East Lomond

Had a really good morning on East Lomond this morning. 20mph wind.

When I first arrived at the slope about 10am the wind was blowing westerly and was quite crossed but my Weasel Evo coped well so my Extreme was loaded with half ballast and it went well too.

You can tell it is mid-summer because the grass is so tall!

Quite thermally at time and some great lift was found close to the edge at times. Yippee! The air was variable though and at one point massive sink came through and despite a reasonable wind on the slope the lift wasn't there. Stuck the Extreme nose down and got out of there as soon as possible.

Showers in the far distance

 

Nice day eh?

After an hour the wind squared up, the sun came out and East Lomond was at its best.

Practice comp Glentane Hill. BMFA round cancelled

The poor number of pilots registered for the scheduled BMFA F3F round lead to the competition being cancelled for Sunday 13^th. Disappointing.  

Kaime Hill in the distance

However, the good forecast for the west coast saw 6 of us gather at Kaime Hill on Sunday morning to discover the forecast west wind was blowing north west. Fortunately, local flier David Reid, was able to take us up to the nearby Glentane Hill which worked very well.

Getting the course set-up

It was a day when three out of six models flown were VV Stingers (Peter Gunning, David Reid and Dave Watson) and they all went very well. Mark Treble flew his Freestyler and Robert Carson his Fosa. Dave also flew his Cyril and Peter his FS4. During the break before we got started Mark also test flew his electric powered Shwing. A little too much elevator throw made it a touch twitchy! Not short of power either when the motor was on!

I flew my Precision with its new tungsten ballast. 1.3 kg all on the cg. Perfect. I can still add over another kg.

Robert concentrating on his Fosa

 

View from base A

View from base B



Cyril and ore terminal in background

Peter using big thermal to pick up energy

This new hill worked  quite nicely and views were tremendous.

Thanks once more to Peter for organising the day and for doing the driving. We even managed a quick visit to T-in-the-Park on the way home!

East Lomond sport fly. Sat 4 July

The forecast for round 4 of the Scottish F3F summer league looked promising all week right up until late Friday afternoon when the forecast showed light north westerly first thing, swinging west as the morning progressed before swinging south west early afternoon. Peter had no choice but to call the competition off but suggested if anyone fancied a fly we should meet up  about 2 on East Lomond.

I arrived early and had a nice chat to a hopeful paraglider pilot and was able to fly my Ascot in the light crossed wind. The wind at this point was about 5mph from the west. When the wind swung, as predicted, round to the south west it freshened a bit and was too strong for the paraglider to fly and he headed off home.

Dave Watson arrived shortly afterwards and flew his repaired Needle and also flew his Cyril. The Cyril was going particularly well.

Dave's Needle off on test flight. It could be yours!

Sam arrived with his pal Sam. Sam had his two Needles and a Race M and Sam had a dlg which coped well in the now fresh wind.

Colour co-ordinated Sam

We were soon joined by Peter with his Freestyler and Vagabond. The Vagabond looks like fun!!

I flew my Precision and was able to load it up with its new tungsten ballast which means I can get 1.3kg all on the cg. Perfect. For big days I have another kg of brass which goes either side cg the cg. Yippee.

Sam had an unfortunate loss of control with his Race M and it looked pretty badly damaged and will take a fair bit of fettling before it can fly again.