† Pete Bailey
b.1947 - d. 2010
Pete competing at Eastbourne in 2004
Pete Bailey, a regular competitor for many years in the BMFA F3F league, died March 2010.
I first chatted with Pete at an F3F meeting in 2000, although he had been flying F3F for some time before that, and had been model flying for considerably longer. We talked about flying of course, but also about a house he had just bought in Somerset ready for his planned retirement. The house sounded idyllic, but not without its problems. We discussed at great length the solutions to these problems, and I was duly invited to come and stay with him when the house was completed.
We became good friends, and my wife and I visited Pete and Gill at their Somerset house many times between 2002 and 2006. When attending events at the Hole of Horcum, Pete and Gill would stay with us in York.
By 2006, Pete’s flying was becoming a little variable, I knew he suffered from arthritis in his hands, but we had no idea what was to come. Pete gave up F3F flying that year. A year later he was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live.
I visited him in September 2009, and he looked surprisingly fit. He had just bought himself an electric Helicopter which he was in the process of attempting to fly. Like most helis it was awaiting repair when I called. Unfortunately he never mastered it, and sadly died in March 2010.
Pete was a very intelligent guy. With a PhD in Physics, he would love to book in to B&B’s in Bridgend as Dr Bailey, and became known as the Flying Doctor. He played violin and guitar, liked classical and pop music, ran for Middlesex in his youth, and could debate anything with anyone. But he never came across as anything other than one of the boys.
Jon Edison