You Thought Yesterday was Windy ?

Hi All
For those who were at Mill Hill yesterday and thought it was windy - how about this of Paul launching and me flying my Ninja in a 50+ mph wind - it was very difficult to make headway and keep the model steady, but at least it didn't fly backwards -

Rob

Saturday at Mill Hill

HI All,
Today Ian, Tony  Mark and I met up at Mill Hill to fly the strong SW wind.
Paul was unable to make it this morning so we had to fly without him - which is quite unusual - we all missed him though !
I arrived early and decided to fly the Ninja in the estimated 35 mph gusts, it was hard to get it away from the hill, so I went to the edge and threw it off - once airborne the lift was tremendous. I had about 15 minutes before landing to wait for the others. Ian came and decided it was too blustery for anything other than the Starjet which flew remarkably well in the conditions. Unfortunately Ian's first attempt at a launch landed in dog mess, so the model had to be sanitised before trying again ! Later we were joined by Tony with his Wildthing which he launched himself and flew by himself  - not for the first time, but the first time in such wild conditions. Even the landing was pretty good. He did remarkably well. Ian and I also decided to land, but unfortunately, I went a bit too far back on the hill and I landed in the field behind !! Next we were joined by Mark with a foamy Multiplex Blizzard which I threw into the wind and it made great headway (turns out Mark had a load of ballast onboard). Mark blasted around the sky for quite a while but had a heavy landing and that put an end to the V tail for today. Ian had a final flight of his Starjet which flew very well in the even stronger wind (maybe 40 - 45 mph), but he too succumbed to the Mill Hill curse of getting pushed back into the field behind, oh well, not just me then !
Altogether, we had had a blast (literally) and decided that we should quit while ahead. As we left some of the locals were arriving to brave the conditions........

Rob Stanley

Lovely Video from John Woodfield

Dust off your slope models - We will be up on the hill this weekend

Have you noticed that you seem to get two completely contradicting weather reports from the BBC weather and the Met Office now. I understand that there data now comes from two different sources rather than the BBC sharing the Met Offices data but surely in this day and age they should be able to agree what the weather is doing over the next two days?????
Anyway......
This weekend looks like it will bring some rain (thankfully!) but on which day is the question. Again take your pick. One sais Saturday is worst the other it's Sunday.

Both seem to agree that there will be a sunny period tomorrow afternoon and it will be breezy with a 20 - 30mph WSW - SW wind. Yes, I know its exciting as we can go slope soaring for once in a long time.
Depending on the exact wind direction It could be Itford Hill, Mill Hill or the Long Man as flying site options.
Sunday looks like a S wind with a good chance of some rain,

If we do get a WSW wind then Itford Hill could be an option as its a nice place to fly and land with easy parking at the bottom but the wind would be slightly off the slope.

I will have a chat with the master of all that is gliding and weather related issues (Ian) and finalise the flying details, timings etc later on today.

UPDATE @ 15.50 Friday

Ian thinks the wind will be South Westerly and will be going flying at Mill Hill in the morning (Sat AM) but I can't make it in the morning.

The BBC are giving 40+ mph winds Saturday PM so I will leave flying this weekend.

Government Consultation on 'Future of Drones'

Hi All,
Following my post yesterday about height restrictions for drones - the government has issued a document for consultation on the future of drones -

Link to BMFA Government Article

This isn't strictly glider-related news but some of our members fly drones indoors and outdoors, so we need to be mindful of the rules.

Rob

Update on New Height Regulations

Hi All,
The BMFA, among other organisations, have been lobbying the CAA and DfT to exempt 'regular' model aircraft from the upcoming height restrictions which are aimed primarily at multi-rotors. These groups have been successful and the restriction will now only apply to multi-rotors - please see the below article for the details -

Link to the BMFA Article

Just another of the many reasons why we pay our annual subs to these brilliant organisations -    BMFA, SAA, LMA & FPVUK, etc.....


Rob Stanley

My first windy DLG flying session

Sunday AM - Ian and myself met up Ian's secret DLG field very close to home. The wind was way more than I would usually attempt to fly my DLG but we gave it a go. The wind was about 10mph Westerly at first and as you would expect got stronger at height.
It took us a few attempts to get away as it was very turbulent and the thermals where rattling through. Eventually we managed the thermal 'WAY' downwind to climb enough to try and fly back into wind. There was a sweet spot upwind and in front of some large tree's. Got away downwind then pushed forward into wind and in front of these large Oaks. Boom! Ian and me both got away big time. Talk about 'Pauly Height' this was that and a bit more. So much so my DLG didn't want to come down even with full landing flap down. Opps What to do. Flaps away and pull the stick hard back and over. It took a spin with many, many rotations to get it back to a sensible height - Phew!!!
More throwing and getting away ensued for about an hour but the wind strength was now about 15mph on the ground and I would imagine 20mph in the air. The conditions got very rough and with the fear something was going to get broken or possibly land in a tree it was time to call it a day.
I learnt a lot today about trying to thermal in a strong wind with a light DLG. It disappears downwind very quickly and doesn't make fantastic headway into wind, so try and push upwind first and find some lift quickly before you again vanish down wind.
Cheers Ian. Great company as usual.

Another Fantastic Day at the Field

Hi All,
Today we decided to return to our North field for a repeat of last week's great session.
We were not disappointed......
The weather was hot and we were able to find thermals (or at least some of us did !).
There were 6 of us today - Paul, Ian, Scott, Mark J, Tony and Rob.
We all had some models except Tony who only has gliders for the slopes at the moment.
Paul brought his Maxa 4m and 2 DLGs - Fireblade (which happened to have a flat battery) and Blaster 2. Ian had his Shadow 4m and Blaster 2 DLG. Scott brought his new Radian electric glider and Mark brought a 1.5 m electric glider and a Radian Pro. Rob had the club Phoenix (which wasn't flown), the DLG which broke a servo in mid-air and the Starlight 3000.
Generally everyone had a flight of something, Paul was very kindly letting Tony and Scott try out the Maxa while Ian flew his Shadow - these were launched from the bungee.
Meantime Rob was trying his newly reconfigured DLG which was flying so much better but a wing servo stripped and it had to be landed.
Mark was flying his electric mouldie which was very fast but also found thermals and soared away.

Rob rigged up his 'new' Starlight 3000 and with Ian's expert help and tuition it was finally trimmed and ready to launch off the bungee. It flew amazingly well for such an old model. Both Ian and Rob had turns at flying and landing it - a great success.

Paul was flying his Maxa letting Scott and Tony have goes, but Paul was getting his usual mega height in the thermals and was also following the example of the local buzzards and flying with them at times !!
I had to leave at 13:00 but everyone else was still there - as I left Paul was trying out Scott's new Radian which seemed a little under-powered (sorry Scott), and Ian was flying his Blaster 2 DLG... I probably left something out, but that's what I remember from this fantastic day ....
Many thanks to Ian for helping me and for everyone for coming along and joining the fun

Rob Stanley

Anyone flying this weekend?

After my attempt to encourage members to come out and fly in my previous post, I was keen to find out if anyone (other than Ian, Rob and myself) would be interested in coming flying over the weekend?
I'm not sure which day looks the most promising at the moment but I will be putting up at least one flying opportunity either today or tomorrow.
We might be lucky enough to have another chance to fly on the flat field at Ashurst as the wind lately has been variable and light.
ANYONE??

To all our club members!

Please don't take this the wrong way guys but we have twenty odd members of our club and over the last 6 months or so we struggle to get three club members out flying at one time. It wont be long before we will be standing on a freezing cold hillside in the middle of winter in our thermals freezing our bits off, so why don't you take the opportunity of flying in the warm and comfort of the Summer.

When myself and Rob set up the club many years back now, we wanted to get as many people out flying as possible. To share our passion for flying RC gliders. Our aim is still the same but where are all our members and why aren't you out flying?

Remember what the benefits are for you as a club member:

1. An enjoyable time out flying with a group of like minded guys. Lots of banter and laughs. We visit many different flying sites because we need to go where the wind takes us (literally). meet other flyers from around the area. We are gifted with so many wonderful flying sites within a reasonable distance which all offer something different. How many of the vast array of flying sites have you flown at within the South? Fly as many as you can. Yes, it might mean getting in the car for an hour but it's experience and the enjoyment of somewhere new.
2. Club Instructors - Enthusiastic, experienced flyers who want to help you get the most from your flying. We are here to help YOU! Stick time is important as is flying at different flying sites. You don't move on unless you gain experience. That's were the problem lies with a lot of people. Not much stick time means you begin to lose confidence, It's one step forward and two steps back. Months away from the slope and you start of being all fingers and thumbs and slowly start getting back into it again then you disappear for another few months and the cycle repeats its self and you just don't progress. Like anything model flying takes practice to build experience. Experience is gained through stick time. Myself, Ian & Rob are here to pass on some of our experience, after all we have all had to learn and probably been through the same problems and issues you are experiencing. We are not here to judge but to help. All you need is to ask - it's as simple as that guys!
3. Club trainers - We have a slope foamy glider. Something any club member can fly. It could be under supervision or solo. We have two club transmitters that we can buddy with you for the added confidence that someone is there to take over if anything goes wrong. So you should never not have a model to fly anymore. Use the trainer to practice your landings if you are not sure. We have an electric glider which can be flown off the flat. It's nothing special but again it's open to all club members to fly and again it can be buddied up so someone else is with you flying.
4. We have a decent blog that gives plenty of site information, a shout box to communicate with others and we try and keep as up to date as possible. Here you will hopefully find out who is going flying and where and when. I can only go flying at weekends but others go out during the week. This blog is open to anyone from our huge flying community to contribute to and post here. If you are new to the hobby don't feel like your views and experiences are not welcome because they are. Its here for everyone, so feel free to use it and share your views and experiences.
5. You have your very own technical help within the club. Tim is our  'goto' man for help with programing Spektrum TX's or building help / advice. There isn't too much he doesn't know about the Spektrum and building RC models. Technical help is always just an email away.
6. We have grown well as a club over the past few years. I think we have 23 or 24 members. I fly most weekends and I unfortunately see the same old faces most weekends and the majority of the time it's just myself and Ian. So the question is: where are the other 20+ members? What's stopping more of you coming out flying. We can't run a club with two or three active members. It's not come to the point of saying 'use it or loose it' yet but more like 'use it and enjoy the club experience'.

So what's stopping you from enjoying all the benefits of our fantastic club?

Saturday's flat field flying at Ashurst

I'd forgotten just how enjoyable flat field flying actually was until yesterday. It had been so long since I'd flown from a large open space it was a pleasure.

I was joined by Ian and Rob. Thankfully Rob stood on the corner of the main road to confirm the way into the field which was nice and easy (far easier than our previous club field). We parked under some large Oaks for shade and went off to play.

Firstly we flew our DLG's. I had a funny one. My first flight with my fairly new DLG, I was in full spin and just as released my grip of the model the wing peg came free from the wing. The model went one way, the wing peg went another and I was left confused! Walk back to the car for my old Blaster 2 DLG. Carried on and I think al three of us successfully managed to get away in thermals. Rob's DLG flying was cut short due to a loose servo tray. After many more throws and climbs we got bored of that so back to the car to get the big boys out. Me with my Maxa with it's thermal fuselage  (I can swop between a thermal or powered fuselage with the same wing and tail plane - very useful) and Ian with his Shadow. Both Ian and myself have watched YouTube videos of guys hurling their models by hand off the flat and picking up a thermal from 6' off the ground and we thought we could emulate the experience - well we couldn't!
Out with the bungee......
The bungee gave us a few hundred feet launch which was enough for Ian to climb away on his first launch but for me it took 4 or 5 attempts to get away. Ian was soaring around for about an hour I would have thought just using up all the thermal while I practised my self launches off the bungee. Eventually I managed to hook a good thermal and climbed up to 'Pauly height'. I'm not exactly sure how high that actually is but the model was just a small spec in the sky and it is a 4m glider so reasonably high given its size. Rob came and had a brief flight. I had to lay on the ground to ease the neck strain.

While we were using the bungee Rob was flying the clubs electric glider, Seemed to be going ok from the quick glimpses I had of him. You daren't take you eyes off a glider high up or you run the risk of loosing it completely.
Goy bored of the large thermal glider so stopped for a rest and a chat and retreated to the shade for a bit. Rob went off home and Ian and I who find it difficult to stop flying sometimes went back onto the DLG's again. It's a real challenge to get away from what is a hand launch and finding a thermal and climbing away to a tiny dot (in Ian's case) and a challenge that we both really enjoy.
After being completely 'flown out' it was down the road to a lovely pub called 'The Fountain' for a pint of Harvey's and some food.

We don't advertise their exact position because of the obvious reasons but if you would like to know the location of this fantastic resource then feel free to contact either myself or Rob and we will be happy to give you the full details.

The weekend ahead.......

Having not flown now for what seems like months I will be out flying somewhere this weekend.
The varying forecasts give different accounts of the wind direction but most agree its from the south and generally light. Not the best for slope soaring on the South Downs but could be good from the flat.
It could well be a weekend for flying DLG's and F3J / F5J (large floaty gliders with or without power).
I haven't flown at the Ashurst fields this year, so it might be a good opportunity to try these out or maybe a good time to fly up at Ashdown Forest. I will have a chat with the weather maestro (Ian A) and we will make an educated guess at what offers the best flying potential.
Anyone fancy some flying this weekend?

Haven't got anything to fly off the flat - Rob will be bringing along the club electric glider if anyone fancies a go!

Bit late but a great morning at Chantry hill on Sunday. 
It was a bit of a last minute call as I was going out later with Sue. By the time I rigged my old 3.8 Shadow  it was 9:30 and light north wind, enough for this model to fly around at 20m or so above the main bowl. But I wanted more as I was planning a cross country flight to Amberley mount and back.
After a few minutes the wind shifted and I spotted a Buzzard pop out of a bush to the east of the bowel. Now buzzards are very lazy when it is hot so felt sure this was a thermal and headed straight for it. Yes good strong lift took me well behind the ridge and high enough to head west. But only just the other side of the western edge of the bowl where I was held scratching about, even went down below the top in my attempts to stay in the air. Luckily as I pushed out in a do or die effort to find something, a thermal was starting and I was soon climbing again to a good height to set off west again.
The trouble with this time of year is that the trees are in full leaf and quite big making it quit hard to keep a good view of the model. That and the fickle lift made for some darting around trees and peering through gaps. One thing to remember is always have a landing plan in place, pick a landing area even if it’s small and never leave it too late to give up the flight. I was close several times but managed to fight it away in small thermals. The hill lift between Chantry and Kithurst car park is never great as the front of the slope is covered in trees and shrubs. It is also quit a long way north of the foot path making it difficult to judge where you are.
By the time I got to Kithurst the thermal activity was getting better and I could gain height in one thermal and head of west until I found another one. The trouble is the glider fly’s faster than I walk so lots of doubling back and flying back behind the slope front to be able to see it. The rising path from Kithuurst to the next obstacle is completely clear of trees so some pleasant stress free flying here.
The next obstacle is a copse at the top of the hill which is 40m long. Now I know Usain Bolt could dash through in a couple of seconds but it would take me 10 to 12 seconds, so I positioned the model pointing in to wind over the middle of the copse and with a couple of clicks of down trim in dashed threw, past some bewildered French cyclist, to find the model where I expected it to be. Try letting go of your sticks at the field for 10 second and see where your model goes, usually not where you think.
The section to Amberley mount from here is open land so you can walk through the field and enjoy the views. The thermals where getting very strong at time and I had to descend using brakes to get to a sensible height several times. By this time the full size gliders out of Parham where using the thermals so had to keep a good lookout.
I flew the model well past Amberley mount but as I was getting pretty hot decided to not walk down any further and turned for home. This was pretty easy compared with the out ward trip as the lift was massive only requiring a good look out and loosing height deliberately quite often. I found a way around to copse, all be it through some nettles and rough ground, which made it less stressful.
Back at the start at Chantry the gates to the field behind where open so walk all the way to the car park across the field before a couple of loops and roles to celibate and landed just over 2hrs after setting off on my 5 mile cross country flight and walk.
I was late home so Sue had gone to Wiston Steam far on her own, in trouble again!

Kevin

I'm Back!

Hello all
Just to let you know that I am back from my wonderful holiday to Mexico. Did you miss me?

Here I am diving with my daughter off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico. Keep an eye out for the Turtles, Sharks, Barracuda, Lobster and more.
We also got to snorkel with Whale Sharks (which where huge - see below).

A Day at School

Hi All,
Yesterday I went to Warden Park school in Cuckfield with Graham U and Stuart Willis (BMFA Chair) to run an 'enrichment day' for the kids at Warden Park school involving building and flying BMFA Dart models.
Stuart runs a regular model aircraft club for the kids after school, so some of them came along plus a load of others - we had 19 boys and girls in total.
Stuart, Graham and I met with Alison Palmer who is a science teacher and we set up a load of Stuart and Graham's models in a large science lab along with some BMFA Darts and some tiny balsa gliders and various RC gear and engines (including a turbine from Taj Manning).
The day was planned by Stuart and consisted of a talk about aircraft in general (how they fly and the control surfaces, etc...) and then a bit about the actual models he and Graham had brought along, with a quick demo of the RC controls and then Graham ran up his EDF motor.
Next we gave out the BMFA Dart kits and split the class into 4 groups each of us had a group to supervise and help as they made their Darts - 1 per child, so everyone had a model at the end. Stuart had brought all the equipment needed and gave them a talk about the dangers of scalpel knives (luckily only 2 kids had minor nicks from them during the build). We all proceeded in our groups at a pace suitable for the kids and within 1.5 hours most kids had reached a point where their model was drying on the building board / plan,  so the kids had a break to let things dry before cutting out the parts from the plan and gluing them together to make the model. Once all the models were constructed it was time to leave them to dry so we had a lunch break. During the break Graham and I made sure the all the models were straight and were drying properly and we used Cyano and kicker to help some of them on their way (so that the kids would all be ready to fly after lunch).
The afternoon was spent in the dining hall, where Stuart took 4 at a time to help them test-glide and trim the models with blu-tack. Graham and I had the cyano and kicker on hand to fix any breakages, so everyone had a working model to fly.
Then Stuart took groups of kids and got them to wind the rubber-motor and test fly the models , this process was repeated a number of times until everyone had a working and flying model and then there was a 'mass launch' at the end.
During these flights, Graham and I were gluing and fixing the models and adjusting the rubber motors, etc so that everyone had a good go at the flying.
We were joined by the school's headmaster during this flying session and he seemed genuinely impressed with the Darts and the kids' achievements.
After the flying we returned to the science lab where there was a talk on basic aeroplane controls and the 'science' around flight including the principles of rudder, ailerons, flaps, etc.....
Stuart had set up an RC simulator so everyone had a go at flying an rc plane with a Spektrum Dx8 transmitter and there were also a couple of quizzes based on aeroplanes which the kids took part in using I-pads.
At the end of the day, we had to decide which of the kids were to receive a prize and then Stuart gave out bronze, silver and gold prizes to these kids (a certificate and model glider kit) but it was hard to decide because they all tried very hard.
I was impressed with the whole day - Stuart had it very well organised and Alison Palmer was brilliant with the kids and knew a lot about aircraft. The kids were polite and listened to everything and called us 'sir'  !!
Graham and I both had a great day and I will do it again if needed any time, plus I've offered to help Stuart with his model plane club next term if needed.