Autumn's here, who's been flying?

[GrumpyGnome]

🤞

[Simon Chaddock]

Flat calm this morning if not a little chilly, like -5C!

Perfect condition to fly the simple but effective Big Dragon.

 

Depron flying surfaces with the pod and wing pylon printed. Light and aerodynamically pretty efficient it was designed to land on a rough grass field.

A nice 22 minutes floating about apart from doing its "party" piece, repeated near vertical climbs to 400 feet. Very relaxing as it glides so slowly.

 

[leccyflyer]

It was flat calm here this morning as well, with bright sunshine, deep blue skies and frosty ground, so I took the opportunity for a maiden flight of my latest Volantex 400mm Messerschmitt 109 - the latest versions come with a clear canopy and this one will be resprayed and have a pilot added - to supplement my most flown model of the year.  Had a short flight around the surrounding fields, but had a bit of a struggle to get the wee fella to come down at all, she was climbing at a rate of knots, cutting the throttle completely gave a nice tip stall and spiral dive - easily recovered from -anyway, descending with just a trickle of power on in a broad circuit saw her safely on the ground. Two hours later it's dull, dreich, cold and has just started to snow. The joy of winter flying in the north.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Great effort, GG. This weather the most difficult thing is to walk out the door. The rest is easy.🥶

[Ron Gray]

Up to the field this morning, got one flight in (Tasman) before the fog descended. Next flight was at 2.30 (Eagle) so 4 hours of jawing in between! 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

My luck was in today, 11°c sunny and no wind for my first flight of my Saito 100 powered Dago red, the elevator  was a bit twitchy so only a few loops and rolls, and a couple of flypasts, lucky for me I didn't do any negative G manoeuvres, the wing is held in with 2 x 3mm steel screws, I ( supplied in the kit ) I usually use 5mm plastic bolts as they don't loosen up from the engines vibrations, well a surprise when I landed hearing a rattle in it, only to find that both bolts had come completely undone and the only thing that was keeping the wing in place were the two 3mm locating dowels on the bell cowling which was held in place by one 3mm steel set screw,,,

[Learner]

57 minutes ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

My luck was in today, 11°c sunny and no wind for my first flight of my Saito 100 powered Dago red, the elevator  was a bit twitchy so only a few loops and rolls, and a couple of flypasts, lucky for me I didn't do any negative G manoeuvres, the wing is held in with 2 x 3mm steel screws, I ( supplied in the kit ) I usually use 5mm plastic bolts as they don't loosen up from the engines vibrations, well a surprise when I landed hearing a rattle in it, only to find that both bolts had come completely undone and the only thing that was keeping the wing in place were the two 3mm locating dowels on the bell cowling which was held in place by one 3mm steel set screw,,,

What you need is a safety officer to do a check 😂

[Nick Cripps]

The Windermere Model Waterplane Flyers gathered today at Kitridding Farm for our annual Christmas meal with a bit of flying thrown in before and after. Glorious weather (apart from the freezing temperatures) saw 8 flyers and an assortment of electric models at the lakeside.

 

Rogues gallery:

 

FMS Ranger and Kingfisher are perfect models for this site:

 

All is calm at sunset:

 

 

[Peter Jenkins]

Love that sunset photo.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

2 hours ago, Learner said:

What you need is a safety officer to do a check 😂

I did, 😂

[GrumpyGnome]

Last time out it was fly, coffee to get warm, fly, coffee, repeat.

 

Today it was fly, hide from rain, fly, hide from sleet, fly, hide from hail, fly, hide from snow, give up and go home!

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Beautiful sky this afternoon and light wind in Hertfordshire - took my 40 year old Sterling Stearman out for an airing and overheard a (I assumed tongue in cheek) comment from the "peanut gallery" that a real Stearman pilot would be doing a Lomcevak. 

 

So I tried one.

 

And it was wonderful!

 

Got home and asked Mr. Google whether it was a valid scale manouevre for a Stearman - and it seems it has been done.  One to remember for the next fine day...

 

The only downside was derigging with frozen fingers but it was more than worth it.

[leccyflyer]

Maybe it's time to switch to the Winter flying thread? Below zero here today, but flat calm and sunny. The heavy frost of the past few days had firmed the parking area up very nicely and the mud and standing water just beow the surface was nice and hard.

 

Opted to go out after lunch for a tiny bit more warmth in the sun, but it wasn't giving any significant heat - nice lighting at the beginning of the afternoon, just three of us at the field got some decent flights in, before freezing feet and failing light caused cessation of play - beautiful flying conditions though. Hoping for more of the same over the weekend.

 

 

Bob's new style Volantex Me109E with the clear canopy, repaint and Bruno the 3D printed 1/26th scale pilot. Fantastic conditions for the wee fellas today.

 

[Peter Jenkins]

Made a snap decision to go out for 2 hrs after lunch to my 2nd flying site.  Got in 3 flights of my new aerobatic schedule.  Managed to remember all the manouevres (there are 17) and was pleased with my progress.  The flight packs were charged but unused following the fog on Weds morning.

No one else flying, surprisingly as conditions were superb -.mind you I was wearing my one piece Dickies overall and my furlined hat that buckesl under the chin!  No problem with the cold as a result!

[GrumpyGnome]

Every time I thought "right, time to fill the flask", it started snowing again 😞

[Geoff S]

1 hour ago, Peter Jenkins said:

Made a snap decision to go out for 2 hrs after lunch to my 2nd flying site.  Got in 3 flights of my new aerobatic schedule.  Managed to remember all the manouevres (there are 17) and was pleased with my progress.  The flight packs were charged but unused following the fog on Weds morning.

No one else flying, surprisingly as conditions were superb -.mind you I was wearing my one piece Dickies overall and my furlined hat that buckesl under the chin!  No problem with the cold as a result!

 

Ken Moss has been practising the new F3a schedule, too, up at our Ashbourne airfield site.  He kept getting lost about half-way through until he recruited a caller to help 🙂

 

I'd already decided the temperature was too low today when Severn-Trent workers removed the steel sheet covering the trench at the end of our drive which meant I wasn't able to change my mind  - I was glad of the excuse 🙂   30 years ago the cold never bothred me

[Peter Jenkins]

3 hours ago, Geoff S said:

 

Ken Moss has been practising the new F3a schedule, too, up at our Ashbourne airfield site.  He kept getting lost about half-way through until he recruited a caller to help 🙂

 

Tell Ken to try harder to remember the schedule!  🤣

 

One of the problems with using a caller who is unfamiliar with the schedule is that they tend to call the next manoeuvre when you are still thrashing round the current one!  Unless it's my mate who files the same schedule I just try hard to remember what comes next.  I "fly" the schedule with my stick plane till I can remember it.  Then in the real world, I tend to forget what happens after the 6th or 7th one!  All good fun!

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Time to switch threads, I think!