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

[GrumpyGnome]

Surprisingly calm here today. Four of us at the field.

 

KP flew his big Seagull Spitfire and had a lucky escape when the engine developed some fuel issues. Carried on chucking his big Extra about. 

 

JT flew his little Mini Bolero and some sort of funfly. The Mini Bolero is a very pretty model!

 

TJ had a very bad day..... he had to brake suddenly on the journey, which had, unbeknown to him, caused some structural damage to his Zoom Zoom. Never seen an EPP model clap its wings before. His little 3D printed AgWagon performs better outdoors than in, and had a 'lively' flight, followed by an innocuous landing that cracked an undercarriage leg. He than caused more significant damage removing the battery. His 3D printed Shard flew well on its maiden, then something went badly wrong .... resulting in the requirement to print some more parts. Well, a whole model to be more accurate. It'll give him something to do at the weekend!

 

My Hangar9 P51 didn't like the moss and soggy grass and refused to keep its spinner out of the grass. Doesn't help that it's a bit nose heavy. To he corrected toot-sweet...... that left me with my reliable old Wotty.  

 

A very enjoyable few hours, the challenge being renembering how to land in zero wind!

 

 

 

Edited October 30 by GrumpyGnome

[Colin Carpenter]

Thick fog here in deepest Somerset. Set out as seemed to be lifting. At patch far too foggy for fixed wing so 2 goes on Align 500. Had new lipo to try which was a gift from clubmate. As I was hovering the fog dropped like a brick. U can’t win now with the weather 😩😩😩😩Colin

[Erfolg]

The farm track down to our field remains questionable to me, although the issue is really the return trip, uphill that is the issue. I now recognise that the traction control on the rear wheels, seems to work well, it is the steering that caused me the most angst.

 

On Wednesday, that is a club meeting day. I was not there.

 

Some time back I had been sold a second hand DB Mascot, the reality is it was given. I expected a bare shell, what was delivered to my house, complete with servos, and a engine. I had envisaged supplying all these things, instead I received a modern OS 40 (with remote needle assy. You may wonder why a dedicated electric flyer would want a Mascot. Nostalgia!

 

What Nostalgia? wanting to fly at Greenacres, way back, when "mass Builds" were supported by RCM&E. I needed an "A" cert, my electric did not have the flight time to complete, the schedule. The Sale club had a enhanced test, it required two consecutive loops, two low passes, probably a few other elements. The why, there is the Mersey, almost ox bowing the site, complete with a river siren, I think she is called Lowerie. Then their is a river side jungle of Himayian Balsam, finally came a a belt of surrounding trees. You needed to manage these issues, hence a training regime, for what is a magnificent flying site.

 

One of the club trainers, Paul took pity on me, he lent me a club trainer, a DB Mascot, plus be tried to get rid of all my competitive glider guider habits of flying directly at myself when landing, bringing the model close to me, landing fast (hitting the landing circle). He took the time to understand, why, and for power flight these habits were and are not acceptable.

 

The superb characteristics of the model generated nostalgia.

 

On that note I am now in the garden, getting that motor to run. I had fixed numerous air leeks from the new fuel tube, raised the tank. purchased a glo starter, a starter motor, battery, a bit box fuel carrier, plug spanner and so on.

 

Most surprisingly, this time it stated first time, went from tick over, to full power. I ran the set up for about 5 minutes. Then i realised, i did not know how to go from tick over to stop, without a rag. The trim did stop it though.

 

I am almost ready to go power flying, I am still electric for ever.

 

I will need input from club members, avoiding the tinkers and experts.

 

Not a day/afternoon wasted though, at my field. Quite chuffed in a small way

[Frank Day]

Lovely warm day Thursday, no wind and blue skies. Grass was quite shaggy and I hadnt been out to play for a couple of months so bashed a few batteries through an old Max-Thrust Ruckus and a final blast on a Multiplex Sonic liner but managed to drag both motors off in the grass, all sorted in 10mins.

[Frank Day]

Going to have to be more careful with the Multiplex Sonic Liner, one sold in the US for $450!!

[GrumpyGnome]

A fool and his money.... etc.

[GrumpyGnome]

Rearrange this common phrase from 2024..... expected than breezier.

 

Wotty doesn't care - in this it climbs like an EE Lightning on reheat... 🙂 

 

 

and it takes to the air in just a few feet...

 

 

[Peter Jenkins]

Didn't have time to post this yesterday so here goes.  I waited till almost 1 pm before the Sun broke through in Suffolk.  Got to the patch at 2.45 pm to find I was the only one there.  Conditions were almost perfect with a light breeze at about 20 deg to the runway and blue skies.  I had taken my laptop with me so that I could "debrief" after flight using the Flight Coach data that was saved to a micro SD card.  I did that for the first two flights but after that decided to just fly trying to apply corrections to the errors I'd seen and then look at the final two flights at home.  

 

Sunset was 4.30 pm and from around 4 pm onwards the wind dropped completely.  So, my last flight, taking off at 4.15 and landing at 4.22 was conducted in this strange calm.  Can't say that it seemed to help much!  As I landed, the Sun was half way below the horizon and by the time I'd got back to the pits, disarmed the aircraft and removed the batteries I thought I'd take a photo right after the Sun had disappeared.  What a session!

 

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Beautiful day yesterday as forecast (for once) with virtually no wind and, once the mist cleared at the field (clear as a bell at home 5 miles away), a beautiful sky for watching the smoke trail from my Christen Eagle gracing the sky in the way that no (healthy) electric model can replicate.  Plenty of fun with the foamy stuff as well - the Arrows Hawks in formation looked pretty good in the sunshine and with crystal clear visibility, my EF Extra was doing loops into the stratosphere!

 

There were a few interesting moments after losing a cylinder on the Saito 182 twin after a touch and go - barely climbed on one pot but nursed it past the woods - must have been a dislodged slug of congealed oil in one carb as it kicked in on the approach when throttled back...the joys of an onboard glow!

[Frank Day]

9 hours ago, GrumpyGnome said:

A fool and his money.... etc.

 

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?4611981-Multiplex-Sonic-Liner-NIB

Paid £40 for this unmarked baby a couple of years ago. I heard that there was a little movement in these "classic" Multiplex models but thats mad. May hold on the twin edf conversion.

 

 

Edited November 1 by Frank Day

[GrumpyGnome]

Our field got some more use yesterday afternoon, with another three members taking advantage of the conditions - nice to see it used.

 

 I spent a few hours pottering, and looking at the output from the little GPS unit in my Wotty - I'm not sure it is entirely accurate as when I was getting 10 second voice updates, it was all over the place - at one point it told me I was at -97 feet!

 

The last log of the day seemed more accurate, with no weird data, and an expected start and end at around 0 feet. I don't think I fly very high but on a number of occasions, typically when I want to do some spins, I was in excess of 600 feet agl. One of the larger models was regularly just over 1000 feet (different type of sensor).  I'll overlay my data onto Google Earth when I get chance.  The speed part seemed accurate too, starting and ending at 0, with a max of 78 knots. 

 

Currently raining - NOT what was forecast......

[payneib]

10 hours ago, GrumpyGnome said:

Currently raining - NOT what was forecast......

Hopefully forecast stays steady for tomorrow - there's a whole family CL outing planned in the new car!

[Erfolg]

I have now finally made it to our field, the first time in weeks, perhaps a month. The track is now dry and graded, no sign of the deep mud, and grooving.

 

When I arrived there was just one other club member, flying a Wot 4, possibly (certainly) by far the best flyer in the club, the flying confirmed this view. 

 

The weather was dark, dull sky, no apparent wind.

 

I had brought my newly acquired DB Mascot, to undertake range check. I was far more concerned tha is usual, as I was given the Rx, belonging to a member who had departed us. It functioned without issue. My two other models, struggled with the damp grass, although quite short. This struck me as odd, my granddaughters hocky pitches are all watered to make the pitches play faster. There was a wind, from the south, 90 degrees across the field, masked by the trees behind and parallel to the flight line.

 

By now, another competent flyer had arrived with two very large scale models. Both are impressive, as was the flyers flying.

 

A third also arrived, setting up for Bon Fire night. There was a passing comment that Webbies are closing.

 

On this dismal note I went home. Now the local shop, is in Leeds. Oh well!

[Jake Bullit]

A decent turnout at Southport this morning. 

 

[leccyflyer]

Dreich day today, with widespread mizzle, but nearly flat calm initially, clearing slightly as the wind strengthened, so half a dozen of us got a couple of hours flying in, before rain stopped play.

 

[Eric Robson]

The early morning mist cleared,   off to the field only 2 turned up plus a prospective new member who had two flights with the club trainer and buddy box. Flew my Spitfire and Chipmunk 

[GrumpyGnome]

1 hour ago, payneib said:

Hopefully forecast stays steady for tomorrow - there's a whole family CL outing planned in the new car!

 

Looks ok/foggy.... depending on which forecast you believe....

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Rather disappointing that the high pressure at this time of year has trapped so much moisture.  While the air remains just as benign, dampness prevails and todays flying just didn’t give the pleasure of a couple of days ago. 
 

At least the smooth air led to some very rewarding formation flying practice with our Vampires. 

[Murat Kece 1]

It is giving Aberdeenshire a great period of calm flying weather.

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Cold, damp, grey. 4 hardy souls out....

 

[martin collins 1]

Had three flights on each of my dirty Fokkers on Friday, overcast but very little wind and quite mild for this time of year, hopefully get a fair bit more flying done this coming week with a similar forecast.

[Ron Gray]

On a sad note, fellow club member and my best mate, Ian McDowell died last Wednesday, so today a few members got together and had a 12 noon fly-by in tribute to a great guy. He loved small models some off which I've shown on here before hence why most of us selected our own smaller ones to fly.

 

Edited November 3 by Ron Gray

[leccyflyer]

Another balmy sunny summer's day, with practically zero wind, in NE Scotland. Perfect conditions for the ADS annual scale competition and we had a grand turnout with a good collection of scale models on show. The competition has two classes - Scratch, plan and kit built models in one category, then ARTF and RTF models in the second category - club members get one anonymous vote in each category. Fifteen flyers at the field , with ten entries for the first category, won by Mike's scratch built Spruce Goose  and four in the ARTF category, which was won by Andrew's Hobbyking Gladiator.

 

 

 

 

Some really nice flying models in a perfect day's flying included a rare outing for Mike's C130 Hercules, which really looked the part against the mountain backdrop, Derek and Jim's Panther and DH Venom pair in some reasonably close formation flying, plus Derek's Phoenix From The Ashes Super Chipmunk, which everyone though was a write off two weeks ago, brought back to like through the magic of Jim's workshop.

 

 

 

 

Murat came equipped for the maiden flight of his lovely Loganair Britten Norman Islander, but despite several attempts to take off, she struggled with drag on the undercarriage and the short runway. Though the Islander did eventually get light under the wheels, she wasn't quite up to flying speed but thankfully the brief hop didn't cause any serious damage to this bonny aeroplane.

 

 

My Beaufighter saw the light of day for the first time, but I didn't attempt a maiden - my trusty dolly being just too small to give the required ground clearance. Had a great day flying the other models though -especially enjoying the wee Hellcat and VMC Hurricane on the day. We've had a few grand summer=like days in the past few weeks and it would be great if we can get a few more in November.

 

[Daren Cogdon]

Another outing for the 85% FT Spit following its motor replacement.  Love this thing!!

 

 

[leccyflyer]

Cheeky couple of hours in bright sunshine and light winds this afternoon, so enough time for some low key flying. A bit damp and muddy under foot, but conditions just got better as the day wore on, before the setting sun led us to pack up for the day and wend our way home. The forecast is good for the rest of the week and we're getting some of the calm and sunny conditions that we totally missed out on in the summer.