Summer 2023 is here, who has been flying then?

[Jon H]

I decided to have a Hawker day last week. Both models successfully air tested after servicing. 

[Futura57]

35 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

Looks like a Seagul Pilatuc PC-9 came off quite badly in that mid-air. 😞

Indeed, and an Avicraft Moronic I believe. Good business for Avicraft though 😉

[PDB]

Lovely late day session yesterday at a new club near me and a first time on a hard surface instead of grass. A fantastic flying site with lots of clear sky and no obstructions nearby, here are a few shots from the session courtesy of another flying member.

 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by PDB

[leccyflyer]

1 hour ago, Futura57 said:

Indeed, and an Avicraft Moronic I believe. Good business for Avicraft though 😉

Does Avicraft still have those marvellous Edwardian haberdashers counters full of spinners, pilots, engine mounts, fuel tanks and other accessories? It must be twenty years since I was last there.

[Futura57]

27 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

Does Avicraft still have those marvellous Edwardian haberdashers counters full of spinners, pilots, engine mounts, fuel tanks and other accessories? It must be twenty years since I was last there.

Yes. It's an Aladdin's cave. You can't see the ceiling for all the models hanging up. I have been known to bang my head on them from time to time. I don't visit so often these days but have been reconnecting a little with Rob recently. He is a very helpful generous guy. I was saddened to learn of his brother Ali's condition.

[Futura57]

Just got back from another sortie at my local club field. I had intended just to try a smaller propeller on my Top Quark. Stayed for four more test flights. Two club members, a couple, we're enjoying the sunshine flying their Sopwith Pup and Fokker DVII. Had a couple of full size Spitfire fly overs from Biggin Hill as we often do.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Futura57

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Nice drop of sky over the field today. 

 

 

 

[aidan mcatamney]

T28

[leccyflyer]

Battle of Britain Day today 15th September and always like to commemorate the event. JUst me and my pal Bob at the field, it being a Friday, but got plenty of flights in with various Spitfires and Messerschmitt Me109s, ranging from the wee Volantex 400mm warbirds up to Dynam and Durafly 1100mm versions. Made a short video clip of Bob's Dynam Spitfire, which he's repainted as Al Deere's K-LB and took a few shots of the various fighters on the ground. No aerial shots unfortunately.

 

 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Nice few hours today - but no BoB activity.

 

Tony flew (temporarily) his Durafly FW190, his mad Hacker Super Zoom, and his venerable EFlite Yak.

John shredded the air with his big helis.

I flew the baby FW, my Double Trouble, and Valiant.

 

All safely returned home, except Tony's slightly damaged FW.

 

Lovely day.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Blowing a gale here perfect for autogyros while the club members huddled up out of the wind  in a cool 30°c,,,

 

The picture was taken when the wind had dropped, I broke the 3 bladed prop and put an Apc 2 bladed one, .

 

 it keeps doing it

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Paul De Tourtoulon
picture rotated 90° on it's own.

[Futura57]

I had another great day today flying at Epsom Downs for nearly six hours. Not the biggest turnout for a Saturday but great fun nonetheless. Hot with a gentle wind. Clocked over 60 flights now on my Top Quark prototype. I had the honour of hand launching a clubmates A4 Skyhawk. The camera man caught my technique quite well I think.

[aidan mcatamney]

The Tiger 40 going through its paces earlier today.  

[leccyflyer]

Had a great afternoon yesterday, warm, broken cloud, sunny spells, light winds and had plenty of flights with various Spitfires and Messerschmitts for the second of our Battle of Britain weeekend flying days. This morning was a little different with complete low cloud overcast, mist graduallly turning to mizzle, very light wind and really cold - flying in fingerless gloves, with coat and wooly hats all round. Again plenty of Messershmitt and Spitfire flights, but didn;t fancy flying my Hurricane with such poor visibility, so confined to SEMFF and Volantex models mostly. Think overall, taking the weekend as a whole we did the Battle of Britan commemoration pretty well though.

 

Highlight for me this morning, before the mizzle stopped play for the day, was to maiden my wee profile depron Super 30, using the 2.4ghz converted Digimac III set - range check and failsafe checks successfully passed and the maiden flight was completely drama free - handlaunch and trimmed out on the sticks, but flew most of the flight on the button, trying out the difference between sequential and compound single channel controls, which the model did well, behaving quite predictably. I did have to resort to the sticks a couple of times and landed using the sticks, but I had a large part of the flight on the button. The model works very well, but needed some left trim under power - think I overdid the right thrust a bit, copied from my Schoolboy, so that will be addressed with a couple of washers.  

[Peter Jenkins]

A very nice day at our patch where I ran a UK F3A Aerobatics National League competition.  Sadly we were down to 10 pilots instead of the usual 16.  But that meant we could fly 4 rounds.  Everyone had a great time.  The 11th aircraft,  a biplane, belongs to one of the judges who flew it between the competitive rounds.  We even had one pilot who was flying in his first competition.  Photo courtesy of Beryl.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Peter Jenkins

[leccyflyer]

Just been sent a few pictures from the Battle of Britain weekend flying at the club by clubmate Steve and I think he's captured the close combat of our SEMFF Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf109E quite nicely. Al Deere in KL-B saw the YNB off in the end though, which was appropriate.

 

[Adrian Smith 1]

Great array of F3A aircraft there, Peter. Glad it went well ✈️

[Peter Jenkins]

We were very lucky with the weather Adrian.

[Futura57]

Since we are very nearly at the Autumn Equinox this may qualify as my last flying outing for this thread about Summer flying 😱 I just got back from a quickie session at my local patch. Sometimes you just gotta scratch that itch. Rain was threatened but never materialised. Neither did any club mates. So it was Billy-No-Mates for me today. Wind less than 10mph but direction was directly over local trees at the end of the strip and the turbulence was terrible. Hey ho.

 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Had just one flight this morning; but did also set up the Saito in my Spacewalker - so I can fix the cowl on now.

 

Then popped up the road to help Andy S set up the BMFA gazebos, sims, roped off area etc. for tomorrows Family Flying Day at Kilham Playing Fields.  

 

Got back to field later and just had a nice chat..... 

[aidan mcatamney]

39 minutes ago, GrumpyGnome said:

Had just one flight this morning; but did also set up the Saito in my Spacewalker - so I can fix the cowl on now.

 

Then popped up the road to help Andy S set up the BMFA gazebos, sims, roped off area etc. for tomorrows Family Flying Day at Kilham Playing Fields.  

 

Got back to field later and just had a nice chat..... 

Good stuff.  I power my Spacewalker with a Saito also.  Great flying plane.   

[martin collins 1]

Couple of nice flights on my Val, enjoying getting back into large petrol models, backed it up with a couple of flights on my electric Priory Models Silhouette, another great flyer.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

And just as you're having fun, along came Autumn - fingers crossed for an Indian summer!