Monday 24 December 2018

Christmas Eve at Ditchling Beacon

Hi All,
Today we met at 09:00 Ditchling Beacon to try the forecasted NE , but it turned out to be more ENE and very light indeed. However, not to be put off, I had taken my Zulu and Ninja, Paul had his Zulu, Ninja and Ascot, Scotty had his Weasel and Libelle, Ian A had his Shadow and John M had his new 46" Wildthing .
Paul and I were first to arrive and we crossed the road and flew our Zulus, which went pretty well considering the lift wasn't really on the hill, but nevertheless we managed some pretty reasonable flights with bouts of landing when the lift died completely. Scotty arrived and flew his Weasel which went much better than our Zulus getting some pretty good height and distance out from the hill. Paul also flew the Weasel and we managed to get some good video footage of this 'close to the hill' flying which are on our whats App group - also see videos below from Paul's phone ----
Next to arrive was John M with his new 46 Wildthing, he realised it wouldn't be a good maiden flight but between me and him, we got it trimmed and flying pretty straight and level (might need a little bit more nose weight). We continued with these models until Scotty decided to get his Libelle from the car. That flew very well and we all had a quite a lot of flying with it thanks to Scotty's kindness.
At  10:00 Ian A joined us with his lovely yellow Shadow which he launched into the very light wind but it flew brilliantly for a very long time (here's a few pics ….we also got video of this too …. ),





Paul went back to the car and out came his Ascot and that too went extremely well (not sure I would be able to keep it in the air though ), after some long flights Paul and Ian made brilliant landings and at 11:00 we decided to call it a day.
The weather was cold but virtually still, but there were a lot of people with kids, dogs, bikes, etc..... as predicted.
Altogether I think it was a brilliant session and most successful despite there not being any combat this time as the Ninjas remained in the cars.
Thanks to all who came today

Have a happy xmas

Rob

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