A fleet of Avro Ansons flew over Carew Airfield recently as the fifth annual Pembrokeshire Sky Festival got underway. The weather was not ideal for the event - plenty of wind, but lashings of rain too and it was this inclement weather that prompted the flypast.

Onlookers taking a second glance at the vintage craft soon realised that the aeroplanes were in fact model aircraft. They had been on display in one of the tents which had fallen victim to the strong wind and ended up flipping through the air, causing the 'planes to 'take off'.

The model aircraft have been specially commissioned by the Carew Control Tower group which has spent many hundreds of hours restoring this unusual example of local heritage over the past five years.

The models are authentic miniatures of original craft which are on sale to help raise funds for the Control Tower project. However, there were many local people present who had witnessed full scale Ansons flying into the airfield on a daily basis during the second World War.

The festival weekend is organised by a Kite Festival committee, working closely with the Carew Control Tower Group and assisted by kite professional, Steve Walton, of Templeton.

After the stormy beginning, the weather improved, the tents were secured and the event was officially opened by Joan Asby, co-ordinator of PLANED. Kite makers and fliers came from as far afield as Cornwall and Yorkshire and many counties in between. Large scale kites included depictions of a lobster, fish, a liquorice man and a giant teddy bear.

Carew Control Tower Group has spent many thousands of hours over the past five years restoring this unusual example of local heritage. Members of the Festival Committee and Control Tower Group, all volunteers and ranging in age from 10 to 77, carried out a variety of roles.

Visitors enjoyed a variety of spectacles and were able to ask advice and receive help with their own kites, as well as purchase a variety of models from the specialist stands.

Many people just brought a favourite kite to fly it in like minded company, while children were thrilled to see kites made in the workshops flying successfully.

So, after a wet and windy beginning and the unscheduled flypast of miniature Ansons, crowds of people flocked into the event on the Sunday and the 2005 Kite Festival was declared a success.

FOOTNOTE: Just over a week later, a real Anson arrived at the airfield - providing a new project for the Carew Control Tower Group. Now the enterprising group of volunteers are about to embark on the restoring the aircraft to its former glory.