Got back at 3am this morning from this fantastic event. Still in its infancy being only in its second year this event is organised by Winnie Olghart, the father of Jet Power and the Jet World Masters, it was held in the town of Bopfingen in Germany. 5 rounds held over three days judged by a team of 6 headed up by David Tappin of Jet World Masters fame.

I cannot praise highly enough the organisation and running of the show. It made the competition an absolute pleasure to take part in. The standard of flying was extremely high and I'm really proud the Boomerang Team with Steve Roberts and Dave Wilshere flying two Torus models held our own against some fantastic teams - most of whom were "big money" sponsored affairs.

Seeing some impressive aircraft taking off in tandem - flying wingtip to wingtip or sometimes fin to fin through some very technical manoeuvres was great to watch along with the added bonus of ground and air based pyrotechincs, special effects and all routines flown to music.

It was a truly world class event and we enjoyed competing against the other team from the UK - the Reds Duo (Steve and Matt Bishop) flying large Airworld Hawks.

I took loads of pictures which Im just sorting through now. Sadly not many flying shots of Team Boomerang as I was busy calling for the team. Heres a few for starters...

Sounds like you did well.........What were the results in the end?

Cheers

Some of the teams I can remember...

The Red Bull Team flying 2 Airworld MB 339's
The Horizon Team flying 2 large Tomahawk L39's
The Futura Team flying large Futuras

After each team completed each round there was an interview with the commentator and then a "meet the fans" section where the pilots went over to sign autographs for lots of adoring 9 year olds - a nice touch I thought.

I was hoping to see some English teams up there. How did the boomers do?

Alex

We were 5th and the Bishops 8th after losing one of their Hawks. We spent Zero on the special effects section, where the top teams said it was £200 per flight! Bonus points were awarded.

Dave

Great stuff... Do you have any idea if there anyone will be posting any video of the flights???
Thanks,
Steve

Boomerang Jets,

Well done for flying the flag.

Looks like some serious toys turned up!

Simon

Steve

There was a video last year, I guess there was people doing video

Dave

Hey Dave,

Those big L39's are beautiful. Wish I had the money and the space to have one myself[]

Geoff.

They will be at Weston Park show weekend after next!
They were painted by Stefan...fabulous job and scheme.
I'll post more shots later when I go home, just catching up with orders.

Dave

OK.

Boomerang Jets (UK) team left the north west London area 4.0am Thursday morning for the long drive to Bopfingen in south west Germany. Although I hate Sat Nav's, we went with that as a route mapper instead of the old fashioned paper map. As it turned out it only went wrong once each way (and I missed the odd turn off instruction) The SN said 630miles (around 1000km) to the destination. The run through the UK was easy and we caught an earlier train under the channel. The run through France, Belgium, Luxenbourg and into Germany was good with minor traffic delays and hold ups. The route we took was very picaresque, lots of hills and valleys. Arriving at the town the SN tried to turn Colin's van into an off road vehicle taking us through a forest-route one! After finding the correct route and arriving at the site we were greeted by many of the European Jet set and a beautiful site and view. Several teams were already there and set up and the organising committee lead by Winnie were hard at work. We decided to chill a little and have a few flights on leckie models and the Habu 32T's and not unpack and fly the Torus's until Friday. Looking around the models as they were assembled, showed us that we were going to be one of the smaller teams as far as model size goes. The Horizon teams new L-39 were stunning, P-200 powered and painted in perfect paint jobs by Stefan and his father.
All but two teams used scale aeroplanes, I think I am right in saying every team except the G team used JetCat turbines, most using JR/Graupner/Spektrum radios and Powerbox equipment. Powerbox sponsored the smoke oil for the second time, over 100Ltrs were burnt.
A full report will appear in most magazines, so I'll stop there. It was a great weekend, nice weather, great food, I eat quite a bit of salad [X(] so there is hope for a few. We visited the Powerbox factory WOW! like a surgery and also had tea at the bosses house (that he built!!) Even the trip back was OK, arriving back home at 2.30am this morning.

Dw

More pixs

Well done guys a good result, gutted to hear about the loss of the Hawk, what happened?

Alex

Thanks, we did OK considering 2 evenings practice and two models worth less than one of the models ahead of us!
Flame out and it ran off a grass bank at the edge of the site and down a ditch, before hitting a tree. The Germans rallied together and got another kit there by the next morning, so I guess they are busy building again.

Dw

guys
im really interested in this competition, are there any videos ?
thanks

Dean

There is one from last year, we didn't do any, but I'm sure there will be some around.

Dw

Dave,

Looks like a really well run event, the views look good as well! Do you know what smoke canisters the guys are running?

H

Henry

The bishops were running Italian wing tip canisters, which are currently available from Al's Hobbies

Dunc

great to see that one can achieve a good result with what are considered to be entry level airframes (boomers) . how would "a team or pair " apply for this comp.
thanks

Are they on the Als Hobbies website? Couldn't find them.

Cheers

Alex,

I think that this is it?

http://alshobbies.com/shop/search.php?Desc=smoke

There's nothing "Entry Level" about the Torus. It is a straightforward, simple model, like all Boomers but it's also a superb flying, genuinely aerobatic, strong and tough airframed jet, rock solid in the air.

The name I gave it is a reference and me "tipping my hat" while recalling a great old prop model of the 60's, the Taurus, which was a breakthrough superb flying aerobatic machine in it's day.

[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCjzNtvrNt0&playnext=1&list=PL5983C670283A 3416]Torus at Fla. Jets 2011[/link]

The Als hobbies website is not the greatest for finding things in category's, best type in the word you are looking for in the search box.
e.g. if you select Jetcat accessories only 13 items come up, if you do a search for "Jetcat" you now get 30 different jetcat related items plus of course the turbines themselves.

Here you go Dean

http://jetpower-magazin.com/events-2/665-2/?lang=en

Does anyone know how many teams entered in the end? the website shows photo's of just 9 teams, but the photo's make the event look alot bigger than that. Maybe the other 11 teams didn't send in photo's for the website??

Duncan, there were 10 entries after a few last minute drop outs. 2 teams mid aired themselves out of the competition the week before and I heard another team had a "difference of opinion" between the pilots.

It was a fairly big affair even with 10 teams, there seemed to be lots of people turned out for the event, as well as the fact that there was some sponsor demo flying in between competition breaks.

Dean you would need to get in touch with Winnie Olghart through Jet Power magazine to enter for next year. A date hasn't yet been set for next years competition but it is definitely going ahead.

Formation flying is a hell of a buzz although its harder than it looks. Keeping speed / position / rate of turn / rates of ascent / decent and taking off and landing at the same time is damn tricky but great fun - leave alone some of the technical stuff like mirrored moves etc. Im definitely going to fly next year - need to start practicing now though