EASA Regulations - Update

Hi All,
Here is an important update from the BMFA regarding the EASA regulations relating to model aircraft flying across Europe.
The BMFA have been working on our behalf to make sure that flying as we know it can continue after these regulations have been passed into European Law.
The following article is on the BMFA website and having read it twice I still don't think I know what it says !!

https://www.bmfa.org/News/News-Page/ArticleID/2466/Update-on-EASA-regulations

If anyone can interpret this please let us all know !

Regards
Rob Stanley
Hon. Sec.

We almost didnt bother.........

The planned flying session was cancelled early on yesterday morning given the very light winds and variable direction. Myself and Ian didn't really have a clue where to fly from as the wind was all over the place. To save anybody the wasted journey to who knew where we scrubbed the day.
Myself, Ian and Will where all at a loose end as we had nothing better to do with our time so it was decided we would give it a go and see where we ended up.
We met up at Ditchling Beacon to be met with no wind. Not even a gentle breeze. We all got out a DLG and wandered over to the NE bowl. We found gentle lift off the North face but bizarrely what little wind that you could feel was coming from the South. So we moved to behind to the small South / South East facing bowl for some more weak thermal flying with the DLG's. Will tried to kill Ian with a wayward launch into the deck. His poor old DLG took a right bashing and I suggest is not used as a DLG or the wings might just part company with the fuselage. Anyway after a good half an hour of gentle soaring and the wind feeling it was strengthening to about 4mph from the SW we decided to move onto Mill Hill.
Once I squeezed my Discovery between the gate posts and the bollards (what a stupid idea!!) I got out my trusty Blaster 2 DLG for a few more launches. Lots of strong sink, virtually no slope lift but the odd thermal off the slope and behind the slope. Time to move on........
Up the road to Beeding Bowl. Ian and myself armed with the DLG's tried the main bowl, the Northerly bowl, and the field behind the main bowl. We had about an hour of clinging onto tiny thermals and flying nearly to far away and behind tall bushes until the rain came in and it was time to retreat to the pub with some food and a pint and time to reflect on a very weird day.
We flew both sides of Ditchling, both sides of Mill Hill and every direction around Beeding bowl.
I suppose that's the beauty of a DLG. If you haven't got one yet, its worth getting one!
Have  safe trip abroad Will and keep away from the Goat.......................

*************** Important News

Hi All,

Today we have heard from our field landlord that we will no longer have access to the field from the end of this month (May). The fields we cross to get to our field have been the subject of planning applications for about 3 years and our landlord has decided to sell them. This means that the horses in these fields will be moving to our field and as a consequence, we can no longer have flying permission.

We are sorry to have to be the bearers of  bad news.

Paul and Rob will be calling an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to discuss this situation very soon. We would like as many of our members as possible to attend, so we can get a consensus about what to do for the future.
We will inform all members by email when we have a date and venue.

In the meantime, if anyone knows any suitable fields or has any ideas for us to get a new field, please contact Paul or Rob as soon as possible.

Best regards
Paul Hampshire / Rob Stanley

Looking ahead to the Bank Holiday (3 day) weekend

I know its only Monday but we do have a 3 day weekend coming up and I wanted to get an idea what days people would be up for some flying?
Either leave a shout or comment below this post so we can get an idea who wants to fly and on what day.
Could be an opportunity to do some flat field flying if we are lucky or maybe some slope soaring.
Please let me know your options.........

Flying Tomorrow

UPDATE - Flying Cancelled as wind has swung SE.
Sorry for the late shout out but I have been in the garden all day and now I can hardly walk! No excuse I know but I am getting on a bit now you know?
Sunday Flying..........
S - SSE wind 7 - 10 mph on to the cliffs. A light day but a bright day. Too wet to go to the field so we have decided to give the cliffs at Newhaven a bash and sod the wildlife!!
I will be meeting Ian around 10.30am at the Fort car park. If we are not there then we have already walked up to the look out tower.
If you haven't flown the cliffs before don't be put off as the lift is superb but the landing area is a little small. Come and have a look if you are not sure.
No fast mouldies as landing needs to be slow and accurate. Ideal for foam!

Jart HD Video

Mill Hill Today

After a wet start a small group of us met up at Mill Hill to a light(ish) WSW wind. Rob, Tony, Ian and Les and Mike on off the Mill Hill massif.
It was good to see Les again as it must have been at least a year since last flying with him. Tony flew well on the buddy and enjoyed his first goes at rolls, loops and little inverted flight. Rob flew his Moth and later his lovely Mini Vec. I flew my M60 and the Merlow.
Ian flew his Jart. First time I have seen this monster in the air. It goes like poo of a very big shovel.

It was smooth baby..........
Later Ian and I played silly beggars with our M60 with fast touch and goes with some good attempts and some that where more like touch and skid half way down the hill and eventually stop!
It has to be said that Ian did also have about five hours soaring yesterday so he must be sloped out.
An interesting day with Tony continuing to Impress.

A Double-First!

Hi all, I'm Roger Harris - I used to be a member of SSS until I moved to Pevensey Bay - some of you will remember me I hope - to those that don't - Hi!!

I had one of the most testing and (ultimately) rewarding glider flights of my life yesterday. I only started slope soaring a couple of years ago, having done power flying 10 years previously but having gotten bored with just 'flying round in circles' as I put it.

Soaring gave me more of a challenge - I am fond of saying that. But yesterday my brash summary really came home to roost!

Our local Easterly slope here in the Eastbourne area is called Butts Brow - a fairly narrow and deep bowl (think Devil's Dyke, but not as extreme - I mean the bowl bit on the right just before you get to the pub - not the slope) - and with a 8kt Easterly forecast I decided to go up for an hour in the afternoon.

When I got there it was hot and humid with not much breeze, but the car park is sheltered so I thought nothing of it. Some random bloke came past and said "you'll have plenty of thermal lift on a day like today - not much wind to speak of though" - I thought he was just a local know it all. The forecast was for a decent light breeze.  I got to the slope, out of the shelter of the bushes, to find the breeze as expected, maybe only 5 or 6 kts, but plenty to keep the good old Stargazer II up - it is very lightly built ( more of that later).

I quickly checked the model over, switched both the Tx and Rx on, tested controls and launched out into the light breeze.

Lovely! She glided straight out, gaining a little height as she went. I was in for a pleasant and gentle flight.

Fifteen seconds later, having gained around 30ft altitude from launch, the wind dropped to nothing and I found the Stargazer in sink. Rapid sink.

She very quickly dropped below the horizon and kept sinking. I was aghast - I'd never been in this situation before. Already she was too low to get back for a slope-top landing so I just kept scratching around looking for lift. I tried all parts of the bowl but to no avail. By this time I was edging myself forwards on the slope in order to keep the model in sight. I began to over-control and over-bank the model, partly because it was getting difficult to see, but also due to nerves and tension. Thus I lost extra height due to sloppy flying. I got a grip on myself, kept the bank angle to a minimum required for a turn. I used rudder to balance the turns and was rewarded with a slower rate of sink. Large, slow, flat turns allowed me to search for the elusive lift.

I knew from the Slopehunter write-up that the 'bushes' in front of me were in fact trees and should be avoided unless one has the climbing prowess of a gibbon. I kept the model out away from the slope, sinking lower and lower into the bowl. Things were getting serious - I realised I may well actually lose the Stargazer, or at least have to do a blind landing at the bottom of the slope and risk loss/damage as a result.

There is a clearer patch on the left side of the bowl, a lot further down, so I elected to head for that in the hope of not damaging the model too badly in what was likely to be a very heavy landing nearly 1/4 of a mile from where I was standing. I remember someone saying one should keep the model circling, lined up with the elected landing site. Once the model got close, one would (if lucky) be able to see the shadow of the model (if sunny) to gauge altitude.

As I got closer to my chosen crash site, the model suddenly wobbled slightly. I thought - that might be lift! It wobbled again and I turned gingerly into where the wind should have been coming from. I was rewarded with a slight height gain. I continued scratching around and to my utter amazement I found a thermal and the model began slowly climbing out of the bowl.

As I got higher the lift became stronger and after an initial struggle I ended up climbing so high I got my second dose of fear for the day - this time I feared I'd lose the model because it was so high, lol!

It was a struggle, I lost lift and regained it several times, but eventually had one of the most satisfying flights I've ever had with an Rc glider.

I even managed an absolute greaser of a landing 22 minutes after launching - just managing to clip a dry cow-pat on the ensuing slide. Yes, slide! I absolutely greased it in!

Did I mention the Stargazer is lightly built? The cow-pat was rock-hard and snapped the empennage clean off the top of the fuselage. I wasn't the least bit upset. I'd just had a flight which exemplified the reason I'd gotten into soaring in the first place.

The double-first? 

First 'low save' - and I mean low!

First flight where all height gain was from thermal lift, not slope. My first-ever thermal flight - with my trusty old Stagazer II, bless it!

What did I learn?

1) Listen to the locals... although if I had listened to that random bloke, I never would have had that flight...

2) Keep the plane flying, no matter what. I made the mistake of slowing up, pulling back unconsciously to try to keep her up. That was detrimental and once I realised what I was doing I actually fed in some down-trim and kept the airspeed up.

3) Never give up! I really thought I'd lost the model, or at least severely damaged it. But I kept at it and was finally rewarded with a great flight.

4) That nice E'ly breeze I encountered as a arrived at the slope was probably the trailing edge of the previous thermal - it passed as I launched, so the threw the model straight into sink - nice...

5) Finally, if it's too precious to crash/break/lose, don't fly it because one day you'll do what I did yesterday - and might not be so lucky. That's another one of my favourite brash sayings - but it's OK - that one came home to roost years ago ;-)

Happy flying all.

Rog.

Horsham F5J

Yester day saw the first F5J, electric thermal gliders, comp of the year at the Horsham field. The inistial 100% cloud cover and chilly north wind made it a bit tricky but all slots saw several pilots do the full  10 mins. As the day progressed the wind droped and the sun came out for tee shirt weather by the end. 6 rounds where flown and we finished at around 5:00 oclock. I new somthing was up when Colin insisted he wanted to give the prices out, top 5 + a 2m prices, I won!!

First time for a while and with my new home made Proglide model.😃

BMFA National Flying Centre Opens Monday 8th May

Hi All,
I know we probably won't use of this facility, but the BMFA new National Flying Centre will open this coming Monday for business. It has its own website and can be booked for flying activities by anyone in the BMFA. The website also shows up-coming events at the centre.

This is an extract from their website -

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The new National Visitor Centre and Model Flying site opens at 9am on Monday 8th May for model aircraft flying.
See the National Centre website at http://nationalcentre.bmfa.org/ for further details.
Check the status box on the front page of the website for the proposed activity over the coming three days (continuous update).
But the aim is to run sport R/C as the primary activity for the first three days with control line circles also in operation and to accommodate season ticket holders as well as day tickets.
Limits for R/C will be electric and I/C aircraft up to 7kg and I/C models limited to 82DBa at 7 metres as per the DOE noise code.
Free flight will be accommodated as a secondary activity on these dates but there will be some days coming up where FF is the primary activity.
The site will be open from 9.00am on Monday so why not drop in for a coffee and a fly (tea/coffee will be available initially on a self service basis)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grab a bargain - Mulitplex LS7 For Sale - NOW SOLD!!

I recently purchased a scale Multiplex LS7 glider.

 

Having flown it on the hill a few weeks back I decided the model is not really for me. It very stable and well mannered. Nice and responsive and will float around very gracefully as a scale model.
The model goes together in about 1 minute and is the usual well built model that you would expect from Multiplex.
Within the video below is some nice footage of the glider flying at Ditchling Beacon.

 

Selling for what I paid for it £160 minus the RX and lipo (which can be purchased separately).
The model comes with very effective air brakes, foam veneered wings and GRP fuselage.
3.3m wingspan. plus scale pilot.
This is a very nice scale model that is very easy to fly and nice and stable.
Any Interest then feel free to give me a call on 07834 859018.

Ditchling 4K Vids from a few weeks ago.

Video of Richard flying his Sport Klem FS4000 at Ditchling Beacon (West) a few weeks ago.

Two M60's & two Wildthing's trying very hard to hit each other. Paul & Ian's M60's and Scott & Will's Wildthings.



Here's a video of me flying my Merlow.

A mix of various models -



Top Quality Pics

Here are some superb pictures taken by Tony Crawford. The pictures were taken a few weeks back when we were flying at Ditchling West. Thanks Tony for these amazing shots.

Richards FS4000

Rob's Moth

Ian's Europhia

 

My Merlow