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Never mind the weather - who has been flying, then?


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32 minutes ago, Adrian Smith 1 said:

 

Well good for you, Learner. Whilst the Slick would I am sure fly in stronger winds I prefer to enjoy  some precision flying and not fight with the elements too much. Each to their own of course. 

 Fighting the elements seem the norm nowadays so I have to make the most of it otherwise I'd never improve.

 

 

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On 04/08/2024 at 19:59, Chris Walby said:

Simon, the Spit looks like a Ripmax version...which is hand launch...so why has it got a tail wheel? Fitted with retracts...looks like a winter mod for me!

 

PS cracking phots there.

Thx Chris.

 

Yes, Phil modified his Ripmax Spitfire by adding retracts and a tailwheel, flies a treat as well!.

 

Trying to get decent images of RC models in flight is a real challenge. Very satisfying when it works out ok, as the days flying can be circulated to members and the day "Re-lived"!.

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Well, too manky to fly yesterday or today, but did spend a while at the field yesterday evening.....

 

AliExpress were selling RCGF 10cc petrol engines for £104 with free delivery. Even adding on the VAT, it's not much more than a used glow FS, so worth a punt (and I quite like these little engines tbh).

 

Petrol in, switch on, open the choke, twirl the starter... pop pop after about 2 seconds, close choke, she's running less than a second later. Left it idling, with an odd burst of half power for about 5 mins - tuning not far out. Noticed a few twitches on the rudder.... then bigger twitches, then twitches on the ele. Odd I thought, so stopped the engine - by now the rudder was hard over. Odd.

 

Poured a coffee and pondered. Noticed some smoke coming out of the hatch. Yikes! Quickly removed the LiPo powering the cdi, and the NiMh powering the rx. NiMh was a bit warm. Packed uo, came home. Investigated today....

 

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I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty certain the rudder servo shouldn't look like that! I guess I damaged it when I installed it, although I checked all the controls worked.... anyway, back to the field to do more, less eventful hopefully, running in tomorrow...

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Perfect conditions this morning at the field. Warm, sunny, very light wind or flat calm, but with a fairly low turnout as some of the guys had made the trip down to Elvington for the LMA show there. We did get a new member though, flying a largish foamie Cessna, who I was asked to stand with for his first flight. It's FPV equipped but this maiden flight was flown LOS and went okay, if a bit hairy at times. He got away with hitting the electric fence on landing, no significant damage, just a wee ding in the leading edge, that'll buff right out.

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Successful maiden flights for a couple of my latest depron models - passed onto me by my pal Bob - a mini SEMFF Wildcat and a fantastic reduced sized Sharkface, which has been christened Baby Sharky - 18" span and supremely aerobatic just on rudder and elevator. Great fun. 

 

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Down. the field early this morning given that the temperature was going to hot up by late morning.

 

What's this I find? Some old boy already there ......

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Well shiver my speed controllers it's me of course! I must remember which way round to point these new fangled iPhones.  That sorted out I unloaded one of SkyWing's finest powered by an Dualsky Racing electric motor equivalent to 30cc I/C. You have all seen her here before, but she is a joy to look at and fly and is a similar passion to those multiple Spitfires that grace our hobby and demand constant admiring glances.

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She was joined on occasion by an inquisitive kite (of the hawk kind), but kept away from my Edge 540 quite sensibly.  What a lovely morning and 4 flights were had but the temperature was creeping up to 24C and my technique was getting ragged by the fourth flight caused by sweaty hands. Great day, great hobby. 😀 

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I DID A TOY AEROPLANE FLYING! 

 

Twice in as many weeks, must be some kind of miracle!

 

Wind was/is the perfect strength for hover landing the big ugly Acrowot, but my least favourite direction and not steady - if it could just pick a runway, that'd be great. Currently lacking confidence, due to rusty thumbs but it went up a couple of times. 

 

Little Acrowot had it's first trip out since it's last crash in November, and subsequent rework. The Evo 15 is running lovely and she had some runway hops, but there's no way I'm chancing it in this, after the history we've had. 

 

All looking good for our family camping trip to Buckminster in a few weeks though. 👍

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So..... which weather forecast is going to be most accurate?  Metcheck says up to 28mph, BBC says 3mph.  Being an optimist, I chose the latter and packed the car with my Timber, Double Trouble, and the club Apprentice. This was at 8:30, and I rejoiced in the accuracy of Ms Kirkwood and her colleagues.

 

Arriving at the field around 9:30, my admiration for Ms Kirkwood and her colleagues had diminished as it was fair blowy!  Unpacked the car but left the Apprentice unassembled.

 

Flew my Timber twice using under 1% of available runway length to land and take off - combined!

 

Ben brought his newly repaired Riot for some more tuition.... he has made an excellent job of fixing it!  My plan had been to let Ben do a flight on the Apprentice, and pass him as safe to fly solo.  However, the wind put paid to that.  Instead, we flew out 5 battery packs on the Riot with me taking off and landing, and Ben doing everything between - even this element was challenging due to the wind strength direct, and gusts. Ben handled the conditions well, and the Apprentice is being put into mothballs. It was certainly at the upper end of winds for a Riot.  When it's calmer, we'll do circuits and bumps, and a proving flight on the Riot before we let Ben fly the nest.  Then teach him some more controlled aeros.

 

In between, Ian (see previous post) turned up and made some noise. And started his engines 🙂

 

My DT stayed grounded as I had other things to do.  A nice few hours in glorious sunshine.

 

Then on the way home, spotted a Grebe on the village pond. This has joined the little white Egret, further expanding the diversity from Canada Geese, Muscovy and Mallards, and the odd Moorhen.

 

And the final piece of good news is that our chairman will hopefully be home from hospital tomorrow, having had a melon-sized Lipoma removed...... we're not sure if it's a Watermelon sized lump, or HoneyDew, or other type.  But it's better out than in!

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