A Fairlie Awesome Road Trip

The forecast for a good west wind and with Bishop hill not likely to be available because of lambing the first round of the Scottish F3F Summer league saw us head for the West coast and Kaim Hill near Fairlie. I met up with Peter about 7:30 and we headed off soon after and got there (after a quick stop for coffee and after some iffy navigation) about 10:00. We met up with Mike McC, Craig and Sam and were soon joined by Robert, Dave Watson followed by David Reid and Mike. The forecast said the showery rain would clear so, most of us keen to get going, we headed up to look for the slope. It was a longer walk than we thought but when we got to the slope it looked excellent. Brilliant views of Arran and Bute. Hunterston B below us and Largs up the coast a few miles. The wind seemed about 40mph and pretty smooth. 

 

Arran in the distance. Hunterston B middle left.

I flew first and filled my Pike Precision up with ballast (1.7kg) and flew a 36.02 in round 1 and a 34.82 in round 2. Not too shabby for me although as usual my flying deteriorated as the day progressed and I never flew so fast again although I did manage a 38.58 (R5), a 40.02 (R4) and a 41.66 (R6). My round 3 time was 46.84 after I cut! (pratt!)

Sam's Needle gets away

A happy Sam walks to landing area after a new PB.

Mike carving a neat course with his Stinger. No he didn't cut!

I had to change models when landing the Pike went wrong after round 4 and it ended up with the left wingtip sticking into the soft ground and the whole weight of the model was being taken by the wingtip. Did I mention it was full of ballast? The left aileron seemed dodgy so out came my trusty Extreme. It didn't help when I flew round 6 without reflex switched in. My Precision doesn't seem to need reflex and I forgot the Extreme does. 

Dave hunkered down out of the wind

Dave Watson had a scary time when he had one of the flaps on his Stinger stick fully down as he crowed through for the next round. Dave tried cycling the flaps several times but it stubbornly stuck down! Some careful flying ensued and Dave was able to land the Stinger successfully :-)

Ready to launch. It was a bit windy!

The wind continued to build as the day progressed until it got above the FAI limit and we had to stop. By this time I could hardly stand still on the edge! Dave got a reading of well over 70mph. Yippee!

If you look carefully in front of the island you can almost make out a submarine with escorting flotilla

Walking back. The hill is top right. I wouldn't recommend landing in this spot!

View back towards the cars.

Everyone had a great day and Sam managed to up his PB more than once. Result.

Great site and well worth the trip and walk.