MAAA Wingspan

33 NOVEMBER WING SPAN MAAALogo. commencing with Airfix models, before moving onto balsa wood planes and rubber-powered planes. However, he then had a bit of a hiatus. “I sort of gave it all up after I went to university and then became busy with my career, got married and had kids,” he says. “It was only when life settled down again that I went back to it. However, during that hiatus period I never gave up model-making– I was still practicing it, but it wasn’t radio-controlled models or necessarily aircraft that I was building.” Peter, who is now 55, got back into radio-controlled aircraft in his adulthood and found that by the time he came back into the hobby, the easiest way in was to buy a foamy. However, for recreating the Vimy, he started from scratch. “Because there wasn’t an accessible model of the Vimy, I thought I’d just have a go at scratch building it. It was kind of a fanciful undertaking.” Nevertheless, despite impressively nearing completion, Peter remains humble about his mastery of replicating the famed aircraft. “I think that if a more experienced radio-control aeromodeller were to followmy build log they would spot a number of errors or unusual assembly approaches, but that’s been the attraction for me- just trying to build the aircraft and make it my own way to see how it turns out,” he says. December 2019, marks the 100th anniversary of the Smith Brothers’ historic England to Australia flight and Peter remains optimistic that he’ll have his Vickers Vimy fully completed and in the air by that date. “Looking at the aircraft now, it looks as though it is nearly finished, but I know howmuch time the final stages and detailing can take,” continues Peter. “Even so, I am optimistic that it will take its first flight well before the 100-year anniversary of Ross and Keith’s arrival in Australia. I hope it’s still in one piece when that time comes around to celebrate that momentous occasion.”