Sunday 30 July 2017

Catching Mr. Attfield

Hi All,
This morning Paul, Tony and I met at Itford Hill - the wind had changed overnight to W from SW, so we decided to move the venue from Mill Hill. Paul brought his lovely Merlow, Tony had his Wildthing and I brought my Mini Vector.
The weather was perfect - the air was clear and the wind was in the WSW
When we reached the flying point, Paul rigged his Merlow and started flying and I worked with Tony to set up his Wildthing with my spare Dx6 as the wireless buddy (like always), but changed the activation button to a switch so I didn't need to keep it pressed down the whole time - thanks to Tim for the advice - it's soooooo much easier - I also programmed 'master override' to make it easier to regain control if Tony had any problems. Tony then had some good practices at landing approaches.
Paul took over with the tuition while I rigged my Mini Vector and when it was ready, Paul stood by while I flew it.
My intention was to land it myself - up to now I've asked Paul or Ian to land it (only because I was worried about a repeat of the crash I had with my Mini Blade) - but I was so impressed with Will's landings last weekend, that I felt inspired to emulate his efforts. I wanted to catch myself up with Will's progress.
Guess what ? I made two perfect landings (with Paul's verbal instructions) and felt brilliant  afterwards.
Paul and I then took turns helping Tony on the buddy box until Tony decided to try to fly to Lewes !!
Inevitably the Wildthing didn't make it - and Tony went for a walk to rescue his model. After quite a long time I called him on my mobile to see if he was OK - he said he couldn't find it ! I then went to look and found it almost immediately, much closer to us than we had realised, so I called him again to let him know that he could come back.... I don't know how far Tony had walked - maybe to Lewes ???
Finally, Paul kindly helped Tony by giving him a demonstration of landing approaches and eventually landed almost within touching distance of us - unfortunately Paul did one of his best tricks to date and landed in a massive cow poo  -  !


Poor Tony - he put a brave face on it though !

Rob

4 comments:

  1. Nice to meet you guys. Pity I couldn't stay longer. Until next time!

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    1. Nice to meet you Steve. Make sure you let us know before your next visit and we will make every effort to meet up.
      Cheers, Paul

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  2. Great to read Rob. Agree it's a real buzz when you conquer a fear or pull off a real personal achievement. It's addictive and pushes you to keep trying new things. I'm certainly no authority but if my antics from the previous weekend inspired even one person then that's made my day. Thanks!

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    1. Hi Will, I was inspired by your bravery the week before, so I had to make the attempt and it paid off. I can't wait for my next landing now !!

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