Autumn's here, who's been flying?

[leccyflyer]

Excellent day at the field with a very good turnout and loads of flying going on, often with as many as five models in the air at once. Had great fun flying my distinctly pedestrian Magnatilla alongside -well, a long way behind, mostly - my pal Derek's Puppeteer. I've long admired Derek's Puppeteer's removab;e tail section, which allows the model to fit in the car with the wings fully rigged. Subconsciously I must have tried to emulate his Puppeteer's configuration, as below, or maybe I just ran out of airspeed, trying to slow it up even more on a go-around. It's not the first time and it's only sticks, so repairable and it didn't spoil the day.

 

[leccyflyer]

Heavy rain this morning when I got the the field, flat calm with v low cloud and close to zero visibility. 20 minutes later the rain cleared to leave bright sunshine, broken cloud and a brisk 8-10mph breeze. Was good to get some flights in, both normal flights and On The Button single channel and to log my 500th flight of 2023 - that's from 50 trips to my local club field and 20 trips to my old club field for the year so far.

[john davidson 1]

Had the car all loaded up when rain came on quite heavy , so retired to the conservatory and did a crossword waiting for a clearance. When I next looked out clouds were lifting but the wind was getting up so lost enthusiasm

[aidan mcatamney]

Great spell of weather for flying here today.   Sunshine all day long with  fairly light winds.  Had to get the Twinstar out and dust off the cobwebs.  

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by aidan mcatamney

[David Davis 2]

Superb weather currently in central France.

 

I flew the £40 Super Frontier fitted with a Laser 80 using the new low oil fuel recommended for newer Lasers by the factory.

 

One of our younger members flew my old WOT 4 which I'd given away. He's made a lovely job restoring it but then he does work in the bodyshop of the local VW agency. Check out the paint job on his flight box.

 

We had a couple of female trainee pilots put in a flight or two on the buddy box too.

 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Todays tiny fleet. Coolish with <10mph wind right down runway.... I am billy no mates!

 

We have threee of these Spacewalkers in the club but mine's the only one that makes a nice noise 😁

[aidan mcatamney]

2 hours ago, GrumpyGnome said:

Todays tiny fleet. Coolish with <10mph wind right down runway.... I am billy no mates!

 

We have threee of these Spacewalkers in the club but mine's the only one that makes a nice noise 😁

Hard to beat the sound of a fourstroke.   Is that a Hangar 9 Valiant next to it?

[aidan mcatamney]

3 hours ago, David Davis 2 said:

Superb weather currently in central France.

 

I flew the £40 Super Frontier fitted with a Laser 80 using the new low oil fuel recommended for newer Lasers by the factory.

 

One of our younger members flew my old WOT 4 which I'd given away. He's made a lovely job restoring it but then he does work in the bodyshop of the local VW agency. Check out the paint job on his flight box.

 

We had a couple of female trainee pilots put in a flight or two on the buddy box too.

 

 

Ah, Super Frontier Senior.   Fan Dabi Dozi as the Krankies used to say.  

[GrumpyGnome]

3 hours ago, aidan mcatamney said:

Hard to beat the sound of a fourstroke.   Is that a Hangar 9 Valiant next to it?

Yes it is.

 

And yes, it's a Valiant - great plane!  That was going to be the recipient of the Saito in the SW, but flying it I realised that the old and tired SC91FS is perfect for it.........

 

It's my second Valiant, bought at the flying field, over t'internet, about 15 mins after Valiant 1 was trashed by, I believe, a rather  'noisy' voltage regulator.  Oddly, the fit and finish of this one is far poorer..... bought about 12 months apart.

[aidan mcatamney]

6 minutes ago, GrumpyGnome said:

Yes it is.

 

And yes, it's a Valiant - great plane!  That was going to be the recipient of the Saito in the SW, but flying it I realised that the old and tired SC91FS is perfect for it.........

 

It's my second Valiant, bought at the flying field, over t'internet, about 15 mins after Valiant 1 was trashed by, I believe, a rather  'noisy' voltage regulator.  Oddly, the fit and finish of this one is far poorer..... bought about 12 months apart.

It's a plane I had thought long and hard about buying as I like Hangar 9 models.  But I never got round to it, but maybe one day soon I will.  Its a nice looking plane.  

[GrumpyGnome]

Looks nice, flies very nicely, nice graceful aeros, can fly ridiculously slowly with the flaps fully down (airbrakes!). Not really designed for a FS as tank ends up being too high - so rather than take a saw to it, I fitted an on-board-glow that I can switch to high for starting, then low for flying, where it switches off if I'm at above 25% throttle. A newer engine may not have needed this....

[Erfolg]

At the field today, as the rain started, many thousand of Geese flew over. I have never seen so many, "V" formations, formation after formation passed over, at probably 500 feet. There could have been at least a hundred formations. I am not sure I have seen Geese this early, certainly in the compact numbers.

 

Ah, yes, flying, just a few circuits. I was lateish having done the weeks grocery shopping for the week, first thing. Initially i thought a bit cloudy, clouds seemed highish. Then a few large drops fell, followed by many, many more. I went home for a late lunch. My wife playing golf, came home much later, having given up at the 9th, then going into the club house for coffee.

 

I left thinking what do the sudden arrival of the Geese mean, anything?

 

The track is acquiring a layer of mud. The grass is now wet, without rain. Also the wind has returned, even whilst raining. 

 

What does Autumn hold for us, never mind Winter

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

12 hours ago, Erfolg said:

I left thinking what do the sudden arrival of the Geese mean, anything?

French hunting season 'open' ?.

[Erfolg]

Paul, on reflection, the direction of the Geese seems all wrong. I normally see Geese coming from the North with a following wind. Yesterday, they came from the east, in a generally westerly wind.

 

Here, there is just rain and very strong wind. No flying it would seem for a few days, now.

[David Davis 2]

My club regularly flies on Wednesday afternoons and at weekends. The weather was excellent yesterday so I took the Laser-powered Super Frontier Senior (SFS) to the field. See Monday's post for details of what an SFS looks like. Just after take-off I was joined by an inexperienced pilot flying an electric powered Baron trainer, and the club chairman flying the club trainer with a novice on the buddy box. After a few minutes we were joined by the club's oldest member, Francois, flying his high performance electric-powered glider. With the exception of the glider I realised that I had the potential for longer flights than any of the others so I decided to fly upwind at a fair altitude and allow the inexperienced pilots some air space. We were all stood in a line with me at the upwind end of the line so I had no idea of what the others were doing unless their models flew across my line of sight. After some time I could hear some commotion going on behind me but had no idea what was going on. In the end there were just Francois and me in the air when he called a landing. Again I stayed high and upwind. His first attempt at landing provoked some concern and on his second attempt the glider shot past my shoulder in a most ungliderlike attitude! The club chairman offered to land the model for him. Once this had been achieved I landed the SFS. The timer told me that I had been in the air for 17 minutes and 44 seconds. Mind you there was very little fuel left in the tank!

 

In France people celebrate their birthdays and their name days. As yesterday was the festival of St Francis, anyone called Francis or Francois has another party to celebrate so we all retired to the club house for cider and galettes with home-made jam.

 

PS. The chairman had succeeded in crashing the club's trainer through not taking back control quickly enough when the beginner made a horlicks of things. The wing is broken but repairable. I did exactly the same thing with the other club trainer a fortnight ago! In my case the fuselage is split open like a banana but with plenty of epoxy and the it will Workmate I can repair it.

[aidan mcatamney]

8 hours ago, David Davis 2 said:

My club regularly flies on Wednesday afternoons and at weekends. The weather was excellent yesterday so I took the Laser-powered Super Frontier Senior (SFS) to the field. See Monday's post for details of what an SFS looks like. Just after take-off I was joined by an inexperienced pilot flying an electric powered Baron trainer, and the club chairman flying the club trainer with a novice on the buddy box. After a few minutes we were joined by the club's oldest member, Francois, flying his high performance electric-powered glider. With the exception of the glider I realised that I had the potential for longer flights than any of the others so I decided to fly upwind at a fair altitude and allow the inexperienced pilots some air space. We were all stood in a line with me at the upwind end of the line so I had no idea of what the others were doing unless their models flew across my line of sight. After some time I could hear some commotion going on behind me but had no idea what was going on. In the end there were just Francois and me in the air when he called a landing. Again I stayed high and upwind. His first attempt at landing provoked some concern and on his second attempt the glider shot past my shoulder in a most ungliderlike attitude! The club chairman offered to land the model for him. Once this had been achieved I landed the SFS. The timer told me that I had been in the air for 17 minutes and 44 seconds. Mind you there was very little fuel left in the tank!

 

In France people celebrate their birthdays and their name days. As yesterday was the festival of St Francis, anyone called Francis or Francois has another party to celebrate so we all retired to the club house for cider and galettes with home-made jam.

 

PS. The chairman had succeeded in crashing the club's trainer through not taking back control quickly enough when the beginner made a horlicks of things. The wing is broken but repairable. I did exactly the same thing with the other club trainer a fortnight ago! In my case the fuselage is split open like a banana but with plenty of epoxy and the it will Workmate I can repair it.

Great story David , thoroughly enjoyed reading this.   

[PDB]

Nice couple of hours in a warm breeze this afternoon, my mate maidening a foamboard Flite Test Versa wing.

 

[Futura57]

Today was a cracking day for flying at Epsom Downs race course. More than a dozen members of the EDMAC club turned up with a variety of models. I brought a little fleet of four: two IC and two electric. I now have 65 flights on my Top Quark design after 5 more today, and no mishaps so far. My EFlite Leader480 powers through the aerobatics as usual on a 4S setup. 11+ years old now. Only had time for one flight each on my OS55AX powered GeeBee Type D and SC52 4 stroke powered Keil Kraft Student, both built last year. The Student was my first aileron trainer in around 1975 and I couldn't resist building a new one from the plan. Lots of good banter and some old faces showed up. Plus I was asked to execute half a dozen hand launches for other members. I seems I have the knack. The weather looks good again tomorrow, so it's more of the same at the local patch methinks.

 

[Ron Gray]

Depron duo

 

[Ron Gray]

Flying buddy Kevin bought this model the other day and this is his first flight with the Great Planes Stearman powered by a pumped OS 120 FS.

 

 

[aidan mcatamney]

7 minutes ago, Ron Gray said:

Flying buddy Kevin bought this model the other day and this is his first flight with the Great Planes Stearman powered by a pumped OS 120 FS.

 

 

Beautiful model and well flown by Kevin. 

[GrumpyGnome]

Ventured out in the 'mizzle' this morning. Few flights on tge Double Trouble, couple of gentle circuits with the Spacewalker, then home for rugby.

 

Unsurprisingly, on my own.

[Cuban8]

Great days flying today all overseen by our new honourary member. We fitted the perch to make him more comfortable. Not sure what he's feeding on but he swoops down on to the patch when things are quiet between our flights and seems to find something. Not bothered by the models or people walking about in the pits.

Edited October 8, 2023 by Cuban8

[PDB]

Great conditions, flying and company at our club today.

 

[aidan mcatamney]

35 minutes ago, PDB said:

Great conditions, flying and company at our club today.

 

 

Brilliant.  Just looks like the real thing.