Peter and George’s grand day out at the sea-side.

Yet another Hole of Horcum F3F competition was cancelled on Saturday because of poor weather and it was no better up in this part of the world with rain falling for most of the day. Sunday’s forecast was for a dry day with a good south-south-easterly wind and this is indeed what we got. Kilspindie would have been the usual choice although in a SSE wind it is only really flyable from the iron-age fort on the south corner which doesn’t have much of a ridge. Peter Gunning had been doing some slope searching and thought it would be worth a visit to the sea cliffs at Auchmithie which is a couple of miles east of Arbroath. This is only about 20 minutes from my house and well worth a look.

I met Peter in Auchmithie and we walked out towards the cliffs and along the cliff-top path. Not far and no climb involved. My kind of slope!! We both noticed the lack of wind behind the slope and made a mental note to be wary of rotor on landing.

The wind on the slope edge was pretty well smack on the slope and must have been a good 30mph. The options for landing looked limited with a small area between the path and the cliff edge looking the best option but this was only about 3 metres square. There was a large area behind the cliff path but we doubted how good this would be for landing because there seemed to be hardly any wind blowing the un-harvested wheat left in this part of the field.

I had brought my ex Dave Watson Spark F3F model with me and I put this together to test the air. This was the first time I had flown this model and the first time I have used my recently acquired and refurbished Futaba 9ZAP transmitter. So, a new model, a new transmitter and a new slope. Should be fun! It was!!




Great and very smooth lift out over the sea. I have never flown from a cliff and it was brilliant. My Spark was belting along and fairly shifting in the excellent air. The ailerons need more throw and the elevator a bit touchy but it flies very well. I wish I had had a model like that when I first started F3F racing. The 9 ZAP transmitter was good too and I am more than chuffed with it.

Peter flew his Cyril and it was looking very smooth and very fast in the silky smooth air over the sea. I had a real trouble trying to take pictures of his rapid racer in the poor light. Brilliant fun.



However.
Landings were a different matter. Only the small area next to the cliff edge was suitable because the rotor behind the slope was wild. I must have had about a dozen attempts to get my Spark down. The lift on the slope edge was too much for the brakes on my Spark and even with full brakes it was still going up. The technique that worked for me was to come along the slope edge from the east towards myself with the brakes out and turn into the wind and land in the small clear area. Many overshoots were needed for me to get it right but luckily I made it in the end. Peter was really unlucky and his model got a wee bit too far back from the edge and fell into a dead area of air and smacked into the fence. Some damage to the leading edge of the left wing spoilt a grand day out. In the above picture that area to Peter's left is the landing area.

Peter took some great photographs of today's fun!

Well worth a visit again but maybe best for foamies where the tall vegetation along the cliff-top would be ideal for landing.

East Lomond Saturday 5 February

With today’s F3F race at Hole of Horcum cancelled I met-up with Peter and Mike for a fly on East Lomond. A good 25-30 MPH wind was blowing but crossed from the right a little. The lift was never brilliant but it was pretty good at times.



Mike flew his Volitij and practiced his rolling circles etc. He is getting geared up for the aerobatic competition later this year. Mike also got a chance to try his recently purchased Extreme and it was going well.

Peter had his Cyril flying very smoothly but his attempt at a hand-catch landing failed mainly because he had the wrong shorts on!

My Vikos was going well and I was pleased with the way it was going prior to the scheduled F3F competition next Saturday. I was so pleased with it that when I was putting the wings back in the bag before heading back to the car I stepped on the right hand tailplane. What an ar5e I am!! Fortunately I have a spare identical tailplane.

East Lomond 30 January 2011

Peter Gunning suggested meeting up at East Lomond today and I was so keen for a fly I beat them all to it and got to the slope before the rest arrived.



The wind was blowing about 20-25 MPH but the temperature was minus 2 C in the car park so probably minus 3 or 4 on the slope. It felt much colder!! Windchill was quite significant although not as bad as the last time I was up East Lomond a couple of weeks ago.

I flew my Vikos with all the brass ballast fitted which is about 2/3 of the full load and it was going well although the right aileron servo arm needs moving on it’s spline. I knocked this servo loose last time and it has obviously not gone back in exactly the same position and I have run out of sub-trim throw on the transmitter. An easy fix in the workshop but not on a sub-zero hillside so I put up flying with some trim on the aileron. It was still nice and fast.

Peter flew his Extreme and it was going as well as it ever does. Extremely swift! Peter later flew his Cyril and had a moment when he launched the model with the transmitter still set to his Extreme. Woops! Inverted landing but luckily no real damage done and Peter then had a brief flight with his Cyril but cut it short because the cold was getting to him.

Mike flew his Voltij aerobatic model and it was liking the good wind although Mike wasn’t liking the cold much. I think Mike’s Ascot stayed in the cosy bag!

Craig flew a Rico-she? foamie before giving his Spark F3F model a flight which went well after it (and Craig) recovered from my limp wristed launch. Sorry Craig :o(

After over 2 hours we had had enough and headed back to the cars for a heat!

Gallow Hill 23 January 2011

With only light north-westerly winds forecast but keen to have a fly I set out early and walked up to Gallow Hill near Tealing. I parked near the huge Angus tv transmitter mast and yomped north over the moor which cleared my fuzzy head from the late night the previous evening!

The wind was pretty well bang on the slope and only about 10-12 mph but I gave my Skorpion a good heave from the slope “edge” and my model was soon gaining height. The lift was quite variable and with no defined edge on this hill close-in F3F practice was interesting. The best slope lift was about 50 yds out from the edge. Occasionally the lift died almost completely but always picked up again so no long walk to retrieve was required.




Camera balanced on top of my rucksack.



I managed to fly my Skorpion into some good thermal lift at times and was testing my eyesight to keep it in view. A few near-vertical dives saw my Skorp howling low over the moor and terrorising a couple of buzzards!

Brill!

16 January 2011 Kilspindie

With another F3F winter league event cancelled yesterday and keen to get a break from revising I went up to Kilspindie today. The walk up was a bit soggy after all the rain on Saturday but the wind was pretty well bang-on the south-west slope and blowing a good 45-55 mph! Getting my Skorpion to the launch point was a real challenge but once away it was fair shifting with most of the ballast in. Ian Simpson arrived not long afterwards in time to see me land which was ok if a little scary. Only a dab of brakes needed to dump height and then aim for the ground!

Ian’s Furio was quickly loaded up with ballast and it was soon scorching around the sky too. I put all the ballast in my Skorpion and launched again. Yippee! The lift in this strength of wind was excellent. Big lift!! I have to say that I felt the lift was much better than East Lomond in similar conditions.

In that kind of wind landings are a bit daunting but with a bit of commitment not too bad! Great fun and cobwebs well and truly blow away!!

Monday 3 January 2011.
I joined Peter and Mike up at East Lomond today but the walk up from the car park was a challenge. A lot of icy snow meant walking over the springy heather to avoid the treacherous frozen snow and I found it really hard going. My poor legs! I considered giving up at one point!

A good wind was blowing, unfortunately it was crossed a little too far west, but my Vikos was going quite well although I need to reduce the aileron throw for windy days. I find it a little too fast to accurately roll into an F3F turn. I need to dial it into my refurbished Futaba 9ZAP transmitter which has fully definable flight conditions.

With the air temperature about 2 deg C the wind-chill was significant today. Mike gave up not long after I arrived and headed home to warm up. I only had one half hour flight because I undershot and landed on a large patch of concrete-like snow and broke a servo arm on an aileron. I had some spares in my bag but by that time I was happy to head back to my cosy car! Peter had had enough too!

Friday 31 December 2010
Finally, and after a five week gap and after some encouragement by Ian Simpson, I managed to get out for a fly at Kilspindie for a fly. The road up was still bounded by snow, I got stuck briefly on the way up, and parking was restricted to the hard frozen snow at the side of the road.

The wind was well round to the northwest but still flyable. Ian spotted that there was some lift away to the north which was good fun although a bit too far away fro my eyesight! With light winds and bright sunshine it was quite pleasant and fantastic to be out at last.

I took a few pictures of the snowy landscape.

Some freezing fog can be seen particularly away to the south over the Forth.

I recently managed to buy a Futaba 9ZAP transmitter at a pretty good price and the dismal weather has given the opportunity to do some refurbishment to it.


From the start it was obvious that the eight cell NiCd battery was not holding a charge so I bought a pack of Sanyo Eneloops and fitted them. The battery in the 9ZAP is in a cassette so that it can be unplugged but this requires removal and dismantling to get at the cells. The cells themselves are wired to a circuit board so the old pack needs unsoldering and the new one fits right in.

There was a broken switch which I was going to put up with but Steve Webb Models can get the genuine replacements from Ripmax. These switches are much easier to replace than the ones in a FF8 or 9. Once the back of the case is removed the small section of the case holding a pair of switches can be removed and unplugged. The switches are soldered to a small circuit board and after a bit of unsoldering and resoldering they are easily replaced. One small gripe is that I don't really mind paying £7.99 for a sub-miniature toggle switch but think it a bit mean it doesn't come with a new nut/bezal to secure it in place. No problem using the old one I took off but stingy not to supply a new one!!

Before and after shots.




Done.



All I need now is for the snow to go away and I can try it out for real.