A Spitfire over Firle Beacon - 31 March 2022

Arriving at the car park at Firle Beacon this morning I noticed that it was extremely cold and blustery. For those who use the W3W App the code for the car park is: Sounding,Party,Enough. My in-car temperature gauge showed only 2 degrees, what a difference from the nice weather experienced last Sunday at Wolstonbury Hill. I headed Eastwards to our usual launching spot and found Mark J, Scott T and Martin L already assembled and very cold. Mark had brought along his Cambrian Fun Fighter Spitfire which has been converted to PSS, more of the Spitfire later. He had also brought his Pzazz Mk2 glider for it’s maiden flight. Scotty had his trusty SAS Wildthing plus his Me163 Komet whilst Martin had come along to take photographs and get back into slope soaring after some time away. I of course had my SAS Wildthing.

Without doubt the star of the day was Mark’s Spitfire not only did it look amazing on the ground but it’s performance in the air was outstanding. Mark is our club’s 3D printing expert and so he had printed out a pilot and instrument panel along with realistic exhaust stacks.

Mark also flew the Pzazz but the conditions were not ideal as the air was extremely turbulent. Both Scotty and I managed to get our Wildthings away but we both had to really concentrate, and the landings were most challenging. The constant wind speed was about 21 mph plus gusts which caused me a major problem when trying to launch. After 3 failed attempts, which only resulted in the model flying backwards heading for the channel and France at a great rate of knots, I decided to call it a day. I think due to the cold and the high wind speed the others had the same thoughts. As we were packing up Robin A walked past. He was enjoying a walk and decided to come over and have a chat. Heading back to the car park we only just made it before the sleet and rain started. In Summary, a very cold and blustery morning but watching Mark’s Spitfire perform overhead warmed our hearts and we all had a good time. Hope for kinder weather for our next outing.