East Lomond in the rain

While some of the regulars were down in South Wales for the Winter Leagues Champion of Champions competition I trudged up to East Lomond in the rain on Sunday morning.

The wind was straight on the slope and blowing about 15mph as was the fine rain! Nothing daunted I put my Pike Precision together and, after drying my glasses, chucked the model off into the air. 

The change to the FX30 tx has worked well and I have managed to increase the aileron throw by about 15%. Not that it was ever sluggish in roll but it seems even better than before!

I had to keep landing every so often to wipe the rain from my glasses but by about 12:30 the rain cleared and the sun almost came out. After a few more flights the model (and me) had dried out and I headed home well happy.

Almost all my models are dialed into my new (to me) Futaba FX30 and I can start using the additional features. For example: six flight modes. Normal, Thermal and Speed as usual plus (for my Pike carrying increasing ballast) Speed 1kg, Speed 1.5kg and Speed 2kg. Not that I flew with full ballast on Sunday!

24 hours late at Kilspindie!

Saturday was the last of the Winter F3F league and I couldn’t make it although it turned out that the fickle weather put paid to the competition. Nevertheless I regret missing a day out on the hill even if there was no result. The banter would be good if nothing else! 

Sunday morning saw me heading up to Kilspindie with my Stinger and Weasel Evo. When I left home there was a good breeze blowing in from the sea but although the wind was blowing straight on the east slope the wind was quite light. Peaking at 10mph on the edge. 

Buzzy the annoying/annoyed buzzard was out of his tree the moment I stood on the slope edge but the guys on Saturday must have annoyed him so much he cleared off. Either that or there are no eggs in the nest yet!

After reducing the elevator throw by half my Weasel was flying as well as ever using my new-to-me FX30 transmitter.

The Stinger was next and after a quick range check to make sure all was well with the FX30 in this model it was heaved off just as the lift dropped away. Perfect timing. A touch of squeaky-bottom combined with “Thermal” flap and careful flying got the model back to slope height after a few passes along the slope. I had been quickly working out where the best spot might be to dump it if I couldn’t find lift! The lift picked up again and I was able to get the model up to a comfortable height and switch to normal mode. Phew!

About 12 o’clock the wind picked up to about 15mph and the Stinger was going well. I hooked a big thermal and almost specked the model out before scaring myself silly with a vertical dive levelling out along the slope edge and whipping back round the turn and heading straight towards me! Yippee!! By the time I left early afternoon the wind had dropped back to around 7mph so I think I had the best of the air.

Only the Pike Precision needs dialling in to the new tx and all my F3F models will be changed over.

George (rain magnet) heads for Kilspindie!

I missed the Horcum event yesterday so headed up to Kilspindie with my Extreme and Weasel Evo.

Two more blots on the landscape

I arrived late morning to find two of the local fliers already there. One flying a 5M Alpina which had one of those electric fan things on the front! (Completely unnecessary with the 25mph wind blowing straight on the southwest slope) There was also a “T” tailed Middle Phase in action.

My Weasel was a little bit too lively (un-flyable) in the good wind and will need elevator reducing but my Extreme was going well controlled by my FX30 transmitter. I had to reduce the elevator compensation on crow but everything else was spot on. Only the Pike Precision needs changing over to complete the change from my old FG8.

I ended up with all the ballast in the Extreme and it was stonking along in the good conditions. A few showers passed either side of the hill and I hid behind the trig point when one passed over us. The Alpina owner fled just prior to this.

Rain showers passing to the north

Another good flight was cut short when yet another shower approached and I was forced to hunker down behind the trig point again. 

Starting to get wet

This shower turned into an absolute deluge! Of course, I had left my waterproof trousers in the car and I got soaked. I don’t mean damp, I mean soaked to the skin. I trudged back to the car looking like a drowned rat! The heated seat in my car helped make me feel a bit less soggy on the way home in the now dry and sunny weather.

Still glad I went nonetheless! 

Damp day out on Dodd Hill

Keen to avoid going shopping I tramped along the rather muddy path in fine rain to Dodd Hill. Wind was too far round to the south but looked just about flyable.
Rain eased so repaired Spark was chucked off and it flew fine with a bit of trimming. Lot of up trim needed to will have try some 1/16th ply under the rear of the tailplane next time. The last time the Spark flew was over the quarry on this hill and I smacked the poor thing into the quarry face! Fixed again now though!

New Futaba FX30 working well so more than happy. Plans to fly model a long way upwind to test range were hampered by poor visibility but still had a couple of good flights!

Rain came back on so hid behind a large cairn for a while before giving up and squelching my way back to the car.

West Lomond F3F Winter League Round 4

Only the second winter league event for us (we lost 2 to the weather in December and January) but conditions looked promising for a 20ish mph wind on West Lomond which is what we got after a bit of a wait for the wing to swing to the forecast direction at lunchtime.

Being stir crazy I was first in the air with my Precision to have a sport fly in the still crossed conditions before lunch. My model was going well and I enjoyed my first proper F3F sport fly since November however landing in the usual spot in the crossed conditions was a bit hairy and touchdown was sudden! A number of us had an exciting time flying through the bumpy rotor to make less than elegant landings. Mike had several “arrivals” with his new FS 4.3 and Ewan collected some vegetation with the wingtip of his Jedi! Ouch!  Once the wind swung straight on the hill Peter showed us all that the usual spot was now perfect for landing and anywhere else proved fraught!

View through the gate! Peter's winning Jedi streaks back onto the course

It was close between Mike and Peter all day and if it hadn't been for a delay during the last two rounds (Mikes fault) when conditions were deteriorating Mike could well have taken first place. Mike had to fly after his stoppage and the air was not so good.

Dave's Pitbull

Ewan had his new Jedi tuned in well and it was looking very fast as was Dave with his new Pitbull. Ian’s Ceres was very fast too and the final scores were extremely close. Less than 2 points between Dave and me from a total of 11700!

Mike digging his FS4.3 out of the hill. Again!

West Lomond is a great slope and considering the wind was only blowing about 20-25mph all day you still had to be pulling sub 40s to take the rounds. The lift there is awesome and on a big day….?

I flew ok but with much room for improvement. My feeble launch technique needs some work though. A lot of work. Sorry Ewan!

A good day out on the hill and plenty of the usual banter! Especially as Ewan had managed to keep his new Jedi a secret from Mike until he took it out of the bag on the hill! Much muttering of how Mike was letting Ewan walk home!!

By the time we all got back the cars we were knackered. It is about 2.3 miles to the West Lomond slope and I walk that distance at lunchtime most days in 35 minutes and think nothing of it. Carrying all our kit over the ups and downs of the track makes such a difference. I try to walk regularly to keep fit? Working well? Not!

Dunnichen Hill

The last time I had a decent sport fly was back in November and "things" kept getting in the way. A nice easterly forecast for Saturday looked promising but the day turned out hazy and misty and trips to Kilspindie in similar weather have proved most disappointing with the slope completely shrouded in cloud. It might have been clearer later in the day but I was needed elsewhere!

The forecast for Sunday was for a good south-south easterly but that misty clag was still blowing in from the North Sea and although the south corner of the hill is flyable at Kilspindie it isn’t great.

So, having spotted a potential hill only 20 minutes away I chucked my Weasel Evo in the car and headed over to Dunnichen Hill. (Apparently and long before Mel Gibson, in 685AD Dunnichen Hill was the site of a  decisive Pictish battle against the Northumbrian hordes).

Bonnie walk.

A nice easy walk up through some old woodland and past a couple of small fishing ponds saw me on the edge of a promising looking slope. The lift in a 25mph SSE wind is very good and my Weasel was scooting along really well. Yippeee! I was able to easily climb the model until it was a speck and dive straight down and along the edge for a couple of ballistic runs before it slowed to a more normal speed. Weasel lacks the momentum of a ballasted F3F model. It was brilliant to finally get some decent stick-time even if it was only a foamie.

Weasel Evo over the landing area which is tighter than it looks.

There is a stand of trees down the bottom of the hill which seemed to cause some turbulence but not too bad. However, the line of trees along the back of the slope is more of an issue. There is a smallish area in front of the trees for landing but it is tight! Having got my Weasel a bit close to the trees on several approaches I would be cautious about trying to get an F3F model down there. The three main parts of the Weasel are held together with magnets and the parts will separate if the ground is smote a little too firmly and this aspect was explored more than once!  My old Spark will be getting taken along next time though. I will need to coax it out of its hiding place in the shed after the last expedition we had together! There is a largish flat field behind those trees but the turbulence felt fierce near thre teees and fat calm farther back. I would be wary. If you walk about 200m west there is an area where there are no trees and there is a promising landing area to be tried next time ;)

Hazy out the front

It was great to get a good fly and I was well pleased. Smiled all the way home!

Postscript. One concern I had when I was walking up to the slope is I spotted several feeding stations for game birds (Don’t get me wrong, I do like a game bird). There were notices too, saying “No Fires” “No camping”. I kept an eye open for an irate gamekeeper turning up and chasing me off his land for scaring his pet pheasants. Sure enough, as I was walking back down the hill to where I left the car I heard the approach of what turned out to be a couple of quad-bikes ridden by a suitably attired gamekeeper and his son together with a mud caked spaniel. Here we go I thought! However, the chap could not have been nicer! He was interested to learn that I had success flying there and left with a cheery wave.   

Hole of Horcum Winter League

After the non-event in January I was looking forward to getting a competition in at last and I was at Peter’s house bright and early on Saturday morning. Well, maybe “bright” is pushing it a little but it certainly was early! A minor navigational error saw us take a detour via Livingstone and Ratho (don’t ask but you would think we would know the way by now especially with the satnav on!) we arrived at the Saltergate car-park pretty much on time.  

We headed over to the northwest slope trudging through patches of slushy snow on the way. Walking on the slushy snow proved quite tiring and also demonstrated the inaccurate description of many people’s walking boots as being waterproof!! Mine certainly were not and I had soaking wet feet all day and I don’t mean damp I mean WET! Yuk!! Cold too! Boots with a fabric section above ones toes let the melted snow in!! I was well wrapped up and with the rest of me quite warm my extremities were tolerable. Other people were less fortunate! Brrr… A few of us traveled home with no socks on! 

Moan over!

We got underway in very light conditions and it really was a day for accurate flying. A few of us (excuses) were unlucky and had to fly in some very light lift; I flew one round with too way much ballast which didn't help.

Peter launches Mark's Toxic

Peter got to grips with the light conditions right away as did Ronnie Lamp and when we stopped for lunch about 1 o’clock it was very close between them! After a longish break while the conditions dropped away and then picked up again we got going and Peter managed to hold onto his lead to the end. A convincing win for Peter and his FS3.

Mark and his Toxic

There was much of the usual Northern banter which kept our spirits up. A fair amount of hilarity followed the discovery that Jon’s wind-speed meter was set on “wind chill” and not wind-speed. It did explain why when the wind seemed to pick up the meter said it was dropping!! CD’s need a thick skin!

Disappointingly, I finished well down the field. Excuses? Round one was my first flight in 2 months and I flew the first few rounds like a beginner. I was second last in the flying order which meant I flew in dreadful air at the end of the morning session when conditions were dropping and I had the same issue in the last round. However, I was rubbish!!

I still had a grand day out though finished off with fish and chips from the Magpie in Whitby.