Club Field this Sunday

Hi all

We are planning to use our club field this Sunday. Warm weather, light winds and some warmth could give us a very nice day for thermals.
I hope to maiden my Maxa 4 and Opterra, Rob hopes to maiden his Opterra and Ian will have his F5J to maiden as well. We will have various DLG's to fly as well as a bungee to launch those models with a tow hook.
Everyone welcome to come and enjoy the delights of some flat field flying.

Isle of wight Day Trip

Hi all
There might be an opportunity to visit the Isle of Wight next Saturday. A lot of things need to fall into place especially the weather but at the moment it could be on.
It would mean an early start (9.00am ferry) and hopefully enjoy a day visiting as many flying sites as we can (wind dependant) and then get a 4.00'ish ferry back again.
Car sharing usually works well with 2 - 3 people per car and loads of models. I haven't looked the ferries, prices etc until I know there is any interest?
So if you are interested in a day out on the Island (did I mention mega pub lunches!) then let me know in the next day or so.
It is worth the effort and we have always had great flying days on all off our previous visits.

Isle Of Wight - Hang Glider / Paragliding Flying Site Guide

UPDATE: Thursday 30th - Trip cancelled due to weather and wind strength & direction

Wolstonbury Hill with the Kids

With the sun shining, the kids needing some exercise and a decent ENE wind blowing, a walk round the wolstonbury bowl with a spot of flying seemed the obvious option. The walk was beautiful, winding through ancient ash woodlands carpeted with spring wildflowers, before opening out into sun-kissed meadows and rolling hills.

We walked up the steep spur on the East side of the hill and flew right from the centre of the bowl, benefiting from its full funnelling potential. Perfect spring weather, scenery and flying conditions. Both of my boys enjoyed launching the wildthing and having a go on the sticks at a safe hight!

Two more members in the making! Love Wolstonbury, one of my favourite spots. A couple of pics below.

BMFA National Centre Website

Hi All,
The BMFA have now set up a new website dedicated to their national centre which is being developed ready to allow flying and visitors / hire of rooms, etc... for later this year.
On this site there are updates on what's happening as they develop the buildings and make the runways ready for flying, plus information on prices for hiring rooms and runways.
http://nationalcentre.bmfa.org/


It's interesting to see the progress and good to know that there will soon be a permanent national centre for our 'sport'/ hobby.


Rob Stanley
Hon Sec

Ian Maidens his new Moulded Jart

It was a funny old day at Itford with some seriously turbulent conditions to contend with. Not to be deterbed, a number of us (Scotty, Mark, Ian and I) met up and were kept company by a fellow slope soarer who'd driven down from London.

After some foamie fun, including several failed attempts to fly the wildthings under a DIY limbo gate, and a few flights by Ian with the Europhia, he unveiled the Jart for its first flight.

Here's a video of the successful maiden.

I managed to get a good session in with the Ascot as the weather got increasingly menacing. It was as if someone flicked the turbulence to 'high rates' as soon as I launched - much to the amusement of all the others who had all evacuated the airspace by that point!

Anyway, a thrilling experience followed by another landing masterclass by Ian. Fantastic morning all-in-all! 

200,000 Hits & 756 posts and 217 glider related videos

Our little old blog has finally reached the 200,000 visit mark and before you ask that's not me sitting with my finger on the refresh button!
Why not dig deep into the blog's archive as we now have over 750 posts from the last three years. There is bound to be an article or video that you haven't seen yet - Take a look at the 'Blog Archive'  (bottom right hand side). Talking of video's we have 217 glider related video's on my 'YouTube' channel : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcQGonyvu4yY8_W462KZt3C361rMl71kR
Its down to you lot the readers and the help of a band of contributors. I try and keep the blog updated and attempt to post things that are of interest but we could always do with more contributors to help build the blog with RC glider related articles.
Our readership is worldwide which has enabled us to make friends from all over the UK. Our good friend Steve (A470 Soaring), the boys over on the Isle of Wight and many of our new club members have found us through this blog.
Thanks to Rob Stanley who is always there helping in the back ground and thanks to all of you!
Roll on 500,000 hits.........

PLEASE subscribe to this blog (Right hand side) above 'who's flying where & when' and PLEASE subscribe to my video channel. This way you will get notifications when a new blog is posted and when a new video is posted on YouTube plus it gets us further up the rankings on Google so more people then will hopefully find us!

Bespoke Maxa 4 Wing & Transport Bags

Bespoke Wing Skins & Model Transport Bags:

Today I received my bespoke wing skins and transport bag for my Vladimir Maxa 4 from Tailored RC Model Bags. The Maxa fuselage is over 1800mm / 6' long and with a 4 metre - 3 piece wing. I was struggling to find a suitable bag to store and move the model around. Given the cost of the model and because it seems more of my models get damaged in transit rather than flying these days I wanted to protect my investment and wrap up this expensive glider in something decent. An email was forwarded to me from a guy called Peter Watson based here in the UK. After a few emails and a discussion on the phone Peter came up with a bespoke design that was made to fit the Maxa exactly.

The long fuselage and huge fin was a concern to me but Peter came up with the idea to fit the fuselage into a protective sock. The sock then slides into a pouch on the outside of the bag (which has been extended to take the long fuselage) and then a small strap has been added to secure the fin to the bag. I have previously bought the transport bags from Hyperflight but they never provided a secure fixing of the fin and the outside pouch was generally too small in length or too small to slide the fuselage down inside.

This bespoke bag offers 3 padded area's inside for the centre section and the two outer wing panels plus a long sectioned pocket to house the tail plane plus more. The outside of the bag comes with the models name stitched into the side as well as a hanging loop at the end of the bag so you can hang it vertically to save space.

Peter also made me a centre section wing skin that fits like a glove. Lovely padded material that provides made to measure protection.

From start to finish Peter has provided me with superb service and a quality bespoke made product for a very reasonable price compared with what's out there already.

As yet Peter doesn't have a website but is being kept busy through word of mouth recommendations and can be contacted via email or phone:

Pete Watson

Tailored RC Model Bags

07825260038

pete1.watson@hotmail.com

I am very happy with my new model bag and fuselage / wing skins. Can't recommend Pete enough!!

If you want to protect your expensive models from transit damage then give him a call.

New Member - Tony Crawford

Hi All,
Just to announce that we have a new member to our club as of today. He's Tony Crawford, he comes from Angmering and a few of us met him up on Mill Hill two weeks ago. Tony has bought a Wildthing and a Dx7 from Tim H to start learning slope soaring with us.
I'm sure you will all join me in welcoming Tony to the club.

For Sale

Wildthing EPP glider - 46"
Approx 5 flights only.
Newly recovered.

 £60.00
0r £70.00 with Spektrum receiver.

Contact Tim  t.hampshire@tiscali.co.uk

Mark's FPV Project

With all this FPV going on I thought I would give it a go. So a trip up into the loft to get the Hobbyking BFG 2600 glider down. I got this when it was on sale about 18 months ago, I think it was about £78 with servos motor and ESC, though I don't know how long the motor will last, as bolt's and a bag came to mind when I ran it up. It should be big enough to fit everything in.

I've got a spare flight controller a NAZE32, a VT Tx and a mini OSD, left over from a quad build, which I'll use in the BFG. I'm going to try a mini camera, I'll see how it goes as the quality and contrast can be a bit hit and miss with these. I've also go a old GPS module which might work with the flight controller.

So far I've flashed the Flight controller with INAV  to try it out and set it up in airplane mode. Set up the radio. Made an SBUS inverter cable for the Frsky X8R receiver. Got the flight controller and receiver working together on SBUS,  so now I've got 16 channels to play with. And made a mount for the flight controller.
I'm waiting for a few other bits before its ready for testing.
Mark J

My E-Flite Opterra

Here is my E-flight Opterra with its new spray job. Took off all the fancy stickers and decided to go big and bold with the fluorescent paints (nothing new there then!). This thing is huge! a 2 metre wingspan and over a metre long.


I Know its not everyone's cup of tea!

The foam same acrylic paints are from Hycote and come in 400ml cans.

I used a top coat of clear lacquer which seems to have given a gloss finish almost.
Here is a picture of the Zippy Compact 5000mah 3S Lipo that will power this mighty beast. It fits really snugly deep into the nose. I have already prized out all the nose weight but I think I will need to put some back in.

Next is to fit all the FPV (First Person View) gear. I will be using a GoPro 3 camera up front and possibly my RunCam 2 on top to capture another video feed. I have bought a Micro Vector OSD (On Screen Display) flight controller from Eagle Tree which will supply me loads on info during flight, such as height, battery voltage, distance away, mah used, vario and a very useful feature called a RTH or 'Return To Home' function. It works with a GPS and knows where it launched from and if needed will fly back to the same point at a pre-designated height. Well that's the theory any how.
I will post more as the setting up progresses.

Rob S has got himself one of these with all the FPV gear as well. I am hoping to be able to slope soar from the ridge and thermal soar from the flat. Given the sheer size of this thing I don't think it will have any problem slope soaring. We will just have to give it a go !

Omega ~ Progress Report #2

 

Progress is slow but steady, I've focussed on making the bespoke hardware items like the wing tongue:

The lightening holes seemed a bit unnecessary...

Then a combination of spruce, ply and glass cloth came together to form the boxes which house the wing tongue within the wings:

 Next, the brass elevator horn that's going to hide in the fin:



The soldering was easier than expected with the aid of a crocodile-clip clamping device I picked up from Lidl a few years ago.

Cheers, Russell H



Opterra FPV formation flying

This video is for Rob. As you know we both have now got the new E-Flite Opterra. Rob's is ready to go but mine is undergoing a new paint job.

Bob P's Leaving Us

Hi

I've decided to give up gliding and soaring as I have too many other hobbies.

Im looking to sell my planes as a jot lot, nothing special but all good models.

1) Middle Phase two MG servos in wing,2x HS5485 in nose, AR400 RX, low discharge battery.

2) SAS Wildthing, Hitec HS5485 servos, AR400 RX, low discharge battery

3) Kamco Kloudrider, HS5485, AR400 RX, low discharge battery

4) SAS Venom with a Wilthing fuse, 4x MG servo, AR400, low discharge battery.

Also included is a 3 month old Spektrum DX6 with AR400 and AR610.

Along with a box of servos, leads, horns, control rods etc

Looking for £250 - NOW SOLD !!!!!

Many thanks

Bob

Bobs email is : bob175mx@googlemail.com