Ditchling Beacon - A Day of Ups & Downs

A few of us braved the Northerly winds and headed on up on to Ditchling Beacon, Sussex for some November slope soaring.

Rob, Geoffrey, Tim, Peter and Me (Paul) met up on the slope on what was a most beautiful blue sky day for November. It started on a strange note both Rob & I having difficulty actually getting our Ninja's to get into wind and out into the slope lift. After several attempts we were up and enjoying the superb lift together with a fantastic vista.

We got Geoffrey up and away with his Spectre and I rigged my Typhoon and readied it for flight. With a nervous throw it was up and flying without too much trimming. Boy does it accelerate well! Tearing up the slope with nice aileron control and not at all twitchy. The landings where made so easy with the full range flaps. These cleverly linked to my throttle and can be increased or decreased with a simple push or pull on the throttle stick. I must have had four or five successful take offs and landings until the last one. It was a simple launch into wind. The glider pitched up and with no response to my full forward elevator, it  got thrown back with the wind and into the field behind. Bo';,;cks!! The model had gone in hard and cart wheeled breaking the fuselage nearly clean in two. Thankfully the wings and the tail plane survived but why did it do what it did? When I got back I plugged everything back in and the rudder, flaps and ailerons all worked but the elevator was dead. No movement from the servo at all. So all that I can conclude is that the elevator servo has failed or come disconnected from the receiver. The fuselage may be repairable with carbon fibre cloth and a skilled hand - dad! I broke my model again, can you fix it for me?. I'm sure it will fly again. It did fly lovely and stable. Rob had a quick fly around and did a sterling job with it until I snatched my transmitter back.
On a positive note, we had a lovely first landing from Geoffrey - Well done! and Tim had his maiden flight with his Ninja. It went well and was nicely balanced and  enough weight in it to push on out into the wind easily.

 

Tried my new wind toy thingy and it was reading 19mph constant with 29mph maximum gust.

We were joined by many full size gliders up on the Beacon today. One or two of them getting a little close for comfort. Yes, Mr Fritch in your LS8 (L4) I know you were one of them.
From Rob Stanley -

Here's Pauls glider before it succumbed to gravity -

Thanks Rob for the pre crash picture. The elevator servo had seized solid when removed from the Typhoon. It was a good quality Savox one as well. Tim's doing a grand job and has already got the fuselage glued back together and we just need to glass fibre over the break and we will be back in business. The Phoenix, sorry Typhoon will rise again over the Sussex country side.