Extreme fuselage fit-out

My repaired Extreme is now flying well and the wings look fine but I made no attempt to do a cosmetic repair on the fuselage because had a spare. The spare came from Martin Newnham some time ago and was bought because it is 2.4 gHz friendly and I am keen to join the 21st century!

Two new Hitec 85MG servos installed in the fuselage. Cheap but cheerful!!

The ballast retention system in this fuselage is different from my existing one. I am used to a bespoke screw-in clamp but the new one is different. A study of Pierre Rondel's website revealed that a simple foam disc does the trick. A couple of discs cut from a mouse mat  and a short length of cord all superglued together did the trick! Works well and quick and simple to use! 

New Multiplex six pin plugs wired up and glued into the fuselage so that it will be plug-and-play on the hillside. The wiring was triple checked before switching on. I have heard tales of "magic smoke" if the wiring is wrong!

Tailplane next and then balance before the final changeover.

F3F competition East Lomond 20 October

The weather looked like it was going to spoil the last F3F competition of the 2012 summer season when, despite the favourable forecast, low cloud and rain greeted us in the car park. After getting damp and cold we retreated to the Pillars of Hercules for coffee and cakes and a chinwag. This gave time for Ian Stewart to go home for his cold weather gear; it wasn’t a day for shirt sleeve flying!!

Some time later and once the weather had cleared we returned to the car park and headed up the hill to get started.

I had brought my repaired Extreme along to try it out in competition for the first time and I was well please with way it went. I deliberately flew it heavy and tried to fly an open turn style to keep the speed constant and by the time I had to leave my times had begun to improve. I was concentrating so hard on flying smoothly I kept reaching base B early and wasted a lot of time getting the model heading back the other way. Anticipation required!! A prior commitment meant I had to head off after round six but I was more than happy with the way my Extreme flew because for a while it was looking like it would be heading for the bin! I just need to fit out the new Extreme fuselage I have and it will be done.  

Early morning flying on East Lomond

My only chance of a flight today was to get out early to make sure I was home before 12 so I was ready to launch from the slope just after 9 o'clock although low cloud blowing throuugh was not encouraging. However, a steady 15mph wind gave me the chance to perfect my EM turns. I watched at lot of the video from the World Championships this week and thought "how hard can that be?". Ha ha!! Gave my Weasel a good thrashing too. Bishop Hill remained in cloud all the time I was flying and it looked like the threat of rain was not far off.

The wind was crossed from the right a bit but my Extreme went well with plenty of ballast and I seem to have resolved the issue I had with lack of throw on the flaps:-) At about 10:30 I could see the cloud on Bishop getting lower and the threat of rain was realised just after 11 and I headed home well happy:-) Bit cold though. Winter not far off now!

We had to make to long walk to the north west slope at West Lomond today for the foamie competition and it turned out a great day. Especially as I tied with Martin Gibbs for first place. I am sure that if the other regular foamie pilots had been there the final result would have been much different!

At the end of the competition the wind rose and the lift improved significantly. The lift on this slope is usually pretty good even when the wind is light and when it rises……. Epic!! I took the opportunity to give my Extreme a test after I had made some recent adjustments to brake and elevator throw and to the aileron differential. The model went really well and looked fast but hooning about on the edge does not compare to an F3F competition! Landing was much easier with the increased flap movement.

I walked back to the car with Ian and we were treated to the sight of three high performance gliders belting along the north facing slopes.

 At one point they were away over towards East Lomond before they all headed back for West Lomond. They then flew back and forth along the edge several times with steep turns at the end of the ridge. Very impressive!

Extreme repair

I have finally put together some words and pictures to show how I repaired my smashed Extreme. The jig I made is the only part with any merit but I am keen to have some feedback :-)

Brilliant day on East Lomond

The forecast for the F3F competition on Saturday was for light winds and sunny and this was indeed the case. Peter wisely called for a late start and most people gathered at the Pillars of Hercules for coffee and cakes before heading up to the car park about 11:30. I arrived early and went straight up the the car park to check out the weather and fly my Alula from the wee slope to the south of the car park. I decided to skip coffee and cakes and messed around for an hour til the rest of the guys arrived. I only realised when I got home that the text I sent Peter telling him I was at the car park and the winds were light on hill failed to go. Mobiles!!

We finally got up the hill just before lunchtime and found the wind light and well round to the south but quite flyable. I am sure this hill works best when the wind is in that direction and it improves as the wind strengthens (unlike the south west face!). Great visibilty today too with the Bass Rock, Berwick Law, Salisbury Crags, Arthur's Seat and Hillend ski slope all quite visble.

There were only seven of us today (Peter, Ewan, Dave, Mike, Robert, Ian Simpson and me) and we flew eight rounds interspersed by breaks to allow a couple of paracenders to jump off the hill although they ended up at the bottom and had to trudge back up J. Several of the regulars were missing but maybe we will get a better turn-out next month for the last of the summer league. Summer? Whazzat?

I had a really good day out and even managed to win a round after blundering into a nice thermal :-)

I took some pictures with my cheap (very cheap) wee camera and they can be seen here:-

https://plus.google.com/photos/108721840020869689437/albums/5791633364891572561?authkey=CNWXq-DJk9PqRA

Dave Watson took some excellent photographs and they can be seen here:-

https://picasaweb.google.com/116206729999424042008/F3FEastLomondSept2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCPTN7JPQsoay4wE

Scottish Slope Nationals weekend

60” EPP Foamies on Saturday and F3F on Sunday.

Saturday

A group of us keen foamie fliers turned up at East Lomond on Saturday morning to discover low cloud and rain. We hung about for a while before decamping to the Pillars of Hercules for some coffee and cakes and to hide from the weather. After an hour of chat and banter we went back up to the East Lomond car park and found there had been no improvement in the weather  so we headed to  Kilspindie for a sport fly; assuming the lower hill would be clear of cloud which it was. Not fancying another 30 minutes driving in the “wrong” direction Colin Murray headed south of the Forth to sport fly locally on his home slopes.

When we got to the south-west slope of Pole Hill we were able to set up a 60” EPP course and we flew 15 rounds of two up flying which meant everyone flew against everyone else. During test flying Ewan and I has a mid-air which neatly unplugged the battery from the receiver in my Reaper which subsequently hit the ground hard and meant I had to revert to my modified Fastbak for the competition. Mike gave his lovely new Stinger a test flight too and planned to fly it on Sunday at the F3F competition.

After the race much time was spent throwing sticks at David’s Skua which had ended well up a tree where it was firmly lodged.

He and Peter returned on Sunday evening to finally dislodge the poor model which was not too badly affected by spending a day up a tree!

Sunday

The F3F event on Sunday looked less promising when the farmer decided we could not access the private road to let us park in our usual place at the back of Bishop Hill. Somewhat nonplussed we discussed other options and decided we would climb up from Kinnesswood and still fly on Bishop Hill. A very steep 1000ft climb but all 14 of us made it!! I was well impressed by my climb up the hill because I really feel the benefit of losing 3 and a half stones!

A rest on the way up

The weather at the top looked a bit grim for a while when we first arrived and I wandered about on my own for five minutes looking for the path to the slope when I met up with Tom Foreman who was also “temporarily unsure of his position”! After a minor detour we found the path and joined Paul Upton and Ewan Maxwell at the slope and waited for the rest to arrive. When Peter arrived we quickly setup the course anticipating the weather would improve which it did.

I had a great day and felt I flew smoothly but just not accurate enough. I flew my Vikos which went well in the early rounds but as the wind rose I felt the fully ballasted model was a bit light. My times continued to improve though so how much better my Extreme would have been I don’t know. Still a brilliant day though.

By the time I had descended the hill at the end of the day my legs were trembling. That path is STEEP!!

A brilliant turn-out and another excellent day on Bishop. Great to see support from Tom and Paul who made the journey up from Lancashire to join us for the day.