Saturday 24th September dawned bright for the first day of the Thames Valley Scale Aerotow - despite the relatively unfavourable weather forecasts earlier in the week.

This event was special in that TVSA was host to a team from Tangent Modelltechnik who had travelled from Germany to join us. Tangent have been making parts for the Multiplex Contest Line for many years, and in April this year took over the rights to the entire range.

In addition to the well-known former Multiplex range, Tangent has added three entirely new models of their own including a stunning 6m Nimbus-4 for which the TVSA event was the UK debut.

Top man Dieter Bär, his marketing man Jörg Etzler and test pilot Florian Griesser travelled from Stuttgart by air carrying two very large purpose built flight cases. They reported having received some very strange looks from fellow travellers, including one blatant enquiry asking if they were transporting coffins!

Good selections from the Tangent range were on display, including the ASW-27, ASH-26, Alpina, KULT and VORTEX and of course the Nimbus-4, all of which are now available in the UK via Flair Models. It was good to see a European manufacturer getting out and about among their UK customers.

The weekend provided some spectacular flying conditions and lift, which was described by our German visitors as "das hammer!" which loosely translated means it was pretty dammed good. They were also well impressed by the full size flying field and indeed by Steve Davis' 1:3 scale Frisch Wilga which put in sterling work all weekend - towing effortlessly to the 1,500ft ceiling.

Interestingly our visitors also commented favourably about the strict frequency regime adopted which we tend to take somewhat for granted at UK events, but did think our habit of queuing for tugs was a little "quaint" - although that was not precisely the word used!

Highlights included a light-hearted spot landing competition, which was won by Rob Ashley-Roche who took home a new Tangent DG-600 kit kindly donated by Tangent and Flair Models.

TVSA events are held throughout the year - keep an eye on our website at www.tvsa.scalesoaring.co.uk for details.

Allan Arthurs, Dave Stokes, Dave Hoare & Andy Schafer.
Team TVSA

Tangent Modelltechnik - www.tangent-modelltechnik.com/
Flair Models - www.flairmodels.co.uk/

Please mention Flying Sites when contacting
Thames Valley Scale Aerotow
Tangent Modelltechnik
Flair Models