Spring is here again - who's been flying?

[GrumpyGnome]

You could have dropped in for a coffee at the field if you were near Bridlington.....

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Not that far away - I’ve taken the highway to Hull…

[Nick Cripps]

It started off bright and clear this morning so it certainly felt like spring even though it was a bit chilly at first. The field was really busy and parking was difficult trying to avoid the soggy areas of the site.

 

I spent the morning flying my Wot 4 ARTF which has been something of an engine testbed having flown with an OS52FS, OS46FX, OS55AX, ASP40 and now a brand new Force 46. I haven't bought a new 2-stroke engine for years (there's plenty of cheap used engines at swap meets) but I thought I'd give this one a try after reading about Toto's trials and tribulations last year. The engine seems to be well-made with a squeaky tight fit initially on the ABC piston/liner set. I had a brief attempt earlier in the week but struggled with a broken throttle trim switch on my trusty (up 'til then) DX9.

 

Today's session went well, running the engine on a Graupner 11x6 prop, Laser 5 fuel and an OS no.8 plug. I had a dead-stick on the first flight but a bit of tweaking of the needles, especially the idle needle, had it running happily throughout all 3 subsequent flights. It could probably go a tad leaner at the bottom end but rain stopped play soon after lunch.

 

Overall a good flying session and I'm happy with the little Force 46 so far.

[Eric Robson]

A good turn out at our field today,  light wind and sunny until the afternoon, then clouds hid the sun and the breeze felt quite cold I spent 5 hours there flying my Warbirds Replicas FW190,  a Spitfire and Corsair. 

[Chris Walby]

The photo does not do the weather justice although we did have a few spots of rain, wind was down the runway/over the gate.

 

The Red Sparrows (Red Arrows edf hawks) team were demonstrating just how big the sky can be when trying to fly in formation 🤣

 

Two maidens of which my OV10 was one, flies as nice as the P38

 

 

[leccyflyer]

Lovely sunny spring morning with very light winds, skylarks having a grand old time and got some good flights in with Sea Fury, Seafire and a couple of Spitfires before the wind started to get up, as forecast, immediately after lunch, so it was time to pack up and head homewards calling in for some flying on the slope. A group of three paragliders mostly kept out of the way and the lift was excellent. My Easyglider was climbing out with ease and reaching great heights, but the highlight for me was flying a true classic glider the Veron Cobra, which we worked out that I'd had the model donated half a dozen years ago and I hadn't flown it since. Really nice smooth flyer and very happy even in light lift, it was great fun today.

 

Edited March 16 by leccyflyer

[cymaz]

Nope....it’s still raining 

[David Davis]

I flew my Baron yesterday. I still need to make a few adjustments to the throttle pushrod but otherwise it flew fine.

 

I also took up my mate Frans on the buddy box on his electric powered Radio Queen. He's still putting in signals which are too coarse even after two years of instruction. Perhaps he needs a different instructor.

 

I plan to fly my Super Frontier Senior, a SIG Kadet Senior ARTF clone this afternoon.

 

I always thought that Spring started on 21st March.

 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Heavy rain here today as well - grass is loving it because it is warm rain... 😒

Edited March 17 by GrumpyGnome

[Ron Gray]

A good day up at the field yesterday, in fact, in the morning it was positively scorchio but turned chilly in the afternoon when the sun went. A good turnout with 12 turning up at various times throughout the day and the bonus was that we managed to get the whole of the airstrip's grass cut for the first time this year, the Fergie starting first time! Highlight of the flights was this maiden flight of the Knife by Craig, blink and you miss it!

 

 

[Engine Doctor]

Well yes its spring ok but spring at out field is still the " loads of water " type spring. Ill be waiting until dries out a bit . Its been so wet in the past that we could have started a boat club at the bottom end of the field !

[Ron Gray]

Fortunately our full size airstrip is very well drained as it’s on a gravel sub base, in fact, despite all the rain we’ve had, the full size guys have still be able to use it throughout the winter.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Lucky escape 'again', the second flight of my Futura Bell 222 was a bit funny and difficult hovering over the landing square,

2 teeth had broken off of one of the servo gears on the head.

[Peter Jenkins]

Oooh.  Very lucky!  These usually lead to disaster!

[leccyflyer]

Drizzle, low cloud, parking area at the field underwater, but managed to squeeze in half-a-dozen enjoyable flights with the SEMFF Zero and Volantex 109, including a spectacular mid-air from which both 109 and Spitfire emerged undamaged to fly again.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

13 hours ago, Peter Jenkins said:

Oooh.  Very lucky!  These usually lead to disaster!

And when it does, while you are picking up the pieces your ears buzz with the whispering of 'pilot error',,,🤢

[GrumpyGnome]

Yesterday was our final indoor session of the season, so I got some flying in on the Crack Yak, Blade 150, and XK110.  In a relatively crowded airspace, radios close together, in a metal framed building, with many metal rafters, lights etc.. (see below for relevance).

 

I'll miss the guaranteed flying time. If anyone hasn't tried it, thinking it may just be flying around in circles, and boring, I suggest they give it a go! My rudder and throttle control has improved greatly.

 

The day before, I went and did some experimenting, following the demise of my Wot4. I changed my Tx to read out received signal strength and quality every few seconds, and flew circuits around myself, getting wider and wider to see if it came close to weak or critical levels. I did this with four different models - edf and prop driven, electric and ic. I flew higher than I usually do, and further out than usual (over open fields). No issues. Although the telemetry values did vary a lot. I also did range checks (in range check mode) with these models, with them on the ground and me circling them in an increasing spiral - no problems. Then I started the ic engine, left it tethered on the ground and walked away, blipping the throttle - no problems.   So my conclusion is that I had an rx issue..... which is now in the bin!  The only caveat is that as I now have no fully airworthy petrol-powered, I couldn't test that; although the issue did not appear to be cdi-caused interference. Hmmm. I do recall some comments about an add-on module like an iRange being 'better' than an internal mpm, so one of those is on its way, together with the replacement W4!

 

After lunch, we finally managed to cut the grass, the field have dried out enough.  Yaaay.

 

[Ron Gray]

Good day at the field today, weather was not too good with some light rain early on but it turned warmish by midday. Anyway today was my tribute to Laser Engines and here is a vid of the Laser 160 inline twin powered ESM Mustang - Long live Laser engines (in my dreams).

 

 

[Tom Gaskin 1]

A glorious day here on the south coast. I counted sixteen cars at the field this afternoon. Kiwi, Mam'selle and Hanky-Panky all others an airing 😃

 

Tom

[aidan mcatamney]

Glorious weather today at the field.  Hope others had a good day too.  

[GrumpyGnome]

Rained all day 😞

[Adrian Smith 1]

I managed get out for a session today. I decided to take out my electrically converted Capiche 50cc. She has only had 9 flights so far and now I have sorted out the trims today was a good day for a test. Light cloud, wind 4-6mph down the strip.

 

 

 

On the first flight when opening to WOT in the air I noticed a short high pitch wine which disappeared at lower throttle settings. I thought may be the timing was too advanced or the thing was about blow up! Landed and after examination on the ground at full throttle I notice a 6-7" loose of seam covering on the starboard leading edge flapping around in the slip stream. Out came sellotape from my tool box and put that right. And viola on the next flights not a peep so all good now. I am sure this has happened on a previous model some time ago. Anyway the session continued without trauma and I must say I am warming to her. She is very precise and always stays in the position you put her in until the next TX input. 👍I think one of our regular contributors, Peter J.  is right in saying she is a bit porky in his experience. I do think she could benefit from a bigger motor (mine is a Dualsky 6000.8 model)  as largely all the weight is in the front with the power packs well forward. Something to think about.......

[aidan mcatamney]

Great looking plane Adrian.   Wishing you many years to enjoy it.    

[Andy Stephenson]

Maidened my Chilli Breeze this afternoon.

With an Irvine 39 on a homemade tuned pipe it literally has unlimited verticals rolling all the way.

[Simon Chaddock]

A word of warning .

Those "drum" motor mounts are an accident waiting to happen. As supplied they have two grub screws retaining the motor spigot but they are on opposite sides. In engineering term this is a no no. If one grub screw goes slack there is a good chance the one on the other side will be released too. The screws really should be at 90 degrees to each other so the tightness of one has no impact on the other..

The best solution is to do them up as tight as you dare so the point of each grub screw actually bites into the aluminium of the spigot so even if one does comes loose the spigot will not immediately slide out.