Saturday 30 April 2011

Kilspindie Saturday 30 April

Similar great conditions to yesterday saw Peter giving his Alliaj and Kyril a thrashing on the slope first thing. Ian Stewart with his Skorpion was heading up to join him when I arrived with my Vikos, Skorpion and Reaper.

When I got to the slope I discovered that Hugh Barker was also there and he was tearing up the air with his D40. This miniature DS machine can really move although I have to say it gets small really quickly. We were all impressed and speculating whether Sloperacer had any in stock. Turned out I had Zim's number but I didn't phone. Yet!!

Peter headed off at lunchtime followed by Hugh shortly afterwards. Ian and I had a few more flights before Ian had to go and left me the slope to myself. Some fiddling around ensued before I got my Reaper going well. It is ages since it flew and I remember I had been adding lead to the tail to help it turn tighter but this had spoiled the rest of the handling. Lead removed it was smooth and fast once more.

Some of the "Perth" foamie guys arrived and it was good to see Bob, Jeff, Charlie and Ahmed again.

I had a short flight with my Reaper (foamie) before heading home well happy once again :o)

Friday 29 April 2011

Royal Flight Kilspindie 29 April 2011

A free day off and a good easterly wind forecast tempted me to email some of the regulars for a flee. Just as I was leaving the house with a car full of F3F models my wife phoned to ask what the dress was like. “Dress? What dress?”

Mike was already there carving up the sky with his Extreme and Ascot. I met up with Ian Stewart and his new Strega in the car park and we headed up the hill to join in the fun. I flew my Skorpion and it wasn’t hanging about in the 30mph east wind which was pretty well straight onto the slope. Excellent!



I switched to my fully ballasted Vikos and it was going faster than I have ever seen it go with tight grippy turns. It liked the great lift today. Pity we don’t have a competition tomorrow because the forecast is more of the same.



Ian had his Strega going well and it looked well sorted out and was covering the ground very quickly.

Ali appeared with his Strega and had a blast tearing up the sky.



David Loomes and Peter appeared at that point to bring the numbers up to 6. Not bad for a Friday afternoon. Peter flew his new Alliaj which looked fast but Peter thinks it still needs some tweaks. His Kyril was going a s swiftly as ever.



David entertained us by flying his tiny Multiplex Fox. I was convinced it was way too windy for it but it coped very well until catastrophically the fin departed which allowed the tailplane to head for the back of the hill closely followed by the wings! Much amusement and an easy fix. David then flew his Ceres and it wasn’t hanging about in the great air. Kilspindie can be terrific on the right day and today was one of those days!

Excellent. Best day flying for ages. Days like today make the less than perfect days well worth it!

Oh, and the dress was very nice!!!

Monday 25 April 2011

Kilspindie 24 April 2011

After a dismal day yesterday the promise of a dry and sunny day today saw me up early and heading for Kilspindie before 9 o’clock. I didn’t want to be too late back and miss the Easter egg rolling!

The wind was well round to the west but the lift was pretty good; not epic but reliable and so much more pleasant than the rain and low cloud yesterday. (I’m convinced that Kilspindie works better in a west wind than East Lomond does).

I flew my Skorpion for a while and then had a buzz round with my Weasel Evo. The sun came out and it got a little thermally so I had a couple more Skorpion flights and then headed home for lunch; well happy :o)

Saturday 23 April 2011

Saturday 23 April 2010 East Lomond

Low cloud, no wind and plenty of rain. Six months have passed and still no F3F competition! I managed 10 mins with my Alula Evo from the wee slope to the west of the car park before the rain and low cloud drove me back to the car. Visibilty was so bad I got lost walking over the moor back to the car! Dave, Robert, Ron, Peter, Mike and I met-up in the Pillar of Hercules cafe for coffee, cakes and moans!

One good thing is I now have Longshot DLG. Thanks Peter.

Sunday 17 April 2011

Kilspindie Sunday 17 April

Had a couple of hours flying in light lift which was well crossed from the north-west. Windmap talking bollocks again!
I only flew my Weasel today, Skorpy stayed in the bag. Some flights were only about 30 seconds and others I managed to find some more lifty air and lasted 15 mins or so. The wind direction shifted from time to time so I was guessing there was some thermal activity going on. I was thinking about heading home when I launched into some nice air and then stumbled into a good thermal and specked out my Weasel and flew from thermal to thermal at great height. Not bad for some moulded foam! Better fun than painting the exterior paintwork!

There is an F3F competition scheduled for next Saturday which is exactly 6 months since the last one on 23 October 2010. Fingers crossed we get some flyable weather.

Saturday 16 April 2011

Saturday 16 April East Lomond

Being an optimistic person I ignored the Windmap forecast of westerly winds and headed for East Lomond. Last night Windmap had said south-westerly. When I was walking up the track the wind was blowing straight in my face. West. Hey ho!

I flew my Weasel to try out the lift and the wind was well crossed from the right but flyable. I had a couple of flights with my Skorpion but there was only a small band of good lift out in front of the main hill so practice F3F runs were out. I did have a good few flights with my Weasel and spent a lot of time skimming along at low level throwing in loops, rolls, inverted, stall turns etc. Yippee. Eventually the wind swung even further round to the west-north-west and spoiled the fun! Forgot camera so no pictures:o(

Sunday 10 April 2011

Kilspindie 10 April 2011

No F3F competition on Saturday because of lack of wind and awkward wind direction forecast. I had planned to go foamie flying at Auchmithie yesterday but the forecast wind was for south east but was actually nearer north east and not flyable. Went for a walk on the beach at Arbroath instead. Lovely but no flying.

Keen to have a fly I took my Alula and Skorpion out to KIlspindie today for a few hours in very light winds. I was wary of driving all the way to East Lomond to find the same marginal conditions.



My Alula was going well in the gentle slope lift which seemed to be improving as the time passed. I was encouraged by the improved lift to put my Skorpion together and heave it off. I did this just as the wind dropped away almost completely. I then had about 10 minutes of buttock clenching flying as I looked for some lift. My Skorp was pretty well down the hill and I was flying well out to the right and heading for a wee white cloud when I saw it start to bob up and down in some bumpy air. A couple of buzzards confirmed I had found some weak lift and I was able to get high enough to relax a bit. Phew!! Tense but great fun though!



I had a couple of more flights with my Skorp and a belt around with my Alula and headed home. I have to say though that I was a little startled to come across an experienced glider flier with his DLG flying down near the cars. He, like me is still on 35Mhz. No harm done though :o/ Hmm! :o(

When I got home I replaced the degraded keypads on my Futaba 9ZAP transmitter with the new ones I received last week. I had tried to find a source of these in the UK but had no luck. Ripmax ignored me completely! A post on RCGROUPS suggested Radio South RC in the US and a quick exchange of emails with Tony and a Paypal transaction saw the new keypads on their way to me. Good service. I took some pictures which show the process.

Sunday 3 April 2011

Sunday 3 April 2011. East Lomond

Aware that the first F3F event of the 2011 Summer League is next week I headed up to East Lomond for a fly and some practice flying an imaginary course. I wasn’t the only one with the same idea because Ron was in the car park about to head up the hill to join the two Ians who were already on the slope. There were a couple of locals there too with Zagi-type models although I suspect they were hoping to have the slope to themselves.

I had almost reached the gate near the top when I realised I had left my transmitter in the car! Bugger! Ron offered to carry my Vikos the rest of the way while I headed back down to my car. Thanks Ron.

By the time I retrieved my tx and reached to slope I was well and truly “cream crackered” and needed a 5 minute rest before I put my model together!

Ian Stewart had his Ceres going well but headed off sharp so I didn’t see a lot of him flying. Ian Simpson’s Big Bird was looking fast too and showing promise for next week. Ron had his bitsa Viking today and you would never guess that the last time he flew was October 2010.




The wind today was blowing a steady 33-36 MPH gusting to 40+ MPH. Too much wind for East Lomond really because the lift wasn’t spectacular and the air was quite bumpy.




Hope we get a good turnout next week and that the weather is kind to us.