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Winter is here....who's been flying?


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The Windermere Model Waterplane Flyers were dancing on ice yesterday at Kitridding Farm. A wet and foggy morning greeted us but after enjoying the excellent pie and chips lunch at the farm shop it cleared up for a fine afternoon's flying.

 

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Anthony's Arctic Cat taking off from the icy surface.

 

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My Valiant on a low flypast.

 

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Arty shot of the Valiant taken by Mark.

 

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Mark's Ranger in the afternoon sun.

 

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Time to pack up and head home...

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Nice couple of hours at the field this morning - bright and sunny, blue skies, broken cloud but a 6-8mph blustery wind made it Baltic - brrrrrr. Dogfighting the wee Volantex Bf109 and Spitfire was great fun though - they hardly noticed the wind and buzzed about superbly. It's a decent weather window , provided you can wrap up warm enough.

 

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After lunch off to the field with the main aim of a maiden flight and some combat of my new Volantex A6M Zero in response to a challenge issued by clubmate John and his new Corsair. 🙂 These wee models are the best thing since sliced bread and pack a punch regarding their fun:cost ratio. It was a little windier than expected at the field, but that died off during the afternoon. The Zero flew beautifully and bested the Corsair at least twice  😉Just watching these tiny models in a furball, or flying in formation is so much fun - there's a bunch of them in the club and they are marvellous. My Bf109e got it's second victory, when contact was made with Bob;s Bf109, which lost it's prop, whilst mine kept on flying.

Also had some PZ warbird flights, including a rare outing for my Bf109G, which looked and sounded magnificent. It's handlaunch only, just about my lightest PZ warbird. Marvellous . Brilliant company, good banter and some excellent flying to top the week off. It's what the hobby is all about for me.

So still reflecting a warm glow from today's flying, sitting here with a G & T. Ace. 

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After a 3 month layoff from flying with some heavy DIY work, extended family commitments and an eye issue in December I would not have thought about going up the field today for the return to flying, low cloud and light drizzly stuff here in the north east. However, as the club's examiner I had a keen beginner who was ready for his A test. I loaded a model of my own so I could give a demo and set off for the field with trepidation.

I am glad that this test turned up to pull me back up the field, I had forgotten what I was missing, not just the flying, but being with like minded people. I had a number of flights myself, found that I still have the mojo, my eye that had the problem worked perfectly and my fingers remembered the routine. And to finish the afternoon off in style I had an excellent candidate who passed his A test first go.

No apologies for waxing lyrical, but this afternoon was a great day at the field and more so for being unplanned.

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4th February 2023 8C with little wind. Ten of us turned up at the flying field. I wanted to fly the Guidato but had reservations about the centre of gravity so I let discretion be the better part of valour and contented myself with a couple of long flights with the club's trainer. I managed to get my dog to stand still enough for me to take a picture of her and the model! This was at the end of the day's flying. If there are models in the air she's either tied up or locked in the van. She doesn't seem to mind!

Guiidato at field.JPG

4th Feb2023.JPG

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Brilliant fun at the club field this morning - high overcast, just above freezing, but flat calm and perfect flying conditions - we had an impromptu carrier landing competition with the wee Volantex 400mm fun fighters - Spitfire, Zero, Corsair and P-40 all with their wheels on, a 3m strip of carpet and off we went. Take offs were very challenging with the two bladed props, which struck the "carrier deck" during the take off run. No problem with the 3 bladed props though, but landing was a different story - only two successful landings on the "deck", both by the Spitfire, but even those failed to stay on board. It's a lot harder than it looks -and it looks quite hard. Great fun though.

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Had the Maiden flight today after rebuild. It's over  15 years old built from a Brian Taylor plan. It originally flew with an OS 70 fs but it was slightly under powdered, just before lockdown the engine cut on take off, it cartwheeled and didn't seem bad so I fitted it with electric power and the performance was great but the wings folded and the result is the lower photo. I took it from the loft just after Christmas intending to bin it but rebuilt it instead, one of the undercarriage legs turned on landing and pulled the unit out but apart from being a bit twitchy till trimmed out it looked good in the air. Most of the cowl is made of depron and foam board only cost about £25 for the rebuild. 

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Reasonable weather both days this weekend so it was twins Saturday with a Grumpy Tiger Cub and a couple of BH Mossies (trimming and shakedown flight, hence the non scale flying and the elevator control with a lot of hysteresis was proving a challenge for both of us!

 

 

And Sunday was much more relaxed with a good smattering of twins again! 

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Wing straight down the runway ..nice

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Glorious day here today - field was heaving; 4 of us 🙂. Mixed day though.....

 

  • Don't know how, but I have managed to screw up the transmitter setup on my Valiant so the on-board glow never switches on..... 
  • Engine playing up in Ruckus - changed the needle o-ring which helped but low needle seems miles out.....
  • Double Trouble flew nicely
  • Ian's Fokker DVIII maiden didn't go to plan at all - large bucket of epoxy required!  But he managed a few flights with his children on the Junior 60
  • 'New Kev' zoomed around with his Habu and SLEC Funfly
  • 'Old Kev' threw his little Phoenix Spit around and had a few nice flights on his very impressive H9 Mustang.

 

Good day out overall. 

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