Not a breath of wind!

Rob and John met at Ditchling car park at 9am as planned closely followed by me.  Paul’s forecast was spot on and there wasn’t a breath of wind, not even a murmur from the Christmas Day sprouts!

When I arrived Rob and John were heading off 100 yards or so from the carpark end of the east slope. When I joined them they had already carried out a glide test of John’s new Hobbyking DLG which was obviously successful as Rob was launching the model so that John could do some initial trimming.  John had done an excellent job setting up the glider and very little adjustment was required. We were all very impressed with the glide of his new model and he made the launches look effortless too.

Rob had his old DLG and left the maiden of the Loola for another day.  I had my (Paul’s) Libelle and Whipet (not dog!).  As well as flying the Libelle I had a little fly of my Whipet and with John’s help trimming the elevator had very good flight times as it floated around. Not bad for a £50 investment!

We all had a very good hour or so practicing our launches, circling round and landing as tidily as possible.  We also managed to have a few good catches on landing.

Rob suggested that we had a little competition of who could stay aloft the longest.  I came last which wasn’t the fault of the Libelle but more to do with my wimpy launches.  Rob and John were pretty close and extended their flight times with a little bit of flap. 

Nice to see Rob W who came up with his lovely dog for a walk and to see what we were up to.  Rob we have the club wing and transmitter, come out and fly with us and get some stick time!

It was a very good session despite the lack of wind and gave us plenty of opportunity to practice launching and landing. I certainly have the bug for DLG now. It is great fun and anyone that has never tried it should give it a go!

Cheers

Scotty

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