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


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Finally made it out to the patch to test the Flight Coach board a fellow aerobatic pilot had built for me.  As ever, our Chairman had left the patch looking like a bowling green!  About 5 pilots had been there in the morning but when I got there at 4.30 I had the patch to myself.  As you can see from the photo below, the approach heading west requires a fairly close conversation with a large tree.  There used to be trees this size all along the edge till the farmer was persuaded to let us cut them down and he used them for firewood!

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The aircraft I'm flying is an Oxai Citrin.

 

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It is, IMHO, the prettiest F3A biplane I've ever seen and it flies really well.  Far better than I can fly it!

 

This was borne out by the flight paths I reviewed for the 3 flights I flew.  More practice needed or rather fix the errors that Flight Coach has shown.  That might take some doing but at least there is an independent review of what I actually flew.

Edited by Peter Jenkins
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Cracking day at the beach on Friday, had a few flights each on the FMS Rafale and Flyfans L39, the Skipper/Dragenfly got to do some"skipping" off the pools too .

Club mate Chris was down with a couple of good size IC planes, though he was experiencing engine problems and had to do a couple of dead sticks.

Images are just screen grabs from video.

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Some good flying today at one of my club’s scale competition day. I didn’t fly the Hurri in the comp but had some nice flights either side of it. In this last flight I didn’t bother to fly it at scale speed but allowed the Laser 200 in-line twin to rev!

 

 

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I got batteries charged on Saturday night ready for a good forecast on Sunday. Apparently the METO hadn't actually bothered doing a forecast and just made it up, so I spent the day discharging batteries.

 

The good news is, I've finally convinced the 11yo to put his tablet down for five minutes and get his CL build finished ready for Buckminster next week. He could end up flying in the Nats next Friday. 😂😂

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Having a good run of flying at the moment. Early bird catches the worm or something like that, as first thing there was not a breathe of wind and it was due to pick up later in the morning. So out came my landing "floater", the Pilot Slick 67".  I always introduce a couple of clicks of down elevator as I prepare to land otherwise she just floats on for ever it seems. I am not too fussed about whether that's due to thrust lines or battery position ( they are as far forward as they can be), mainly because she doesn't get an outing very often. All I know is when in the air doing aeros she is just great fun to play around with.

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I even managed to get the strip cut afterwards, just had to work around the full size boys who use the strip with their RV8.

 

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We had the next round of the Wacky Warbirds competition at the field last night, combined it with monthly club meeting and BBQ, it was somewhat windy. As per usual there was a bit of carnage followed by rapid fixing in time for the next round.

 

Typical scene, 2 working, 3 onlookers

 

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Which turned into 2 working and 5 onlookers (well 6 if you include me!)

 

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There was a time when the only two members of our club who regularly flew in testing conditions were myself and another regular contributor to this forum. Some said we were brave - although most shook their heads at our apparent stupidity. 
 

However, things are changing with the ready availability of light but capable foam models and I was delighted to see all the attendees at our regular Thursday afternoon gatherings taking to the air yesterday in winds forecast to be gusting over 40 mph, with no damage or uncomfortable incidents other than the odd non-damaging tumble when gusts hit around touchdown. The low energy retention and groundspeed helped a great deal in this respect. 
 

The most popular models for these conditions are little belly landing Arrows Hawks, which handle all conditions admirably.  However, we flew a variety of propeller and EDF models although prudence led to some deliberate wheels up landings with retractable undercarriages. 
 

The moral?  Maybe start to explore the envelope in slightly higher wind conditions than you’re used to with suitable models and I think some of those complaining that they never have an opportunity to fly these days may find a lot more fun and flyable days appear!

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