil came in second with a 40% 3W Extra 330s and Martin Mifsud came in third with a turbine powered Yellow Aircraft F-18 Hornet.
Next year the Committee has decided to take a different approach to foreign pilot participation. Instead of focusing the allocated funds on just one participant as has been done over the past two years, the MMAFA has decided to place an open invitation to all those pilots flying giant scale models (not above 20Kg dry weight) or jet models or helicopters. The MMAFA is willing to pay for a week’s accommodation for the pilot concerned and his partner/helper. The MMAFA will also help in the logistics and transportation to ensure that the cheapest and most reliable routes are taken. The few places available are based on a first come first served basis and at the discretion of the Committee, as the funds are obviously limited since this is not a profit making association.
I hope this review has helped to give greater exposure to our yearly event and also to the club itself and entice more foreign participation. On another note all modellers are welcome throughout the year to come and visit our site. Our site at Ta’Qali is situated below Mdina and is very picturesque and the only limitation is that models must have a maximum dry weight of 20Kg. Having a wide tarmac runway of approximately 500 feet and beautiful sunny weather we can boast of a very nice site accessible to models of any kind.
The commitee thank Brian Busuttil for preparing and sending the article to the press.
Photos of the event can be found here:- http://picasaweb.google.com/106399176659894738668/WingsOverTaQali2004#