SidlawSoarer: McTurbulator? Sunday 8 November.

The blog hasn’t been updated because I hadn’t seen much of interest other than competitions which are reported elsewhere. (Slopeglide was an eye-opener and showed how vital pumping is on East Lomond)

Saturday was a washout for me with rain all day and the forecast for Sunday was rain returning mid-morning. I didn’t fancy my chances of getting flying on any of our usual slopes in the predicted south-east wind and the two slopes I had in mind (Lundie Craigs or Dunnichen Hill) mean a bit of a drive and a walk which would have wasted time getting to the slope before the rain arrived.

I have flown from the beach at East Haven (15 min drive from my house) before and it was never great but I took my Weasel Evo out for an airing and flew it for a while in the 25 mph bumpy/patchy lift from the beach/dune edge not far from the car park. Like before it wasn’t too great but flyable. Despite the forecast the weather looked quite settled so I headed out along the coastal path to a section of the beach which the OS map suggested the edge was a bit higher. Only about a mile walk along the good path to the point where the main path carries on parallel to the railway and a roughish path splits away to the right to follow the dune edge and I got to a section which is about 20 feet above the sand.

Weasel Evo over the beach

There was more lift there but my Evo was still finding the lift patchy and variable. I flew around for a while and had a couple of landings which were a bit hairy. Nasty rotor back from the edge. I had several flights and was thinking it was a bit disappointing so started messing around swooping and diving along the edge when I had a revelation. My Weasel Evo is too light to pump very well but something was going on. If I tried following the same kind of flight-path I have seen on some of the Rugen videos it all smoothed out. My conclusions are:-

The lift band is narrow. Too far out and the model heads for the beach and retrieving from the beach is no fun. How do I know?
Too far back over the edge of the path there is only compression and no lift and you are “landing”! Ooops!
Stay in the sweet spot along the edge and swoop up at each end into a tight EM style turn and back along the edge and it works well!

Weasel Evo about as far out as the good lift extends. Closer in is better but taking a picture without burying my poor Evo on the edge would be challenge

Weasel having a rest

I so wished I had taken my Odyssey or Reaper foamies. An F3F model would be brilliant but landing would the problem. Behind the path the land drops gently to a fenced field (with stiles though) but the rotor seems bad there but may be okay farther back. Beyond the field (75 metres?) is the path and the railway line and beyond that the water treatment works/golf course. I intend taking my old Spark F3F next time there is a good South Easterly and I’m sure if there is enough wind you could kite the model down onto the path with careful use of the brakes and lift/compression on the path edge. Catch it? Or maybe land on the sand on the beach?

There is a better looking slope a little farther along which would suit an East-South-East wind and a wider beach area for landing but was too crossed for me to try on Sunday.