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Landing Briefing Notes

Monday, 2 May 2016

One more chance for the Minimoa...

Another very enjoyable session at Ditchling Beacon on Saturday. Myself, Rob, Paul and Ian L.

It was a beautiful morning with plenty of sunshine and great views across the valley and high wealds. We brought with us a variety of models that all flew well in the wind and thermals.  Some obviously a lot better than others!

Paul's flying was really impressive with some amazingly smooth landings.  See his blog post for details on the glider.  Ian had a Spectre and Rob had a Jart. Both seemed to have fun with their models.  I brought my Minimoa along again as I thought with the larger wingspan it might catch the thermals better in the light winds.

It was no problem flying it and it had plenty of lift.  I like the shape in the sky as it looks a bit like a seagull.  The problem was landing it!  I am still learning the landings and think I am making slight improvements each time but this thing just didn't want to come down!  Both Paul and Rob even said it was tricky.  Think they were being polite and what they really meant was, it is a pile of crap!  I was going to resign it to a cheap eBay listing but decided to save it for the field or give it a try when there is more of a blow.  So it will get a 2nd chance but that's it!  If it blows its 2nd chance then it will be stripped of gear and the foam chopped up and used for packaging!

Ian had an unfortunate incident with his Spectre and had to recover it from the hill which was quite steep down. We were all getting a bit concerned when he didn't show after a couple of calls, then we saw him stick his head out from a tree which was a sense of relief.

Clare came and met us with Dexter Dobermann and entertained Rob with his Frisbee on the way back to the car.

All in all a good morning with great company. 


Here's a picture of Ian emerging from the undergrowth with his Spectre intact !!


1 comment:

  1. Great write up Andrew, thanks for doing it... I was more than worried when Ian didn't answer our shouts on the very steep bank - there's a main road below where he was !!!

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