Spring is here again - who's been flying?

[Colin Carpenter]

Probably the best morning in Somt since last year. Warm at 9 and little wind. Flew my Miss Wind which hasn’t been flown since Oct 10 last year. It flew with no adjustments on rails.  Surprised since been in the shed for 7 months through a wet winter. ✅Trex 500 too ! 🚁🚁Colin

[EarlyBird]

A good turnout at Winterton today which was probably due to the sun and light winds. I think the flying season has started. ☺️🤞

 

Steve

[GrumpyGnome]

Glorious 5 hrs at the field yesterday. But apart from 30 mins when my wife brought the dog, and one flight from another club member, it was just me and the wildlife!

 

Had a few flights on the Ruckus before I managed to knock the undercarriage off again - Grrrrr.

Few flights on the H9 P51 before an aileron servo started playing up.  At least the engine is now running much cleaner.

Put a couple of dozen flights on the Valiant, practicing cross-wind landings.  It really is a great plane.

 

Today looks even better but we're visiting our son in York so fingers crossed for tomorrow.

[Brian Cooper]

Summer is on its way. . . . The rain is getting warmer. 😉

 

[leccyflyer]

Good flying on Friday and Saturday - the latter especially fine, given my two Corsair mishaps on Friday, now all repaired - but no opportunities the rest of this week due to a combination of wet and windy weather, plus other commitments. Looks fine today, but concentrating on getting a good day tomorrow and maybe Saturday.

 

A few piccies from the weekend - my pal Jim's Durafly Vampire which has been performing magnificently since the mishap on her maiden flight due to a duff elevator servo. A rare example of a model that I let go to a good home and that I'm looking to replace.

 

Then Derek's scratch built depron Buccaneer beating up the skies before an in-flight motor failure caused an unscheduled landing out with minor repairable damage to the removable nose.

[PDB]

The North Easterly made it a bit chilly yesterday morning and bumpy but good practice 👍

[Peter Jenkins]

15 gusting 18 at the patch yesterday afternoon but lots of sun!  Approach and landing were a bit exciting as the turbulence was as bad as I've experienced.  Had to overshoot 3 times!  

[Philip Lewis 3]

Same here, straight at your face and slighly off to the left hand side, very good practice though!

 

Only had one go around though on an aproach for which "unstabilised" would have been the understatement of the year, bouncing around all overthe place like a flat out rally car would be a better desription!

[aidan mcatamney]

6 hours ago, PDB said:

The North Easterly made it a bit chilly yesterday morning and bumpy but good practice 👍

Ah lovely shot of the great Boomerang arriving on the runway.  Looks like the perfect touchdown.    I love the Boomerang.  

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Odd - I put it down to the effect of our local trees on Saturday but although the wind didn't seem exceptionally strong, the turbulence, as others have mentioned, was remarkable.

[David Davis 2]

Very calm yesterday. I flew both of my Barons. The RNAS Baron with its reduced dihedral proved to be not as intimidating to fly as I had thought and in some respects better than the Ukrainian Baron I can only take one to La Coupe so I have a decision to make.

 

Tiko does not seem impressed.

 

[aidan mcatamney]

Nice photograph of The Baron in flight David.  Very scale looking.  

[David Davis 2]

That was taken during La Coupe Des Barons 2019 as was my avatar. I will upload a picture of both of them in 2023 trim as soon as I have finished the second "Hispano Suiza" cowling.

 

I had deliberately built the RNAS Baron with reduced dihedral in order to make it more manoeuvrable but I found out yesterday that I had also made the wing five or six inches shorter than it should be! That wasn't deliberate! No wonder it flies so quickly!

Edited May 22, 2023 by David Davis 2

[PDB]

A club member offered me a Ripmax Jive with an Irvine 36 for a great price which I maidened this evening. All I've flown is a Boomerang since starting flying a year ago so I had some trepidation with no dihedral and a tail dragger but shouldn't have worried. I got 7 10 minute flights in trimming, practicing approaches, landings and taxiing. Having knocked the rates right back it was a pleasure to fly and very responsive however I've a lot to learn taxiing and taking off a tail dragger.

 

 

I did play a game of find the plane.

 

 

Found it.

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by PDB

[Erfolg]

Although it is apparently still spring, around here it looks and feels like summer. You all know I am not one to moan, in the face of tribulation I keep my peace, although i try it is hard to exaggerate the difficulties experience in this neck of the woods. To the road works listed for 8 weeks has now gone on for 16 weeks, the local relieve road programmed for 2 years, has now reached 3 years and seems to due to finish in August 2024, all ahead of program, now the tourists have arrived. It is even harder to get to the flying field.

 

Now to flying. Models that have not seen the light of day for probably a year, have been dusted of, many being reluctant to start, diaphragms dry out, plugs and needles needing attention, never mind the truculent cluck or fuel pipes. Such fun, is enjoyed by all, as advice is proffered, curses heard, ammeters observed, the intermittent whirl of starters. The oily rag brigade absolutely luv, the process, along with dead stick events.

 

I am pleased that more frequently our members are returning to the field, as the wind has been just a zephyr, together with the reappearance of the golden globe, the air being warm, like the Sirocco although to today it is Foehn like.

 

Jets have been out in force, as have been fleets of very large foam scale like models. Some outstanding (new) Multiplex gliders have suddenly formed a squadron as they breed like rabbits, could it be their outstanding performance, that in the round displays good value for money. Pity my wallet is rather thin.

 

The field has now dried out to a good standard, which has allowed the mowing to reach an outstanding standard, almost bowling green class.

 

As for me, oh i know who cares, I am almost reaching my own exacting standard of ordinaryness. I am happy though, enough to be frustrated by todays high wind strength. The bright side is I will not be doing battle on the local road and lanes.

[Ron Gray]

Now that we have taken on the lease for the ‘full size’ strip it’s now our responsibility to maintain it. The grass was somewhat long at the start of this month but we’re getting on top of it. Results of today’s cutting:

 

 

[aidan mcatamney]

Ron, that's a fantastic looking grass runway and it will inspire people.  I wish you many happy flights and safe landings there.  

[Nick Cripps]

Good day at the field for me yesterday. The calm winds meant that I could enjoy some great flights with my "Smoke Trail" cabin free-flight model. After about an hour of this, and retrieving it several times from 3ft high brambles and nettles, I decided enough was enough and moved on to helping out one of our newer members, Mike, by test flying his Ruckus for him. This was the foam version which Mike bought from another club member and, after I gave it a thorough check over, Mike and I were pleased to see it fly successfully.

 

Next up I gave Mike a training flight with his usual model Arrows Hobby Bigfoot. He is still learning but prefers not to use a buddy system so we play pass-the-transmitter. I took off and then handed the tx over after the first circuit at a good height. Mike is comfortable with maintaining height and doing basic circuits so my role was limited to just giving guidance and then taking the tx back for landing. I then gave another new member, Nick, a flight with the club trainer I look after, a Trainstar. No idea what brand it is but it has foam wings, a moulded plastic fuselage and flies quite well on 3s2200 cells. Nick had already flown earlier with another instructor so we kept it to the one flight, this time using the Spektrum wireless buddy system which I find works really well. Then it was back to Mike for another flight with the Bigfoot before heading back to the car to have lunch.

 

Incidentally, we currently have 10 club members in the training system who we are striving to get up to A certificate standard as quickly as possible. As you can imagine this puts quite a load onto the instructors!

 

After lunch it was time to (re)maiden my Hangar 9 RV-4. I put this together last year as a flying test bed for a lovely Laser FT200. I have been struggling to get a consistent engine run which I put down to overheating and had only previously managed 2 short flights, both of which resulted in one cylinder cutting out. I discussed this with Laser Jon who suggested suggested it may be fuel starvation but certainly the cowl configuration wouldn't help with cooling. I modified the cowl but with no obvious improvement. The model sat in a corner of the garage for the winter until last week when I decided to have another look.

 

I was clearly suffering from what in full-size aircraft terms is known as "confirmation bias". I was sure beforehand that cooling would be a problem so when the engine played up I convinced myself it must be due to overheating. However, after looking a bit more closely at the installation, it was clear that stuffing 2 feed pipes, a vent and a fill pipe through a small hole in the bulkhead, coupled with very thick-walled fuel tube which I struggled to pass through the holes in the engine mount, were the real causes. So, out with the Dremel and with new fuel pipes installed it all ran well during testing in the garden a couple of days ago.

 

Back at the field, I had 2 flights where the engine ran beautifully and the model flew like a dream! I'm now looking forward to a weekend flying the RV-4 at Don Valley and at Buckminster the following Friday at the Laser 40th Anniversary Fly-in.

 

I'm also happy to eat humble pie and apologise to Jon for doubting his word - sorry, Jon.

[Ron Gray]

Good stuff Nick, look forward to meeting up at the 40th!

[leccyflyer]

A braw day at the field today, warm sunshine, spectacular lenticular clouds and blue skies, the most variable wind direction I can recall, with every segment of the compass rose figuring through the day, a good turn out and plenty of flying of all sorts of models. Greatly enjoyed flying the EFlite Corsair, Spitfire and Thunderbolt, even though I inexplicably failed to flare on one landing, tearing out one retract from it's mount. That's all repaired now with a wee smear of epoxy. The landings really are the part of the flight that I enjoy the most.

 

Didn't risk  putting the Kavan Fokker DVIII after three goes resulted in an uncontrollable ground loop to the left. Wheels aren't binding, rudder is straight and working smoothly - she'll live to try another day.

 

All in all a marvellous, proper Spring day's flying. 😎

[Ron Gray]

Excellent days flying today, somewhat chilly in the morning but the sun came out later! Shake down runs for the P51 with repaired U/C in readiness for the 2nd June, Laser day!

 

[Adrian Smith 1]

Very realistic, Ron 👍

[Peter Jenkins]

Couldn't get out till late in the day but got in 6 practice flights with the Anthem.  It was grey and cold while I was rigging the model but then the Sun came out!  No one else on site so could just fly till I'd used up my 6 flight packs.

 

[PDB]

Another beautiful evening, practicing approaches and low passes at another club I'm a member of which has a tighter strip.

 

Oops 😁

[aidan mcatamney]

Flying my Meridian, all electric at the flying club earlier tonight.   Flys nice.   The sun was just coming down on the final flight.