Ian's Fairwell flying session at Eastbourne

On Saturday a good sized group of us met up down at Eastbourne to fly with Ian for the last time before he moves over to his new house in Wales. The wind was virtually non existent at first, as even the paragliders couldn't stay up. We set up camp just to the East of the 'paragliders hump' and enjoyed a few flights before they took to the air and decided to fly right in front of us and get between us and our models. It's a pity that these particular paraglider pilots don't adhere to there own guidelines given to them by there governing body which tells them not to fly in between an RC model and its pilot but these guys didn't give a $%** and continued to fly directly in front of us, so we decided for safety reasons to move along the hill (towards Eastbourne) and fly on the edge of the wooded bowl.
Ian led the way by hurling his heavy old Euphoria off and we watched as he sniffed out little bits of lift from right across the bowl. I managed to find lift with my Ascot and enjoyed some soaring and some down wind landings when the lift disappeared.

  

John M got to fly his Strega (after removing the ballast) very well and his mouldy cruised around in the light lift. After a practice circuit he made a very good landing all by himself.
Ian and myself plus Scotty (Weasel) and Robin (DLG) managed some very lift soaring but unfortunately the lift just wasn't there for the foamy wings.
John then appeared with a big 'T' tailed thermal glider. After some initial trimming and changes to throws John was up there and enjoying his new built up thermal soarer. Just to prove his first landing with his Strega wasn't a fluke he made another successful landing with his big floater - Well done John!
It was good to see Ian D and Richard out with us flying on Saturday morning.
For me flying my Ascot with 4 Buzzards in the light thermals made my day. It was a case of chucking your model out there and if you were lucky then you found a little lift otherwise if you could make it all the way round the bowl then you would get plenty of landing practise.
After a good couple of hours of flying or attempting to fly session we went our own separate ways with seven of us heading for a pub lunch.
At the Plough we were joined by Jim H and Rob P to drink Ian's health and to see him on his way.
Thanks to Tony for my lift and to Jim on getting Ian home safely.
Martin took a load of pictures during our flying and managed to capture the fun we had flying plus the loads of banter that was being given out all morning and carrier on in the pub. Thanks Martin for your pictures. Its very much appreciated to be able to publish such quality images.