Spring Charmouth! In most years this has always marked the beginning of the Heli season. But with several flyins already happened in 2012 including North London flyin and the epic Stainburn hosted by Tim Procter, it felt more like business as usual. Being within an hour and a half’s drive this is the closest flyin on the calendar for me, plus it’s always been as much a sociable event as a heli flyin so I always try to attend.

So I arrived fashionably late of course on the Saturday afternoon and with a painful back braced myself for the inevitable freight train style greeting from Rob Turnbull. Fortunately I was able to deflect the worst of the impact and my back survived, minor man hug ensued. Matt the Splat was there of course along with Jason Platts, Noel Cross and Mark Christie.

I’m pleased to report that it was windless, sunshine and stupidly hot… well it was in my head! In reality it was a mix of a bit of sunshine, plenty of breeze, rain showers enhanced by the occasional hail storm. In fact, quite good for Charmouth.

So the remainder of the Saturday afternoon was spent flying my Logo 600, god I love that heli! The wind picked up towards the end but it was more than flyable. Helped out a couple of people with their helis and flew the 600 a bit more.

Saturday night is always a good laugh and this time a few of the Midland lot went to a pub a couple of miles away from Newlands for a spot to eat. Starter was a classic retro 1970s prawn cocktail with the customary stale bread, and my Breaded Place ended up coming out naked (sans breadcrumbs)… hmm not ideal but would have been fine had it not been overcooked and filleted and prepared by someone who had no skills or eyes probably (sadly the fish still had theirs on my plate). Perhaps they had just applied to Kitchen nightmares and had a reputation to keep?

Back to Newlands and a few drinks in the school room away from the cabaret. Our very own Noel Cross was showing just how expert he is with the MCPX and duly won the top prize in the flying through hoops and chairs competition. Well done Noel and he and Leslie returned to their Caravan for a night of celebration… bet all the wiring in that caravan was sorted by the next morning too.

So by this point it should be mentioned I arrived at Charmouth with no fixed abode and had it not been for the amazing Gavin Murrell who stepped in at the last minute and sorted out a caravan for me, I would have been going home early. So our good friend Rob Barnes and I made ourselves comfortable, well I did in the double bed, Rob slept on a bed the width of a narrow pencil. He snores and dribbles just in case you were wondering.

Sunday and I was actually at the field before 10am! A visit to the burger van for a small health conscious breakfast of double sausage, egg, bacon with onion baguette. By late morning the weather started getting a lot worse. Few more flights with the Logo, flew a sex toy (very nice thank you Ross).

Over the weekend Rob flying was as impressive as always and Mr Watkin wheeled out his “Slogo” and I have to say flying it was great fun, relaxing a really refreshing way to 3D. He tells me that 1500rpm is too fast and he wants to go below 1300, may even 1100. I wouldn’t join his club if I were you, it may be a long wait for a flight.

As we were saying our goodbyes after a really good fun Charmouth the final photo probably summed it all up!

Onwards…