Monday 14 September 2015

South wind on East Lomond. Sunday 13 Sept 15

A southerly wind direction is a bit awkward for my local hills but the shoulder of East Lomond (just off the path and before the fence) can be good. When I arrived the wind was blowing about 10mph and was working ok. After a while I convinced myself I would be better on top of the hill and relocated myself and my kit up to the top of the hill but well to the east of the usual flying area.


Half an hour later and after much wandering about on the edge of the slope flying my Cyril on imaginary F3F courses I was back down where I first started!




The wind remained light but the Cyril was carrying 500g of brass well and I had fun when thermals blew through. Yippee!

Tuesday 8 September 2015

BARCS F3F league reserve. Hawes 6 September

Easy access to a slope with great potential was a treat.

Long walk to the launch point!
Peter had a fairly fraught start to the day when he spotted an issue with his tx. All his models had a big dollop of down trim which shouldn’t have been there. The consensus seemed to be there was a problem with the potentiometer having moved position. Fortunately I have the same transmitter and Peter was able to take the sd card out of his tx and load his models onto my tranny. Peter was flying first and it was all a bit of a rush so he was not exactly relaxed as he launched for the start of the first round.



Watching Peter flying it looked at first as if he was flying really long but it was in fact the timing gear which didn’t actually beep when the button was pressed for about a third of a second! Three rounds were flown like this and it was a bit of a mess. The trick was to really anticipate the turn and hope for the best. Fortunately after round three some frantic fiddling with the timing gear sorted it out.

Peter gives Mike's Precision the heave-ho
We flew plenty of rounds and it may have been better to discard the first three. That would also have eliminated my zero score in round three when Martin’s massive launch of my Precision saw the tape holding the nose sheath on fail and said sheath headed off down the slope and I was left with no option but to land for nil point!


Ewan awaits his shottie

They are multiplying! 

Another great day in Yorkshire. 

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Scottish Slope Nationals 29-30 August

I had been looking forward the Scottish National Championships for months and the weekend didn’t disappoint despite the small turnout. Unfortunately the small turnout meant that foamie racing was never going to be a feasible option. 

My new McOdyssey did get an airing on Saturday when Peter called for some practice flying before we setup the F3F course for an impromptu race/practice session.  The McOdyssey went well in the 25mph+ winds. Ewan gave his refurbished Gulp an airing and John Treble also brought along a Gulp and some stick time with it both days. John was feeling a bit under the weather and decided to take a back seat for the weekend. Also not flying was Dave Watson who came along for some fresh air although unfortunately Dave wasn’t flying although his “chauffeur” Robert Carson was able give his Fosa some stick time until a technical issue put a stop to Robert flying for the rest of the day.


Ewan and his Gulp
Despite the forecast for a dry day we had to endure a heavy downpour (Sportsbrellas were left in cars or at home where they were of little use)


Enduring the downpour. Dave and Robert are under the plastic sheet in the foreground!
Rain over, lets get flying
The results of the practice F3F were
1 Peter Gunning
2 George Young
3 Mark Redsell
4 Mark Treble
5 Ewan Maxwell
Me runner up? Could I repeat that on Sunday to equal my Nats result last year? In a word. NO!

I did have a good day on Sunday but my flying in the early rounds was shocking. I flew my Precision to start with before switching to my Stinger and then back to my Precision. I got a little distracted when I saw how sloppy the right flap on my Precision has become but after a careful inspection on the hillside I decided it was sound but sloppy! The issue is wear with the RDS pocket in the flap. Ripping out the RDS might be the only option but this is a big job not helped by the servo being built-in under the wing-skin. What was Samba thinking?  Once I settled down back flying my Precision my times dropped but even with two discards my slow times kept me well down the field.




Mark lands his Jazz
Mark and his Toxic

Ewan's Jedi gets a proper launch
Mike's Precision gets away
Ian and his trusty warhorse Tragi.
A great but tiring day after 17 rounds. Trudging around on the long grass on the hillside meant walking with a “heather-lowp” which really made my thigh muscles ache by the end of the day.