It was in November 2018 that worshippers in the 1004 year old village Church of St Pega, overlooking the quintessential village green in the north Cambridgeshire village of Peakirk noticed that sunlight was shining through the roof’s ancient oak beams.

Almost the entire lead roof had been stolen by a gang of thieves who managed to achieve this without a single person in the village being aware.

St Pega contains medieval wall paintings which historians from around the globe visit to wonder at and photograph. Plastic sheeting was quickly strapped in place to attempt to keep the elements out while quotations were sought to replace the roof.

Initial quotations of circa £72,000 were received  for a terne coated
steel roof but, as fund raising commenced and time went by, further stonework was required and the cost escalated to over £120,000.

It was during the first Covid lockdown in March 2020 that I Brian Lever conceived the idea of attempting to raise desperately required roof funds by attempting to fly 1004 laps ( one lap for each year the Church had stood) with an electric powered control line model in my garden.

Using the ACE design of Den Saxcoburg ( Dens Model Supplies) and his suggested motor, battery, ESC and Timer combination I managed to achieve the 1004 laps in  29 flights made over two days in my garden in June 2020. Using a Just Giving page generous donations for the electric control line garden flying raised almost £3000 towards the new roof for which the Church is eternally thankful.

In yet another countrywide lockdown in January 2021 I was informed by the Church Treasurer of the precarious state of the St Pega finances created by the final roof bill of £120,000. All the  reserves for normal daily operation were exhausted and with the Church forced to close because of Covid regulations no services could be held to generate weekly income.

It was at this very time that Paul Tallett from Progression Marketing ran his BMFA Zoom meeting encouraging clubs and their members to become more involved with their respective local communities in an effort to increase membership numbers.

Thus the germ of an idea was created to support the local community (Peakirk has just 175 homes) struggling to keep their ancient 1005 year old Church afloat, with an electric control line 24 hours of flight record attempt on the Village Green.

Contact was made with the Church committee, Parish Council and Simon Vaitkevicius, the BMFA Records Officer.

The Church committee quickly responded with grateful thanks for the possibility of a special charity fund raising idea  and the Parish Council
generously confirmed they would make the Village Green available on the 21/22 June 2021 for the record attempt.

Simon Vaitkevicius was most helpful and went away to research if the attempt would indeed represent a British Record. Simon messaged a few days later to confirm if we decided to go ahead he would make all the necessary arrangements for the attempt on the Record.

Now it was necessary to contact PMFC control line pilots and at the time of writing 8 members have generously stepped forward to  attempt the difficult flying challenge.

A telephone call to Den Saxcoburg found him immediately helpful and excited to be supporting the record with his models and electric power systems.

At this point we plan to build 7 models with associated brushless motors, batteries, ESC’s and timers to attempt the record. The ACE design (used in the garden record in 2020) is of all sheet, 24” span, and “grooves” perfectly. Just what is required for a duration record and in particular during night flying,  We plan to fly on 30’ lines with an average flight time of 5 minutes and two circles operating in tandem. Allowing for battery changing, and no doubt some technical issues to solve during the attempt, we plan to achieve the 24 hours of flight in not more than 30 hours.

The plan is to commence flying at 10.00 on Monday, 21^st June and to conclude not later than 16.00 (or earlier) on Tuesday, 22^nd June 2021.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Brain Lever and my wonderful team .