MAAA Wingspan

06 WING SPAN MAY the golden era races One of the biggest model flying events in Australia, The Golden Era Races, was recently held at the Constellation Model Flying Club in Adelaide. Since 1997, this biennial event has recaptured the thrilling golden era of aviation in days gone by. During the popular three-day event, (held between 5 -7 April) pilots nostalgically flew back to the future with scale replicas of aircraft flown in America and England between WW1 and WW2. Mike O’ Reilly, who supported event organiser Trevor Pearce, said the event was full of enthusiasm and camaraderie. “It was a fantastic event. The Constellation Model Flying Club did an outstanding job of organising this biennial event under the capable direction of Trevor Pearce,” Mr O’ Reilly said. Due to widespread appeal, there were several classes of model aircraft flown. These include Golden Era Radial and Inline models that featured wingspans of over two metres, Reno War Birds, the extremely fast and high- performance Formula 1 and the smaller class of earlier American Trainer Texan AT-6 models. The Golden Era Radial class really captures people’s attention as they’re the classic aeroplanes that people think of when you think of the Golden Era of racing. They look fantastic in the air and are beautifully presented replicas of the planes of that era. “The new 30cc Warbird class was very well supported and provided some close racing between Spitfires, Yaks, Airacobras and more,” said Mr O’Reilly. “The P-47 Thunderbolts seemed to have a slight edge over Mustangs in the 60CC Reno class.” In the end there were 45 aircraft that were entered at this year’s Golden Era Races with several hundred spectators attending each day. Mr O’Reilly said it was a terrific celebration of air racing with intricate scale models of real aircraft. “The 12th running of the Adelaide Golden Era Races was full of thrills, enthusiasm and camaraderie,” said Mr O’Reilly. A nostalgia-induced weekend celebrating the thrill of flight and demonstrating classic camaraderie among pilots, 2019’s Golden Era Races was yet another success story for all our enthusiastic modellers and we can’t wait for another thrilling event in 2021! ALL THE BUZZ AND EXCITEMENT FROM A UNIQUE EVENT THAT CELEBRATES THE GOLDEN ERA OF AVIATION.