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

[leccyflyer]

nother grand morning here, chilly, with 100% high overcast, but bright enough and most importantly a very light N wind, veeming about a bit but not enough to be a problem.

Just the two of us at the field, tested out my conversion of the wee SE5a and EFlite B-17g to take the 1s 400mah Volantex packs. Those batteries are remarkable - and at 5 for less than a tenner, with a five way USB charger are incredible value for money. Compared to the EFlite 250mah 1s cells it was chalk and cheese, loads of power and transformed those two models, which couldn't get out of their own way yesterday.

Same result swapping the 2s1p 200mah lipos for a Giant Power 2s1p 400mah lipo on the wee SEMFF mini Wildcat, which now flies superbly. After reviewing my list of models that I hadn't flown for ages I gave a rare flight of my Tony Nijuis Wellingon, which is practically weightless and cruised round the sky for ages on it's 2x GWS geared brushed motors - the 3s1p 3200mah pack balanced the model perfectly and gave a better duration than the 3s1p 2200mah pack I'd used last time out.

As well as a couple of flights with my Volantex Spitfire and Bf109E I also got a flight with my spare Hawes Tucano. This still uses a geared Fanfare brushed motor set up and took every inch of our short strip to get airborne. Once in the air the Tucano is a really nice stable flyer, with the ability to produce really flattering stall turns, There's a brushless conversion in the future for ZF446 though - a smaller prop with more ground clearance will help a lot with the take offs.

[Chris Freeman 3]

Some pictures from the weekend of the aircraft Byron flew: DB Auster, about 25 years old and recently rebuilt, ASP fs power, the camo sure works well. Our Mustang and a Fly Fan 1/4 scale 3W 150cc that Byron flew for a friend. Very impressive in the air with a great sound from the inline twin.  

[Eric Robson]

4 hours ago, leccyflyer said:

nother grand morning here, chilly, with 100% high overcast, but bright enough and most importantly a very light N wind, veeming about a bit but not enough to be a problem.

Just the two of us at the field, tested out my conversion of the wee SE5a and EFlite B-17g to take the 1s 400mah Volantex packs. Those batteries are remarkable - and at 5 for less than a tenner, with a five way USB charger are incredible value for money. Compared to the EFlite 250mah 1s cells it was chalk and cheese, loads of power and transformed those two models, which couldn't get out of their own way yesterday.

Same result swapping the 2s1p 200mah lipos for a Giant Power 2s1p 400mah lipo on the wee SEMFF mini Wildcat, which now flies superbly. After reviewing my list of models that I hadn't flown for ages I gave a rare flight of my Tony Nijuis Wellingon, which is practically weightless and cruised round the sky for ages on it's 2x GWS geared brushed motors - the 3s1p 3200mah pack balanced the model perfectly and gave a better duration than the 3s1p 2200mah pack I'd used last time out.

As well as a couple of flights with my Volantex Spitfire and Bf109E I also got a flight with my spare Hawes Tucano. This still uses a geared Fanfare brushed motor set up and took every inch of our short strip to get airborne. Once in the air the Tucano is a really nice stable flyer, with the ability to produce really flattering stall turns, There's a brushless conversion in the future for ZF446 though - a smaller prop with more ground clearance will help a lot with the take offs.

Mist and drizzle here all day grrr

[Erfolg]

Life for the other half, is so different for many other of us. Yep, today is a club day, really a scheduled club evening, time and resources set aside for training for the BMFA achievement scheme. I go just after lunch, that use to be dinner, before the better half re-educated me into, dinner is now LUNCH, lunch is now dinner, I think I have got it it.

 

Anyway, it is now 12.00 hrs, the rain is bucketing down, not that it matters. The club field is no longer accessible to me, the track remains unusable to my high performance, 10 year old diesel car. It must be high performance as it it rear wheel drive, and I recently found my driving gloves, mixed in my gardening gear. The other aspect to the situation is our field is seldom mowed at this time of year, as it is knee deep with water, trapped on the clay substrata, the mower gets bogged down. 

 

How the other half life, 😢.

 

When I do fly my aged models often show their age. My 45 year old stalwart, is beset with issues, Just like Triggers (Only Fools and Horses) brush, it needs to be fixed from unpredictable time to time. This time (actually last time) all the controls worked nicely, out on the field, the motor did not respond to opening the throttle, no reassuring beeps etc. This has happened before, rearming had previously solved the problem, then dismissed as one of those things. Nowt doing on this glorious day though. From a a similar occurrence on a 10 or so year old, reduced scale "Nobbler", finally traced to a defunct motor, having replaced the ESC. At home I systematically substituted all these items. Only finally finding that the issue actually was the motor bullet connectors, in cleaning them a little, the old system worked perfectly. Now I ponder have really cleaned, the oxide film? Or, what?

 

I had one half of the elevator, part company with other in flight, the week before, as it separated from the wooden torque dowel. It made itself known by going out of longitudinal trim, by heading earthwards. the balsa adjacent to the dowel letting go.

 

Together with brittle polymer issue on another oldish model, so far this year I have been lucky. What did surprise me though that an original Kavan (from the same packet), flat pin hinge, that I thought I could use also useless, being brittle.

 

Luckily (so far ) my new Delta is now sorted.

 

Now, I just await the track to be improved, the field returning from a quagmire, then "Alles ist in ortnung", a Christmas Market beckons shortly.

[GrumpyGnome]

Lovely day here near the coast in the East Riding.... blue skies, gentle breeze, hot coffee, good company.

 

Next task - safety fence up and fly!

 

[leccyflyer]

Nice day here too, sunny, warm, maybe 5mph wind, but unfortunately my car is in the garage today, so no flying for me.

[Tim Flyer]

Went flying my Hangar 9 Mustang today here In Herts . I brought a sports model as a standby in case the runway was too soft after all the rain we’ve had.

 

I was  pleasantly surprised to find firm ground and managed five great fun flights so at least it’s done one good October outing.  The wind was quite modest WSW/SW slightly across our E/W runway but easily manageable. The temperature was incredibly warm for October …only requiring a tea shirt! 

[Chris Walby]

Flying today as the current build is driving me a bit nuts + waiting on bits turn up!  I must have a bit of a curse as the wind was straight down the patch, but when it was time to fly it was a full (light) cross wind!

 

Two flights each and a good dose of gum bashing 🙂 

[Adrian Smith 1]

When I checked the weather forecast last night I was not optimistic about flying first thing today due to mist. Admittedly on my drive over to the field it was patchy mist, but by the time I decamped at 9am it was a sparkling morning. No a breathe of wind so "horses for courses" out came my 74" SW Edge.

 

 

De-misters on full blast .... start your engines ....  take off!

I managed four flights and I lover her to bits 😀 I had a great work out, but it took me until the last flight to get the bunt right from inverted. She has a tendency to roll out at the top although I think part of my problem was going too slow into the move - something I worked in the last flight. I must try harder!

[Erfolg]

9 am? I thought that time had been abolished! Ungodly hour.

 

It could not be 9 pm, it is dark here and the witches are out on Pendle Hill.

 

No, 10.00 - 13.00 hrs is flying time.

 

A number of the Golf courses are closed here, due to water logging, no trolleys allowed, even with winter wheels. Although Royal Lytham seems to be open.

 

I will be remaking enquires as to, is the farm track passible by proper vehicles, that is rear wheel drive (how I now regret my wife selling her occasional 4 wheel drive Beemer, now drives one of those cars that you get in on your hands and knees and stare at the hub caps of buses). Wellies are in the back of my car, together with 2023 years mud, up to the knee, fur hat, survival winter jacket. Being a tuf, Cheshire lad, no need for flying gloves, just extra thick thermallite, for standing about.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Hand warmers and a 4x4 are the essentials for me!

[Peter Jenkins]

Only got to the field in the afternoon.  As is almost usual these days, folks had flown up to lunch time so I was billy no mates.  The weather was warm, slightly more breeze than yesterday, say 12 mph, and about 30 degrees cross.  Managed to get in 1 training flight - just flying rectangles and trying to stay in the box .... and not succeeding - and then 4 schedule flights of varying quality.  Still, it was all very useful as I can now review my flights using the Flight Coach plotter.  Sadly, this shows that most manoeuvres need much more work to get them to the right shape, size and position!  I've now clocked up 38 flights with the Anthem.  Trimming is almost there but I'm still fiddling around with the spin to try and get a consistent spin entry and rotation.  Needs a few more goes to get that spot on.  Otherwise, it seems to be pretty much there.

 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

A perfect day to try my good old Opium glider from, elastic, then mabuchi 540 cad-ni, 540 reducer 2.3/ 1 , fpv, Brushless / lipo and now 'Hybrid',😅

To satisfy the 'écolos', airborne with the Cox, then it's an EV, and finally a Sailplane.

[Futura57]

Had another good day at Epsom Downs race course yesterday. Mostly blue sky and light winds which did pick up a little later on, but not enough to spoil things. Someone turned up with a half decent camera and snapped these flying shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Daren Cogdon]

Took the micro Spitfire out for a run this morning, in the field behind my house.  Lots of low flying!  Also test-flew the Nine Eagles Spitfire I've had for years, but only just got some new batteries for.  Forgot it's a bit twitchy due to not having gyros or anything like that, but at least it flew! 

[Ron Gray]

Yesterday was a glorious day here on the Norfolk / Suffolk border. Flying buddy Darren's Sebart Hawk

 

[leccyflyer]

Smashing afternoon here, but with a brisk and blustery south wind which was directly across our narrow and tight strip, so you needed to pick the right model for the conditions. Just five of us there but lots of fun was had - best laugh was literally hovering four wee Volantex warbirds maybe 20 feet up, over the strip and all very close to each other - remarkable style of flying given the conditions and the wee fellas were working hard at it.

Edited October 19 by leccyflyer

[Ron Gray]

This gives a better idea of how nice it was yesterday (I even managed to cut the patch to assist the jet jockey!)

 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

No pictures, but 16 on the 26°c sunny windless day, I flew my OS 26fs powered Baron, and it took me 3 maiden hairy flights to get club members electric

powered Dewoitine D.520, ( Seagull 1m80) trimmed, he was given it after its 3/4th crash, some of the these 'super' 30€ colored hedgehog  (switches) radios aren't the best things to hold.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Ridiculously good afternoon after an abysmal morning of heavy rain and general gloom.  The 24 mph wind forecast must have forgotten to set its alarm and never turned up and by the late afternoon, even the few fluffy clouds had disappeared with crystal clear air.  Good turnout with 3 prospective new members as a bonus!

[David Davis]

When I left England nine years ago to retire to central France, I bought five gallons of 10% nitro and five gallons of straight fuel from Southern Modelcraft when it was based in Kent, it was handy for the ferry! I have used nearly all of the 10% but still have most of straight fuel. Yesterday I took my Calmato and Boomerang trainer to see how well they would run on straight fuel. The Calmato is powered by an OS 46 AX and the Boomerang by an Enya 50SS. Both engines required adjusting of course but both models flew well enough. The Enya is still a bit rich on the bottom end. Low wind speeds are forecast today so I'm going to try flying the Big Guff this afternoon on straight fuel. It is powered by a Laser 62.

 

No pictures I'm afraid, my camera has stopped working and I'm saving up for another!

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

52 minutes ago, David Davis said:

I bought five gallons of 10% nitro

You would get 10 years here today, classed as a terrorist here with Nitro !

[David Davis]

47 minutes ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

You would get 10 years here today, classed as a terrorist here with Nitro !

 

Yes I've noticed that in France you cannot buy glow fuel with more than 16% nitro in it meanwhile in the UK Southern Modelcraft offer a mix containing 23% nitro. Cheaper too! I'll just have to smuggle some back into La Belle France next time I go "home!"

[Nick Cripps]

The flying events season started for me this year at the end of April with a trip up to Loch Earn, so it seemed appropriate to bring it to a close at the same venue some 6 months later. The forecast was poor for Friday, good for Saturday and dreadful for Sunday but I reasoned that driving up on Friday and staying overnight would give me a chance for a full day's flying on Saturday before driving back in the evening.

 

This was the view from my car on Friday afternoon when I arrived at Loch Earn:

 

Luckily, a brief weather window appeared about an hour later so I was able to get in one flight with the Skipper before the rain returned:

 

Even better was Saturday morning. This was the view when I went down for breakfast at 8am:

 

I was joined by 4 other Englishmen who had managed to evade the border patrols: @Merry Mark and his son Seb, "Geordie" John and "Northstar" Phil. Mark and I flew sorties with our matching Valiants while Seb went out in the rescue boat, John took the record for the most touch-and-goes and Phil had a ball with his Northstars.

 

I also flew my DB Sea Stormer which was maidened here in April and has now racked up 36 flights at various waterplane events this year:

 

It wasn't all a bed of roses though, as my Skipper was brutally attacked by Phil's Northstar when he joined Mark, John and me in a mini "Skipperfest":

 

Luckily the all debris was collected from the lake so it should be an easy fix and back in the air again soon. We found a section of a prop blade embedded in the underside of the Northstar so Phil didn't get away with it completely!

 

My thanks go to Caroline and the team at Loch Earn who always make us feel welcome and put on a great, laid-back event with plenty of amusing banter. I'm already looking forward to going back again next season!

[leccyflyer]

Looks like a marvellous weekend Nick and what a super venue. I really must make an effort to try out waterplanes for the first time, given that I have a couple of models with floats.

 

Is your saying that is the end of your season because you exclusively fly from water? I'm hoping to be able to fly all year round, but can understandit being a bit tricky to fly off the water through the winter.