Saturday 7 May 2016

First flying session this year at the clubs field.

A good turn out today for our first real visit to our club field this year. Ian, Graham, Tim, Scott, Jim and of course, me!

Today started of warm and what seemed like an Easterly breeze, Not much direct sunshine but hazy skies that gave us some thermals to try and stay up in. Out came the large moudlies with Ian and his heavy moldy, Graham with his new Shadow and me with my Xperience Pro. We made some adjustments the heavy duty bungee and decided to give it a go. I failed to find any lift from a fairly low launch. Ian on the other hand had a failed launch no more than 26m up but still managed to find the lift and climb away for a fairly respectable 15 min flight. My second flight off the bungee went well with a 72m launch (Spektrum telemetry telling me the height) and I found lift. Climbing through 95m then everything went dead. Completely lost all control. The glider thankfully continued to gently circle until control was resumed. What a horrible feeling that was having no control. Anyway got it down safely and thought it was best not to fly anymore. Graham was making light work of his bungee launches with good height and mostly boom into thermals and away. I have to apologise to Jim for busting his motor glider. Powered up, Jim launched away and it went straight into the deck. Sorry Jim......
Then out came the DLG's. These are just the best fun. After about 50 launches (that's why I have a sore shoulder) both Ian and I managed to thermal away with a rapid climb up to about 300 - 400ft. At one point we had three DLG's floating around. I flew my new Blaster 2 which I just love, even though the launches seem nearly vertical and my battered out old Libelle.
The field condition was good. Solid ground but be aware that there is no lock on the first gate (going into the field with the ponies) but there is a padlock on the other gate. There were lots of walkers plodding through but many stopped and looked.
What a great asset we have in the field lets make the most of what we have got.
I have a little video but not much you will be pleased to here!!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you had a great day. Sad to have missed it, but no doubt there'll be more !

    ReplyDelete