Scale model aircraft - replicas sometimes more than a third the size of the real thing - are a magnificent obsession for some people - but as a rally in Cootamundra demonstrated last weekend, you can't scale the wind and competition has to be halted if the wind gets too strong.
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When the Herald visited the State Model Flying Field last Friday competition was at a standstill, even though for a full-sized aircraft it would have been quite safe to fly.
As Peter Goff, vice president of the NSW Scale Aircraft Society explained, the wind is blowing four times stronger if your aircraft is only a quarter-size replica.
"The wind doesn't scale down," Mr Goff said. "Neither do sound or speed. They are the three hardest challenges we have."
The wind unfortunately claimed a victim on Friday morning - a Queensland competitor's model jet costing several thousand dollars crashed onto a fence, putting him out of the rally.
Scale aircraft are replicas of real aircraft, right down to the tiniest detail - about the only thing a model Spitfire doesn't have are real cannons firing real ammunition.
Last weekend's rally at the State Model Flying Field, 10 kilometres from Cootamundra on the Gundagai Road, had 16 competitors fielding 35 scale models from early World War 1 biplanes to real kerosene-powered jets.
