Sunday 16 June 2013

Carrot Hill on Sunday morning

I was up at 6:30 and with my wife still fast asleep I nipped up to my local "hill" Carrot Hill. Only a very gentle slope but great fun with my Longshot DLG in light winds.

There was a very light breeze at times and the direction was constantly variable but my Longshot got many launches over the course of a couple of hours. The occasional thermal and some light slope lift all added to the fun. After about half an hour I noticed the clip-on canopy had escaped and was lost. I spent a while wandering round the deep gorse and heather looking for it but it was hopeless. Being an observant chap I had no idea how long it had been missing! I carried on flying without the canopy and during a tea break began planning how I would make a replacement canopy. Hmm... A few flights later when I retrieved the model after a fluffed hand-catch I found the canopy by pure chance! Yippee!

Longshot with Strathmore in the background. Note missing canopy.

 Distant view of Lomond Hills

After an hour and a half in the warm sunshine (what a fantastic contrast to the winter-like weather on East Lomond yesterday) I noticed a light easterly sea breeze had got up so I crossed to the east facing shallow slope and flung the Longshot into the sky and straight into the sun! Dazzled! Luckily I managed to catch sight of it and flew in the light slope lift coming from the fence line and from a stand of trees. A few thermals soon had the model comfortably high. I was joined by a yappy dog which seemed determined to scare my Longshot away but the model kept sailing along serenely in the warm breeze. Yappy dog then thought it would be fun to run around me yapping away; I'm sure my muttering only encouraged it to keep going. The dogs owner appeared just before it got in range of my size 9 walking boots! I'm sure it was after the biscuit in my bag; I must stop buying Shapes!! 

Convenient transmitter stand.

A great morning in glorious weather. Well happy

Saturday 15 June 2013

SL 2 East Lomond 15 June. An F3F competition at last.


We turned up at the car park at Bishop but after a quick discussion about the wind direction we headed for East Lomond.
Problems with the timer meant we had to use flags and callers which was an interesing change.

I was well pleased with my Ascot which went particularly well in the first couple of rounds and I just need to learn to fly a 100m course and not one considerably longer! I have never flown the model with full ballast before (1535grams) but it went as well as ever. Such a nice smooth model to fly. I won round one and was second in rounds 2 and 7 and was more than happy with my fourth place and was not many points behind third place man Dave Watson :) 

Mike, you tart!


A queue of pilots as they wait their turn to fly.


Ian heads over to land his Skorpion.


Mike's Fosa crows through.


Dave getting ready to fly as David's Race M comes in to land.


Ewan gives the Fosa a launch

Thursday 13 June 2013

Ascot refurbishment

Having flown my Short Ascot several times since repairing it I finally got round to changing the look of it with the application of a little blue paint.

Quite pleased with the end result.
After and before.

Monday 10 June 2013

Friday evening and Sunday morning on Kilspindie

Friday afternoon
The sunny weather and east winds that had been blowing all week encouraged me to take my Ascot to work with me on Friday and head up to Kilspindie after an early finish. Well, it was Friday!
When I got to the car park there were already several cars there and Hugh Barker was just heading up the hill with his Graphite so I had someone to chat to on the way up the hill! Apart from chatting we were able to admire the large scale glider flying on the slope; modelled on a full-size based at Scotlandwell apparently. Ian and Ali were on the hill with their Skorpion and Strega although they both had to head away not long after I arrived. Was it me? Hugh had trouble with his Graphite and had a bit of an arrival but it didn’t look too bad.
Although there was a reasonable 15mph-ish wind blowing there wasn’t a lot of lift about but when a thermal came through my Ascot got a move on!
An hour or so of sloping is a great way to end the week!
Friday evening
Not long after I arrived Ian and Ali flew models back to the car park cross country. Was it something I said?

Scale sloping 


Sunday Morning

I was back up the slope first thing on Sunday morning for some light wind flying. I flew my Longshot several times and my Ascot went well in the light winds, especially considering I left the 400g wing ballast in although there was precious little thermal activity in the overcast conditions. The wind blew a steady 12mph but from the East-South-East so it was well cocked off the hill. By the time lunchtime arrived the wind had virtually gone. A barely detectable 2mph which was ok for the Longshot but my Ascot stayed on the ground. Chicken!!
Sunday morning

Sunday 2 June 2013

Saturday fun on East Lomond

Keen to get out for a fly I headed for East Lomond looking forward to light winds from the south west. The wind strength was more than forecast but the direction was more westerly than ideal. Lots of thermally stuff although some big sink at times!

I flew my Extreme first and annoyed the paraglider pilot who had turned up by how well it went. (The wind picked up a little more and he headed off home defeated by the wind strength) I am well pleased with my Extreme after the recent big repair and also with the changeover to 2.4gHz. Do I feel more connected to the model with the new radio compared to my trusty 35mHz? Well, to be honest, I just might!! Will I be able to fly faster? Absolutely, ha ha!!


Peter pitched up not long after I arrived and flew his well sorted Freestyler and it was very fast in the variable air. Nice model. The air was quite thermally at times and that Freestyler can go!!

I put my Ascot together and gave it a go with wing ballast in. Nice. Even better when I put half the fuselage ballast in too. One thing I am aware of is how out of practice I am at flying F3F and I really hope we get a competition in on the 15th. I predict late turns and lots of cuts from me! I blundered into some great air at one point and my Ascot was fair shifting but I couldn't fly it accurately at all!

After a hour or so and despite it being the first day of summer Peter and I were frozen! Peter was brave wearing shorts! Time to head for the cars! Not many photos today because I was shivering too much by the time I got the camera out and couldn't hold the camera still!! Summer? Huh!