Following the advice of the Met Office Paul, Ian and I met in the Newhaven Fort car park at 12:00 yesterday. The weather was supposed to clear up by midday, so we decided to chance the cliffs. We walked up to the Coast Guard station expecting there to be a 25 mph wind, but when we emerged from the shelter of the hill we could hardly stand up ! The wind was at least 40 mph and constant, no gusts, just solid wall of wind ! It was also raining too, but having go there Paul decided to try his M60. I launched it, but there was so much rotor that it went straight into the deck ! I tried again with a lofty angle and it was away, but making headway was difficult. Once Paul got beyond the cliff it all settled down and he was flying well. Landing was always going to be difficult and when the M60 came to land the wind took it way behind us into the brambles.
Paul then coaxed me into flying the ever-hardy Ninja, so I got him to launch it. Making progress was difficult and the Ninja was hardly able to get to the cliff edge, let alone beyond it. The weather was beating me backwards, so I decided to land - again the wind was fierce and took the Ninja way too far back into the brambles. After 4 minutes of painful flying I had 5 minutes of painful bramble-bashing to recover the Ninja.
Here's Paul and Ian battling the elements to stay upright . . . . .
At one point in a fit of optimism I was heard to say "It's almost blue sky up there !", but I was wrong and we retreated to the cars and then came home...
At least we tried our best and had 2 short flights in what was probably the worst weather we've ever encountered !
See you soon
Rob
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