Dodging the weather

With Peter away for the weekend I was left with the F3F gear and the decision whether the competition should go ahead on Saturday. The forecast was poor with heavy rain overnight clearing about lunchtime and strong ssw winds so after some cogitation and a quick call to Dave Watson for a second opinion, I called it off. When I got up on Saturday it looked like I had got it wrong because it was dry and quite bright. This didn’t last though and by 9:30 the rain started. The rain here in Monifieth kept up until after one o’clock. After lunch I nipped up to Dodd Hill with my Reaper EPP foamie. It was dry and blowing about 50mph from the south; not the best direction for this hill.

Bright sunshine

My ballasted Weasel went pretty well although I had a couple of buttock clenching moments in the bumpy air. At one point and without any warning the Reaper flew into a huge hole in the lift and plummeted end over end towards the ploughed field below. Some brilliant piloting, easily mistaken by those less well informed as blind luck, saw the model skim low over the field before finding some smooth air and getting back up to a comfortable height.

Also, I noticed at one point that there was some good slope lift behind me above the quarry and I deliberately tried letting the model drift back only to discover there was plenty of wind but not much lift further back and the model was having real trouble making any headway. There is a big quarry hole there and I suspect some mighty rotor and I was expecting the model to drop into the excavation at any point but some more of that aforementioned brilliant piloting saw the Reaper make it back into the lift eventually. Phew!! 

Gorse bush model catcher!

I used my usual gorse bush as model catcher to good effect and only missed it once. The surface round about the old quarry is very rocky indeed and landing on it is best avoided!

At one point I thought my Reaper was going to join this Hillman Imp in the old quarry. I used to have one.

Good fun.

Sunday morning saw me up at Pole Hill with my Ascot in a steady 20mph. Very smooth. I had intended going to East Lomond but I made the right decision because I couldn’t see East Lomond or Bishop because it looked pretty dismal over in central Fife.

Hard to catch an F3F model with a small camera while trying to maintain some kind of control.

East Lomond should be visible in the distance but it is hiding in the murk