Saturday's flat field flying at Ashurst

I'd forgotten just how enjoyable flat field flying actually was until yesterday. It had been so long since I'd flown from a large open space it was a pleasure.

I was joined by Ian and Rob. Thankfully Rob stood on the corner of the main road to confirm the way into the field which was nice and easy (far easier than our previous club field). We parked under some large Oaks for shade and went off to play.

Firstly we flew our DLG's. I had a funny one. My first flight with my fairly new DLG, I was in full spin and just as released my grip of the model the wing peg came free from the wing. The model went one way, the wing peg went another and I was left confused! Walk back to the car for my old Blaster 2 DLG. Carried on and I think al three of us successfully managed to get away in thermals. Rob's DLG flying was cut short due to a loose servo tray. After many more throws and climbs we got bored of that so back to the car to get the big boys out. Me with my Maxa with it's thermal fuselage  (I can swop between a thermal or powered fuselage with the same wing and tail plane - very useful) and Ian with his Shadow. Both Ian and myself have watched YouTube videos of guys hurling their models by hand off the flat and picking up a thermal from 6' off the ground and we thought we could emulate the experience - well we couldn't!
Out with the bungee......
The bungee gave us a few hundred feet launch which was enough for Ian to climb away on his first launch but for me it took 4 or 5 attempts to get away. Ian was soaring around for about an hour I would have thought just using up all the thermal while I practised my self launches off the bungee. Eventually I managed to hook a good thermal and climbed up to 'Pauly height'. I'm not exactly sure how high that actually is but the model was just a small spec in the sky and it is a 4m glider so reasonably high given its size. Rob came and had a brief flight. I had to lay on the ground to ease the neck strain.

While we were using the bungee Rob was flying the clubs electric glider, Seemed to be going ok from the quick glimpses I had of him. You daren't take you eyes off a glider high up or you run the risk of loosing it completely.
Goy bored of the large thermal glider so stopped for a rest and a chat and retreated to the shade for a bit. Rob went off home and Ian and I who find it difficult to stop flying sometimes went back onto the DLG's again. It's a real challenge to get away from what is a hand launch and finding a thermal and climbing away to a tiny dot (in Ian's case) and a challenge that we both really enjoy.
After being completely 'flown out' it was down the road to a lovely pub called 'The Fountain' for a pint of Harvey's and some food.

We don't advertise their exact position because of the obvious reasons but if you would like to know the location of this fantastic resource then feel free to contact either myself or Rob and we will be happy to give you the full details.