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Home / New Zealand

Sky's the limit for family rivals

By by Sarah Hardie
Wairarapa Times-Age·
6 Jan, 2011 03:00 AM3 mins to read

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Doug Palmer taught his son about aeromodelling at 5 years old, and now 18-year-old James is flying past his father, having won two competitions already at this year's Aeromodelling National Championships.
Doug and James have travelled from Christchurch to the championships - most of them in Wairarapa - every year for
the past seven years.
Both agree they get competitive but say, "It's good, fun competition".
"It's about learning and getting better together," Doug said.
"But biking is about the only thing I can beat him at now."
Doug has been flying combat model planes, which can reach speeds of up to 140km/h, for 35 years, and took James to the world championship in Landres, France, in 2008, where James came first-equal in the world cup.
They plan to go to Bulgaria for the next world cup in 2012.
"That's when the practise started really paying off," James said. "Initially it takes quite a lot of practice, but once you get the hang of the equipment and get the basic skills, it gets easier."
The two compete in combat flying, where each plane has a streamer attached to it and one plane has to cut the other plane's streamer.
"It's very exciting when you fly well and you're following the other person's manoeuvres," Doug said.
"The crowd like it when there's collisions too, and we've had a few, mostly out on the paddock at home."
James plans to take his knowledge and skills to Air New Zealand next year, when he begins training to become an aircraft engineer.
Organiser Peter Hewson, who flies his plane in the scale section, said the event was attracting a lot more young people than before, as it allowed them to put into practice the skills they learned playing video games.
"Model planes aren't just toys, a lot of them can be very sophisticated machines and some people take it further by turning it into a career."
Hewson built his Percival Gull Six from scratch, a replica of the plane flown by Jean Batten in 1935 - the first to fly solo from England to New Zealand.
Scale model builders have an eye for detail, which he has embraced.
Inside the cockpit of his plane sits a model of Jean Batten, with a tiny map tucked into a pocket in the door.
"You learn a lot of trades doing this," he said.
"I've learned how to sew, how to do upholstery, how to make motors among other things - they're like biproducts of the hobby."
The Aeromodelling National Championships, being held at Clareville Showgrounds, attracts model plane enthusiasts from all over New Zealand, including world champions.
Gwyn Avenell has been to world championships in Switzerland and Sweden. He is also a scale enthusiast, who has been making and flying planes for over 30 years.
His SBD (Slow But Deadly) Dauntless, the plane he currently flies, is one of many he has slaved over.
He said he had spent about 500 hours drawing it and 2000 hours making it.
The plane is a replica of one which was flown by a squadron for six weeks in World War II in the Solomon Islands.
"Scale is an obsession," he said.
"It's not just about making it, you have to research it and look at the detail of the aeroplanes. We're just amateur historians really."

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