Wicked wind at Itford Hill

The forecast was for an 18-20mph westerly wind on Sunday morning so Itford Hill was the obvious choice. I arrived to see birds hovering and spiralling skywards; all looked very promising.
There were about six of us model pilots on the hillside, some familiar faces such as Scotty and Marc and others (new to me) who were very well equipped. Medium to large mouldies were evident, including the Jart, Aresti, Vector and similar slick models. I think the conditions suited the mouldies as they were able to slice through the wind and turbulence. Marc and Scotty's Wildthings (EPP combat wings) were struggling to make headway, Marc's model was blown back into the shrubbery at one point and needed rescuing with a stick.

I had two woodies to play with: the Sierra is the heaviest so I launched that. It went off like a rocket and after 10 exhilarating minutes landed with a bump and a new dent in the wing, but nothing major.

 

I decided the Omega's maiden fight could wait for a less blustery day.

To keep the cold out I was wearing a 'Dickies' padded overall suit for the first time, no photo I'm afraid but definitely recommended for chilly, blowy days like this.

One of the mouldies suffered a mid-air wing fracture when caught by a violent gust of wind, a nasty snap was audible from the hillside. The pilot managed a controlled decent but a hard landing was unavoidable and more damage was the result.

Apparently that same wing had previously been damaged and repaired. We all gathered round at this point and offered helpful advice...

Happy landings!

Russell H