The club holds a waterplane event from Kirkgate Park in Kinross, this is typically held in August. Check our Club Events This Year page for the latest date for that.
The event has been running now for nearly 30 years, originally as a spin-off from the Kinross Agricultural Show. It was originated by KRMFC and later taken on by Balbedie model club, until about 2018 when they decided it was too much hard work with the difficulty of keeping it safe. Bill ran it in 2019 more or less ‘solo’ and then luckily KRMFC decided to re-adopt it in 2021.
Shown below are this and previous years events!
2025
The weather on both days was hot and sunny with very light winds blowing onto the beach. Alasdair Sutherland on both days put on a number of wonderful displays with his jet. With spectacular aerobatics and tremendous sounds everyone stopped what they were doing and looked into the sky. Each time he landed there was a round of applause! If you didn’t know it could have easily been mistaken for the full-size version.
Alastair Nicol was flying a twin engined Catalina which had retractable wingtip floats and it looked spectacular in the air.
Brian Barclay was there with his large trailer full of planes and he flew a wide variety including a Ripmax Zephyr. He also had a ‘rescue boat’ which consisted of a plastic framework in the shape of a catamaran fitted with 2 EDF jets and a length of rope slung between both hulls which was used to capture downed planes.
Saturday was unusual in that the boat was hardly used with no serious crashes into the loch. Sunday was busier for some reason with the boat at one stage rescuing 4 planes which had come down in the water and had no power.
Neil Grayson and Richard Blanski on the Sunday were despatched to rescue a large electric plane that had unfortunately crashed with some force into the loch. On retrieving it and placing it into the boat there was a loud popping noise and thick smoke came out of the cowl. Fearing that the LiPo battery was about to burst into flames they scrambled to find the hatch where the battery was located and unplugged it immediately. Luckily it was just the ESC which had shorted so they didn’t have to abandon the boat!
On Sunday there was a fly-away, which has since been recovered. One member from Glenrothes club flew his Tundra further and further away until he lost orientation and it disappeared. It was found at the Todd & Duncan cashmere mill grounds almost a kilometre away, and has now been returned to its owner.
The only issue at the event was that a member of the public, who was obviously intoxicated (by the weather or some substance), decided to untie our rescue boat and take it for a spin! Amazingly, he was sufficiently safety conscious to don a lifejacket before starting the engine! Thankfully his poor driving skills meant he didn’t get far and he ended up heading back towards the beach. Bill McDiarmid soon ejected him from the boat, and after a bit of argument the boat was tied up more securely.
This year’s event was very successful with 30 names on the list across the two days (18 on Saturday and another 12 on Sunday-only). There were 6 flyers from KRMFC plus a good number that helped out but didn’t fly. Other clubs represented included: Macmerry, Blackridge, Glenrothes, Balbedie, Garnock Valley, Cumbernauld, Dundee, Forfar, Alloa, Lanark, Warrix and Montrose.
Hamza put together an excellent video of the event below:
2024
Poor weather, with limited flying on the Saturday only. Unfortunately the decision was taken to cancel the Sunday part of the event. We are hoping for a lot better weather in 2025!
Some pictures below of the planes that took part on the Saturday.
2023
The Saturday was almost too windy, but a few brave souls dared. 9 flyers signed in for Saturday, and another 16 on Sunday when the weather calmed right down (mostly!) Bill even had time to fly his electric Tundra (much harder to fly with floats on – extra drag, extra weight means it has to fly faster and is much more likely to stall and simply fall out of the sky!) A special mention has to go to Ian who flew on floats for the first time, and made it look easy. Last year there were numerous crashes and the rescue boat was constantly in action. This year much less so – the southerly wind was bringing wreckage, or rather the sedately floating upright dead-stick model, within wading range. The rescue boat was moored at the end of the pier, and one ¼ scale Tiger Moth managed to crash into it! We had one incident where a pilot lost orientation/sight of a foamy model in the sun, and it came down within our compound in the park. All the flyers were call together for a conference and it was agreed to fly an additional 20 metres away from the beach.
2022
This year the event was blessed with fantastic weather, with hardly a ripple on the water and little wind on Saturday with blistering sunshine. This set the scene for a large turnout of water planes, pilots, and continuous flying from 10 am to 4pm. The weather held and continued into Sunday which was maybe a degree or two cooler, but was still hot and sunny with a little more wind than the Saturday, which gave a little ripple on the water.
The wind did increase a little towards the end of both days but was still only moderate. Although the pier did protect the take-off area it also caused some minor problems on take-off as once the pilots were clear of the protection of the pier the wind caught the models.
A good mixture of model types attended with both electric, glow and petrol powered of all sizes from micro to extremely large and from singles motor power to twins and even a quad.
It was splendid to see so many models and types all being able to fly in probably the best conditions for this event for many a year . Unfortunately, because of the glorious weather this brought out many other users of the water of the Loch with canoes, paddle boards and even swimmers which meant that extreme caution had to be applied by the flyers.
The flying and the Loch passed without any problems with most model flyers being very careful and ensuring they kept the required distances from the public pursuing their water sport pastimes. Other than the odd flipping of models and loss of a float, there were very few models damaged, with only a very large Schneider and a Anderson Kingfisher crashing and being seriously damaged, which was unfortunate, considering so many flights were undertaken throughout the two days without damage. In conclusion it was an extremely successful event which everyone enjoyed with some great flying made even better by the exceptional weather and the sheer amount and types of model present.
2021
A bit windy, but all systems go!
The water fly-in at Kirkgate was well attended with a flyer all the way from Barrow-in-Furness flying a large blue Anderson Kingfisher, and on Sunday a large Tiger Moth. Both Moki 135 glow-powered. A flyer who is an ex-BA 747 captain, flew his own-designed pink plane on Saturday, and a jet turbine on Sunday (kerosene tank made from a regular plastic cider bottle!). Members from the following clubs attended: KRMFC, Balbedie, Glenrothes, Dundee, Blackridge, Angus, Cumbernauld, Dallachy, East Kilbride, Ullswater, Carlisle, Elgin amongst others. KRMFC was well represented with members attending on both days.
About 18 fliers on Saturday, and an additional 15 on Sunday. The boat was in regular use on both days keeping paddleboarders away from the take-off and landing area and rescuing ditched planes.
See the excellent video made by Irina from Carmel Studios below: