David Ashby

Recovering after a busy weekend at Interglide 2025, nr Ashford, Kent. International competitors and UK F5J pilots battled away for the silverware in very warm conditions. Oh, and we discovered that chickens like ice cream too.

We had our annual summer solstice hill gathering the night before last, delayed until the wind direction came good. We fly until the sun goes down and very enjoyable it was too with a good turnout.

Well done, despite its simple appearance the Radian is a surprisingly capable machine in the right hands.

snap Nick, took me 25 yrs to do them all, it’s a long drive from Kent. 😒

Met up with Tony Nijhuis yesterday to shoot some of his new jet designs. This Javelin (70mm fan if memory serves) stood out in my opinion, looked good with that certain something in the air.

Probably the best day of the week so we had to make the most down here in Kent. Club mate Andy flew his one-tank Sabre. We have asked why he flew it with one tank missing but haven't had a sensible answer yet. Mike flew his newly built Chilli Breeze EP, very nice, and I maidened my new Stork Light F5J (new to me).

Busy weekend at the Bickley Club (north Kent) boot sale and glider day.

Reminds me of my time with the mag', and the special issue with the Nijhuis FW 190 on the cover a few years ago. Just as well we didn't sell many issues in Germany because the whole lot got pulped the moment the German distributor saw them 🙂. Perhaps it should have done but it never even crossed our minds...

Kent Interclub glider comp on Saturday, nice weather, the field was firm and the company good. We welcomed visitor Steve from Aberdeen way too. One of your gang Brian 😉

Yep, Junior 60 of course. Trouble is, at my club, we're all far too young to know. 😉

A fine spring day with calm conditions this morning. Jim flew an old model donated to the club last year. It was obviously i.c. at first then electrified in the late 1990s with a brushed motor with a belt drive reduction (sounded really good). It pottered along beautifully. Only thing is we've been arguing as to what it is, the word Matador keeps cropping up but is this correct?

Perkins service and repair Futaba so give them a call, Geoff in the service dept will advise. They’ve also invested in a new Futaba UK website.

An excellent account Mark 🙂

A strong NE wind meant some coastal soaring yesterday. The Phase 6 flew beautifully.

It’ll have to be compatible with your radio’s protocol John. In this case the add-on SBus Rx is bypassing existing board’s receiving duties.