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

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

2 hours ago, GrumpyGnome said:

Red sky at night is supposedly good....... for Shepherds at least.. 

Not if it’s his cottage on fire!

[payneib]

A bit of a frustrating day up the field. Tried to spend as much time as possible with the eldest boy, doing control line. Unfortunately the wind was against us and the tiny glow two strokes were being difficult. The good thing with profile planes is they're very readily field repaired. 

 

Had four or five flights on the Big Ugly Acrowot, with some minor engine tuning from the club petrol whisperer. Had an interesting "touch n go" (it wasn't , but I'm claiming it) where I missed the runway, managed to keep it moving in the long grass with lots of elevator and throttle blips, rallied it back to the short stuff and took off again. 😂

[GrumpyGnome]

Been a funny few days.......

 

Thursday - windy and showers, mowing duties

 

Friday - calmish, but cold - almost put my winter trews on, and dug out my gloves. Has a lovely few hours flying and chatting with Kev. Flew my W4 and after about 100 flights, three exhausts and three fuel tanks (two got trashed in previous W4s) the little Evo19 petrol is nigh on perfect. I loved my Double Trouble with its OS46 but it's even better with its OS55 ....... Also got a few flights in on the re-engined little silver H9 Mustang; got noticeably faster as the engine got more run-time. Kev chucked his big Wottie about like an indoor acrobat, and had a few very nice flights on his Phoenix Spitfire.

 

 

Saturday - shorts weather, but breezy. Decided not to snatch some flights as all the forecasts predict some better days coming up. As requested, took the strimmer to take the tops off the longer grass between the pits and runways. Press ganged Kev 'the engine whisperer' to sort it's little engine out! Kevs Extra 540 handled the breeze well, although landing approach from 10 feet to 10 inches looked very challenging. He also flew his large Seagull Spitty - but only once, deciding it was just too exciting. As @payneib says above, our cl circle got some use, although I'm pretty certain he ended up a good 10 feet from where he started. Hopefully there'll soon be suitable weather for his son to actually  have a turn!  New Kev had a flight with his edf (Habu or Zeus), and his SLEC funfly, but spent most of his time chatting. Heavily pruning an Elder warmed me up when I got home.

Today - slight drizzle so probably pottering day.... forecasts still look promising for next week. For us lucky retired folk at least....

[Brian Cooper]

A great day at Tibenham Airfield last Friday. 

It was a get-together (Fly In) to commemorate the Battle of Britain. 

It was a bit blustery but we flew all day without any problems and everyone went home with their aeroplanes intact. 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Nice to see multiple Hurricanes......

[leccyflyer]

Battle of Britain Day today, so the call went out for Hurricanes and Spitfires to congregate and we got a decent showing of models, albeit only a few in the air at a time, so the proposed mass formations never happened. Rather more Hurricanes on show than Spitfires, on the day and I left the Messerschmitts in the car.

 

 

Got a pair of Dynam Hurricanes up at the same time and a third one up later, plus my Balsacraft and VMC Hurricanes and some formation flying with Volantex Spitfires and Me109. Colin's FliteTest Spitfire looked ace against the fluffy clouds. First time I've seen Bob's most recent depron creation - a wee Banzai, but finished as a PRU Spitfire, which had amazing performance.  

 

 

 

John had some good flights with his profile depron EDF Su 27 Flanker - though it might be a Mig?

 

 

Windier than the forecast it was a pleasant morning nonetheless. Fingers crossed as we seem to have a high pressures system arriving and a decent forecast for the week ahead.

[Peter Jenkins]

We had a small but very enjoyable F3A aerobatic competition on Sunday.  We had wall to wall sunshine but a gradually increasing wind that had a slight component blowing outwards.  We tested out the Club's new club house and it was universally praised.  The inside kitchen was greatly appreciated by our stalwart catering couple.

 

We even had one spectator fly in to watch proceedings!

 

    

 

 

Edited September 15 by Peter Jenkins

[Adrian Smith 1]

An interesting gathering of F3A aerobats on display, Peter

[leccyflyer]

Here's a short video clip of Bob's wee Banzai depron cartoon scale PRU Spitfire - we'll be doing some streamer combat soon. 😎

 

 

[Peter Jenkins]

1 hour ago, Adrian Smith 1 said:

An interesting gathering of F3A aerobats on display, Peter

There certainly were Adrian.  We hadb2 buplanes there.  There was the Glacial, a design by Lassi Nurila, the current World and European champion, and my Citrin of 2014 vintage.  Citrins were flown in this year's European Championships so they are still competitive - sadly, not in my hands!

[Daren Cogdon]

16 hours ago, leccyflyer said:

Here's a short video clip of Bob's wee Banzai depron cartoon scale PRU Spitfire - we'll be doing some streamer combat soon. 😎

 

 

That looks great!  Really need to get mine flying properly.

[leccyflyer]

Well the much awaited Indian summer arrived on cue and we've had some really nice flying weather in September, to partly make up for a dismal July and August. After Sunday's local flying the past couple of day's flying have involved the three and a bit hour round trip to my old club, but conditions were so good it couldn't be missed.

 

Monday dawned flat calm, bright and sunny, if a little chilly but lovely flying at first, before all of a sudden the wind got right up, with a 10-12mph SE wind. That was interesting, as it generated copious wave lift off the back of the hill - hand launches soared heavenwards with very little need for full power. Surprisingly there were just the three of us there, with one later arrival just as we were packing up for the day.  Derek's Piaggio Avanti made a rare appearance and flew beautifully and we had some fun chasing Jim's new Bf109E with my Ripmax Spitfire.  In the calm before the blustery wind Derek captured some in flight piccies of my refinished Sonik RC Spitfire, that I'd repainted in slightly more authentic colours a Pilot Officer Geoffrey "Boy" Wellum's QJ-K. Jim flew his DH Venom and Lander Hunter, which is magnificent and looked so realistic against the beautiful wave clouds that were building with the strengthening wind.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was much more like the forecast for Monday and it stayed calm for much longer - it was warm, reaching 23 degrees and very pleasant in the sun, but that wave lift was gone and Derek's high tech glider could find any thermal lift either. We tried a couple of times to get video of a three biplane flight, with my PZ SE5a joining Derek's Puppeteer and Jim's Veron Hawker Tomtit, but the technology failed me and I ended up with a dozen video files showing the back of my transmitter case and the three of us talking nonsense for hours. When I thought I was switching the video glasses on, I was switching them off -so they stayed on for most of the day and were off when we were flying!

 

Did manage to navigate a successful maiden flight of the Kyosho P-51D Mustang that I somersaulted down the field a few weeks ago. The Mustang flew wonderfully, once I'd got her back under control after flying right through the bright sun on take off. Loads of power and very stable, but that episode with the sun left me needing a sit down and calming coffee after landing. I'll fit the undercarriage doors now and disguise the horrible sight of those spindly U/C legs. Thanks to Derek for the pictures.

 

 

Looks like being another lovely flying day today, but I've some domestic jobs to sort out and another long trip will have to wait.

[Daren Cogdon]

I took to the airfield last night, with the FT Spitfire, the Volantex UMX Spit, and my FT Buchon.  

 

The FT Spit flew fine, and I had a go at some more aerobatics (half-Cuban 8 - nailed it).  The Volantex Spit flew great, too.

 

However, the Buchon's maiden flight was certainly eventful - and now I have a plane to repair!

[Simon Chaddock]

Today I flew my Hawker P1081 made of 5mm XPS underlay. It had not been flown was nearly 2 years!

The P1081 was a converted P1052 which itself was a swept wing version of Sea Hawk. The swept wing Sea Hawk was rejected by the Fleet Air Arm. 😮

By using a improved RR Nene and a straight through exhaust rather than the bifurcated of the Sea Hawk the intention was that it would make a 'transonic' fighter for the Australian Air Force.

Actually a rather a macabre model as only one was built and when trying to achieve transonic speeds in a dive the pilot lost control, ejected at low altitude but was unable to free himself from the seat and died on impact with the ground.  

The next Hawker prototype that followed just a year later was the Hunter.

Mine being light flies nicely with a 55mm EDF and is an easy hand launch. At reduced throttle it can manage 4+ minutes from a modest 1800mAh 3s.    

[Ron Gray]

Bit blowy today which kept the numbers down, flew my U-Can-Do which I did, despite the wind. Gosh my precision aerobatics really are rusty!

 

[Peter Jenkins]

You know what they say Ron - more practice needed!  Even then, I'm still propping up the list!🤣

[Ron Gray]

Yes I know Peter but I also get easily bored with text book aerobatics (apart from scale, mainly warbirds) but I also know that text book aerobatics will improve my warbird flying. Still it was only the second time I've flown the U-Can in the last 2 years, the first was 2 weeks ago!!

[Peter Jenkins]

Quite right Ron, F3A skills help most other types of flying.

[Daren Cogdon]

Another couple of test flights for the Me109/Buchon.  The first time, using a lighter battery, still showed a lot of tendency to dive and to roll to the right.  This time, I managed to bring it down successfully for a look at it.  We found that the motor has significant down-thrust, which might have been done when I first built it.  We also checked the wing, and found that it doesn't sit properly due to the wing seat, and the wing is out of alignment.  Relatively easy fixes, both, but more repairs needed as the battery parted company with the plane at about 50ft on the second flight!  Another crunch, and the same areas damaged, but nothing major.  

 

I then flew the 85% FT Spitfire, and this went well.... up until the engine died!  I managed to fizz back to base (just) and a deceased motor was deduced.  Must have been a dud motor, as it's not as if I've ragged it at all since the first flight.   Ah well.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Not the windiest ever weather but, probably due to the direction, one of the most turbulent days I've encountered.  The inbuilt gyro on my Arrows Hawk was unable to tame much of it and my other models were regularly tipped onto their wingtips while flying in the lee of our local woods.  Possibly coincidental but one of my Timber's wings came apart in flight (I had been giving it a wringing out) - the resulting flat spin into the ground inflicting a lot less damage than might have been expected.

 

 

Interesting seeing how little glue was used in joining the wing skins...at least it should repair easily!

[Ron Gray]

That looks like a really fix - result!

[Eric Robson]

Four days of great weather up here in the North East,  flying ic and electric, had a mid air with my Brian Taylor Corsair, clipped a glider which didn't fare to well, the Corsair flew straight on, done a couple of circuits and landed to find the wing was sliced through past the main spar. Yesterday there was turbulence and just before touchdown the Warbirds Replicas Tempest became almost uncontrollable, this was just about midday on  the third landing it lifted coming over the rough out field , a touch of down and it dropped like a brick pulling the wing off. After lunch I flew the Yak9 and the turbulence had gone, it flew in straight and level, which is how the Tempest usually is. Both repaired now.

[Simon Chaddock]

The continued light winds has encouraged me to fly my foam lightweights that really benefit from benign conditions.

First was the rather exotic A4b or the V-2 with wings.

 

This picture was taken 6 years ago in its original 70mm EDF from.

It has now has been modified and significantly lightened using a 2205 drone motor turning a 5" four blade as a ducted prop.

  

The "lipstick" LW-PLA nose cone is not scale but it does make it highly visible.

In this form it weighs just 476g (16.8oz) using a 850mAh 5s. It flies pretty much as it did with the EDF but a bit slower. The noise at VTO from the ducted prop turning at close to 40,000 rpm is loud!

Full power in only used for the vertical ascent as it flies conventionally at much reduced throttle. Anyway I am not sure either the structure or the control surfaces can withstand full power in level flight.

 

Next the very different sub 250g Depron Super Cub. Not really a micro as it has a 40" span.

Apart from its light weight, basically all 2mm sheet Depron, nothing special except perhaps that the balsa wing struts are fully load bearing. The wing has no spar as such and are simply glued to the fuselage side sheeting. The wing struts share the rear UC attachment just as does the full size. It weighs 242g with a 1000mAh 2s on board.

In the near still conditions yesterday it flew for just under 18 minutes (17:44). No problem but I was not sure how much capacity the battery had left!

I noted the charger put in 418mAh to restore the battery to "full" which made me wonder just how much or little power it was actually flying on.

418mAh is 25.08 Ampminutes. It flew for 17.75 minutes which gives an average consumption of 1.41 amps and that includes the power required for the RX and four servos! 

On a 2s at say an average of 7.4V meant it managed the flight on 10.4W. As it weighs 242g (8.54 oz) that gives a power loading of 19.5W/lb.

All very ecologically friendly but it does require almost still conditions which are not that common in the windy UK. 😉

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

50 minutes ago, Simon Chaddock said:

The continued light winds has encouraged me to fly my foam lightweights that really benefit from benign conditions.

 

 

?

[Learner]

47 minutes ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

 

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Watching the rain lash down here, thunder lightning and 30mph winds!!