Saturday 25 August 2012

Foamie competition. Not!

The possibility of a foamie competition looked doubtful all week but the forecast suddenly improved Friday afternoon and we headed for Craigmead car park today to find a nice dry day and a light north easterly wind. Peter, Mike, Ewan, Ian Stewart and myself were up for some foamie action!

We did some sport flying when we first got to the slope and the light conditions were flyable but the lift steadily dropped until after an hour the lift became too light for foamies to stay up. Peter showed the difference in performance a moulded model has when he flew his lovely Needle. Even the Needle began to struggle after a while but Mike heaved off his Gulp as the wind swung east and off the slope. A walk down the hill to retrieve the Gulp was required!

Approaching rain saw us head for the cars. Summer weather again!

Wednesday 22 August 2012

A comment on my landings


I was off work on Wednesday and nipped up to Kilspindie with my repaired Extreme to try out the adjustments I had made to control throws and differential. It was blowing a hoolie on the south west slope although cocked-off to the west and well crossed. The increased elevator throw I dialled in has made it more responsive although when I was trying some structural testing (vertical dive followed by very tight loops) I found it will flick quite nicely!! Maybe I will take out a little of the increased throw.

At first I thought the model seemed a bit slow and sluggish in the strong wind but when loaded up with ballast it was transformed. Yippee. 
During one of the landings I undershot a little and found a hidden hazard! Fortunately (?), for the model, the hazard was not dried out (or frozen) and was still nice and soft. Oooh, yukkie!! Once pulled out of the pile of poo, the half inch layer of sticky, smelly stuff on the bottom and top of the wing was a challenge to remove with only a paper tissue and many handfuls of grass! The bottom (ha ha!) surface was covered front to back!! Icky!!

Sunday 19 August 2012

F3F Summer league 6

Round six of the Scottish F3F summer league already! It won’t be long before the start of the winter league :( I was hoping for some summer weather first!!

We were missing several of the regular fliers today but still had a field of seven competitors.

As suspected from the forecast the hill was in cloud when we arrived but after a chat in the car park and some banter Peter herded us up the hill to set up the course guessing the weather would improve as forecast. Just as we were about to get going rain could be seen approaching so we hunkered down and got very wet! No Dave Watson Sportbrella to hide behind today. Ewan caused some amusement by hiding under his survival bag.


It was great to see David Reid had made the effort again and flew his very smart Rotmilan. I hadn’t seen Peter’s Stinger before either and it also looked to have a lot of potential. Peter also flew his Needle and with Dave Watson flying one now (although absent today) and David Reid having one on order we have some interesting times ahead. Ian Stewart flew just after me in the running order so I didn’t see him flying much but at the end of the day he pulled a couple of nice fast rounds with his Skorpion. Craig was also flying a Skorpion and his times improved steadily as the day progressed as did Doug. Doug has just acquired a nice Race M . Ewan flew his New Sting convincingly and looked very much at ease with it although I did pick up a hint that he is looking for something more modern. I flew my Vikos fairly poorly for the fist few rounds but pulled it together a little as the day progressed.

Despite the weather getting us all wet earlier the sun came out and we ended up having a grand day out on the hill.


Foamies next week with any luck.

Sunday 12 August 2012

Sunday fun

A break for two weeks in Spain meant I was keen to get out for a fly today. Dave Watson sent a text last night asking if I was up for a session on Kilspindie. Hmmm.. Time to try my repaired Extreme.

I was on the hill before Dave and after much checking of control direction and throws (and control direction again, in all flight modes, several times) the Extreme was ready to go. After one more final check. Followed by a final, final check. Paranoid? Indeed!! Well,, it flew fine. Elevator felt a bit sluggish, the aileron differential needs a tweak and less elevator compensation is needed under crow but, hey, it flew. One click of aileron trim so the repaired wing can't be too far off straight.
Extreme looks ok from this distance. Less so close up!


Dave appeared with his lovely new Needle and soon had it going really well. He seemed to feel at home with it right away and was being quite aggressive for a test flight!

Peter appeared with his new Bluto and it is very fast and agile. I had a fondle and is lovely and very stiff for a foamie. Peter also had a blast with his Needle and it demonstrates how effective these models are.

Here goes nothing!!


Needle maiden


Nice


Peter's Needle


The forecast for a dry day was wrong because rain drove us back to the cars. Summer?

Friday 10 August 2012