Nomadic slope soarers

[Jon Hill]

In 2002 I returned to slope soaring after a gap of some twenty five years. My local slope is Colley Hill overlooking Reigate Surrey, flyable in a SW - SE, excellent lift and challenging landing! I left off flying a Middle Phase in the late eighties and have returned with a PMP Ban She - highly recommended. In northerlies I'll fly at Devils Dyke behind Brighton or Ditchling Beacon, all suitable for 'ordinary peoples models up to 2M span (of course the South Downs sites are fine for large models too), I'm waiting for the weather to improve to fly again my recently built Phase Five ... yes I do like to build traditional models, which is why I'm disappointed in 'ON THE EDGE'.Andy Ellison seems to focus purely on expensive mouldies, write disparigingly of any one who gets in his way whilst he wrings the last knot from his £1000 ship at which ever flyin he turned up to. Secondly, I have never seen an article about all the soaring activity that occurs all round the North and South Downs, we do not all have the luxury of north Welsh mountains. So I'll make two requests. First, can we have proportional representaion of this arm of our hobby with worthy articles on models most of us can afford and fly. Secondly, when is this columnist going to get out and about and speak to other soarers AT OTHER SITES around the UK. This last point raises the issue of a colated detailed list of UK wide soaring sites, this forum surely should take the lead on this ...

[Trevor Parsons]

Hi John
I read the article "On the edge" and I have to say that I Like the article and other that Andy does, I find there is a lot of useful information there from a guy that obviosly loves the hobby and has a wealth of experiance to offer.Thers a saying that you can please most people most of the time but not all people all of the time!.
Just defending the article John!
Anyway
I found some good soaring on the south Jurasic Coast, mainly Golden Cap, Eype Beacon and Charmouth where I go on holiday each year. If you near that erea give it a go
Kind regards trevor

[Slopetrashuk]

Hi Jon. In the first part the answer to your question is really very simple. RCM&E has two slope soaring columnist. Chas Gardiner and myself. We both have very different interests as far as gliding goes. My column 'On The Edge' is titled to reflect that bit of the stamp where the envelope goes. If it is high performance, new or prototypical, rare or extreme - I will endeavour to feature it. I make no bones about representing a particular area of the hobby. Chas covers everything else.
Your second point made me smile. I must have travelled over 10,000 miles last year visiting slope sites around the country flying in competitions and other events from Eastbourne, Ivinghoe, The Malverns. Salisbury plain, Cornwall, The Gower Penninsula, Southampton, The South Cotswolds, The East Midlands, The Long Mynd,
North Wales, Angelsey, Snowdonia, The west Pennines, The East Pennines, The North East coast, The North Yorkshire Moors, Cumbria and the Lake District, Derbyshire, the Cheshire plain and St Bees! This of course is not to mention the road trips I do every year which I also write about!
When I find something interesting enough to make the column that fits in the remit it goes in - I'm not going to write page after page about PMP foamies, easy gliders or Ripmax stargazers 'cos it's not what I do.

"Writing disparigingly about anyone who gets in my way" is perhaps a little strong Jon. It is true that I despair in people who have a high disregard for the fact that there are many aspects to aeromodelling. I like to fly fast, high performance gliders and then the day after potter around with my little Alula. The gentleman referred to in the March issue was one of those blinkered individuals and his actions almost got him severly hurt. Do you think I was the only person to have a run in with him that weekend?
If you want traditional builds and old skool stuff - ask Chas. I write about carbon fibre, dynamic soaring and big winds. The old skool and traditional builds come across inthe kit reviews I do. I don't have my March issue yet. Is the Middle Phase not in there?

The list of slopes is a long debated issue and is generally thought to not be a good idea if you wish to protect your site. Many are subject to specific local rules and a casual visitor may unwittingly cost local operatives their site by seemingly innocuous actions.

Respectfully
Andy Ellison.