Getting in a flap on East Lomond. Saturday 22 Feb

Forecast for Saturday was 25 mph wind from the south west and bright sunshine. Of course when I pitched up at East Lomond at 9.45 it was raining. After a cup of tea in the car it looked brighter outside and being an optimist I headed up the hill with my Extreme.

It was blowing about 35mph straight on the slope although the wind strength picked up to about 45 mph at times. Full ballast then! Yippee!

Extreme having a rest :-)

The air was quite thermally and the Extreme was going really well. There seemed to be a fairly regular cycle of normal air followed by some really bumpy stuff swinging off the slope which usually preceded some big thermal air and that was immediately followed by awful stuff!! Good fun though!

No action shots today. Model needed all my attention in the big wind.

I would have stayed longer but on landing when I should have flown through (again) I put the model down on some rough ground and a tussock of grass belted the left flap (which was up) and knocked the servo loose. An easy fix, but not on the hillside.

Flying again at last!

The last time I flew was the F3F competition at Bishop on 11^th of January so, more than keen to get out for a fly, I drove to Kilspindie on Saturday lunchtime. When I got there I discovered that the wind was way too far round to the north (despite westerly being forecast) and with the snow on Friday night there was nowhere to park my car in any case! I could have naughtily squeezed my car into the passing place if the direction had been right but I went home again most disappointed. The access road to Kilspindie was a real mess with snow and mud (yuk) so I had to take my poor car to the car wash on the way back.

I didn’t fancy the big climb up Bishop on Sunday and bearing in mind the difficulty of parking at Kilspindie I nipped up to my local hill (Carrot Hill) with my Weasel Evo under my arm.  The slope on Dodd Hill to the south west of Carrot Hill might work in a westerly but I would have been happy just to get a walk in the lovely sunny weather.

There was a touch of south to the forecast westerly (about 15mph) and I flew my Weasel Evo from my usual spot on the west side of the quarry. It was excellent. 

Weasel Evo zips along the slope. Nice day eh? 

I usually get a bit bored with the Evo quite quickly but my first flight was nearly an hour. The novelty and fun of flying a slope soarer captivated me all over again!! I ended up staying there for the best part of three hours. 

TV and radio masts on Craigowl Hill in the background.

I was joined at one point by a Sea Eagle which was interesting. The large raptor seemed total unimpressed by my piece of molded foam! 

Formation flying

Nice springy (if somewhat jaggy) gorse bush is an ideal target to aim for when landing on a rocky quarry

A happy George headed home for a late lunch.