Saturday 27 October 2012

West Lomond Sat 27 Oct

A northwest wind meant either Gallow Hill near home or the long walk to West Lomond. The last time I flew my Extreme on Gallow Hill I wrecked it quite severely so I made the walk to West Lomond!! It is a much better slope in any case and I enjoyed the walk :-) An hour of mostly easy walking saw me at the slope and a 20-30mph wind was blowing straight on the face. YIPPEE!!!


 Cold today!


 Waymarker (WS 1818 is engraved on the top. One of two boundary markers from when the land in the Lomonds was taken away from the Commoners (under an Act of Parliament in 1815) and divided up amongst local landowners. The Kings Commissioner who oversaw this process was Sir William Rae (hence WR))




You would think 10 seconds would be enough time to pick up model and strike a pose!

Thursday 25 October 2012

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.

Monday 22 October 2012

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.  

Saturday 13 October 2012

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!

Saturday 6 October 2012


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!

Wednesday 3 October 2012

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 :-)