Sunday 11 September East Lomond

Keen to try my Vikos and Skorpion before the Welsh Open next week I went up to East Lomond first thing. The forecast was for southerly winds and rain by late morning.

The wind was blowing a fraction west of south which meant flying about as far south on the slope as possible. It was blowing a steady 45 mph but rising to over 50 at times and the lift was very good; about the best I have flown in on this slope. Not stonking but not too far away!! Landings were a bit wild crabbing in along the slope from the north end and letting the model drift back before dropping the brakes and trying to lose enough speed to put it down. Gently!!

The last time I flew my Vikos I broke a tail joiner and the replacement I made was working fine. The one I broke was a 6mm carbon tube with a carbon rod glued inside so I’m hoping my solid 6mm carbon rod replacement will be stronger.

The Vikos will be going to Wales but can’t decide between my speedy Skorp or trusty Race M.

I had about an hour and a half flying before the predicted rain arrived but I had my models back in their bags and was just heading down the slope before the heavy shower hit. Three local lads arrived with Zagis etc but I left them to it and to the rain!

On my own for the weekend and hoped for great flying every day but today started with heavy rain which eventually eased after lunch and looked like it would brighten up so I took my Race M and Alula up so Kilspindie.

Got there to discover low cloud and fine drizzle. It brightened up after a while and I was able to fly from the east slope with my Alula in the very light wind. A lot of low cloud kept blowing through and my Race M stayed hiding in it’s bag.


I had to move to the south corner when the wind swung and I had another half hour with my Alula before the rain returned and drove me back to the car. No Indian summer yet then!

South wind forecast for Sunday with rain by late morning. Hmmm….

Discus dancing

I had planned to go to East Lomond this morning but the forecast 8-12mph winds didn’t materialise so I made the shorter trip to Kilspindie where I met up with Ian Stewart. Another optimist!

It was flat calm with hardly any wind at all so we amused ourselves by flying discus launch models. Like me, Ian had brought his Alula and I had also brought my Longshot.

With Ian’s help we got my Longshot flying much more smoothly than I had it set up; Turned out I had way too much elevator dialled in. We spent a while having turns each with it and were rewarded by the odd thermal which prolonged the flights. The Longshot had an issue with the rear wing mounting bolt needing replaced so we resorted to flying our Alulas. I won't mention the Longshot canopy making a bid for freedom after one of Ian's ballistic launches! We had great fun launching our Alulas simultaneously and seeing who could keep their model in the air longest. No score was kept after the first few flights but I have no doubt Ian came out on top.

On my way home I could see the wind finally picking up from the south west. Typical!

Another one bites the dust!

The Scottish National F3F championships were scheduled for this weekend but the weather beat us once again. Disappointing because we had the potential for a large turnout. Yet another competition lost to the weather with seven cancellations and only three results. No discards then unless we get more events run?

Today was dismal until early afternoon when it did eventually brighten up and the breeze picked up. Been working all day so I'm hoping for a sport fly tomorrow although winds look light.

Pole Hill Sunday 21 August

It was still good weather on Sunday although the wind was forecast more WSW so with my wife on a shopping trip to Glasgow I headed up to Pole Hill with my Race M. The wind was pretty much straight on the slope and blowing a good 20-25 MPH rising to 30 by lunchtime and my Race M was loving it. So was I. It is ages since I flew my Race M and I’m thinking it may well be a better back-up model than my Skorpion.

The good thing about Pole Hill is that as the wind rises the lift just gets better. Not something that normally happens on East Lomond. My plan to be home and working for 1 o’clock didn’t happen because I was having too much fun!! My Weasel got an airing too but the big air encouraged me to fly my Race M.

F3F East Lomond 20 August

After a string of cancelled F3F races nature finally relented and the weather was favourable for a competition in East Lomond. The wind was blowing SSW and after the course was set up and a test flight made we moved the course a bit more to the south. After round two the wind had swung a bit further south which entailed yet another moving of the course. Apart from that the wind blew fairly steadily about 20-25 mph with conditions at their best early afternoon.

Peter Gunning showed everyone a clean pair of heels and took round one with his Cyril. Dave Watson retaliated by taking round two and giving a hint to the final result. Ian Stewart flew his Strega and took round three and Mike McCracken won round four with his Extreme. Ron won round five with his bitsa Viking and David Loomes won round six convincingly with his Kyril. Ian switched to his Skorpion and won round seven and I fluked it and won round eight with my Vikos. Ian Stewart took round nine and Martin Gibbs took the last round with his Viking.

I completely messed up my landing after round ten and watched my poor Vikos get caught by a gust and slowly flip upside down breaking a tailplane joiner when it hit the ground. I wasn’t the only one having problems landing because something weird happed to one of Ron’s and we were all getting ready to run at one point but control was regained a successful landing made although not quite where it was originally intended to be!

Dave Watson had a great round 2 and held the fastest time for several rounds before David Loomes wrested it from him in round 6. Then in round 8 some jammy beggar (me!) got some great air and managed to hold it together to take FTD. Not sure how that happened because it didn’t feel that fast although it was nice and smooth air.
Looking at the results spreadsheet although Ian Stewart took three rounds and everyone else won one round, Dave Watson’s consistent flying saw him win the competition although it was always going to be close between him and Peter Gunning with the lead passing back and forward a few times. The scores were pretty close between Ron, Ian and David and also between Mike and me.
It was good to see some of the regulars again because it is ages since we flew a competition, the last one that ran was in June. This was only the third competition run this year because we have lost six F3F competitions and one aerobatics so far. Great to get some proper flying in at last though.
I hope we get some good weather again in a fortnight for the Scottish National Championships.

Sunday 14 August 2011. Good flying at last.

FINALLY!
After what seems like months (because it is) the weather was fine(ish), the wind was blowing straight on the slope, the Dagenham Dustbin was going and I didn’t need to be elsewhere so I was able to head for East Lomond with my Vikos and some flying.
I was so early I headed up the hill on my own but was soon joined by Dave Watson and Ian Simpson. It was ages since I had seen Dave and I can’t remember the last time I saw Ian!

My first flights of the day ware before Dave and Ian arrived which was just as well because I felt really rusty and it took a good 15 minutes before I got my confidence back and was able to relax a little! The wind was blowing about 15 mph and when the odd thermal passed through my Vikos kicked up its heels and was going well.
Keen as ever Ian had carried his Furio up the hill assembled and was able to launch as soon as he arrived. Ian soon found some thermal lift had his model at great height before sending it hurtling along the front of the slope! Yippee!
Dave’s first job when he arrived was to peg down his Sport-brella which I think is just the cat’s pyjamas! My birthday is in November so a few hints will be dropped!
Dave brought his repaired Vikos along and soon had it zipping along the slope very quickly. Dave’s Vikos always looks so much faster than mine.

An approaching rain shower saw us hiding behind Dave’s Sport-brella which proved an ideal place to hide from the rain. I got a chance to try out the new Fram-Bags on my Vikos and they worked very well and kept the model dry.

Dave had also brought along a really smart Shiva 60” racer which he had dug out of the back of his shed and flew it once the rain cleared and it looked good in the air although a wee bit twitchy. I recently revived my Phase 6 and was a bit disappointed with the way it went compared to any of my moulded models and I’m sure Dave felt the same about his Shiva. Nice, but hard to match the performance of a moulded model.

At times today the lift was pretty good and when the wind picked up later in the day the models were going well although not much height to be gained unless you could find a thermal. There is an F3F competition scheduled for Saturday so fingers crossed we get condition like today or better.
I forgot my camera today so only phone pictures.