A Lidl fun at Butts Brow!

I arrived a little late and was met in the carpark by Robin.  We took the 5 minute walk to where Mark and Tony were already flying along with 4 others.  It was an hours drive for Tony, there is dedication for you!

I had my Komet and repaired Mamba, Tony had his Wildthing, Mark had his newly built Lidl glider and another glider and Robin also had his newly built Lidl glider and his home built wing.

Everyone had a very good session and the conditions were good with a nice 12+ mph with a fairly smooth easterly.  Mark and Robin’s Lidl glider conversions flew very well with a small amount of ballast, well done to them.  Tony and I had fun chasing around the sky and practicing our landings.  At one point there were 8 models flying which certainly does mean that you have to concentrate a bit more.

Everyone went home without any damage to their models however at one point we were all looking for a phantom missing glider and it turned out that we were looking for Marks Lidl glider which he had and he thought we were looking for Robin’s Lidl glider!!

 

 

Did nobody tell the weather that it's June?

I met up with Ian up at the Bwlch in South Wales on Monday. We had planned to meet on the Tuesday but the weather forecast did not look great so the decision was made to meet up on the Monday after a long drive up from Sussex. On the way me and Ian where discussing the weather as he was sitting in low cloud and rain (It is Wales, Ian) but I was travelling along in sunshine. Anyway we met up at The Bwlch and of course it was pissing it down, so we just sat in the car chatting until finally the rain stopped and the cloud rose a little to just over the tops of the giant wind turbines.
We trudged up the slope and along the face of Mickeys where it was blowing around 35mph. It was still spitting with rain and the wind chill made it feel like 5 degrees and yes, this was in the middle of June.
I was annoyed as I had dragged my Merlow F3F along with me but when I went to rig her one of the wing pins had pushed it way into the wing and there was no way I could get it out up on the side of the hill. Back into the bag with that model. I only had one other model with me, my newly built Phase 5. Well no option there then - just chuck it off!

Ian had his M60 with him as well as his Jart. The M60 was the model for the conditions. It screamed around and punched its way through the rough conditions.

After about an hour of the very cold conditions and with my fingers aching with the wind chill we decided to give into the weather and scuttled off back to our cars.

The Bwlch never fails to impress me with the huge hills and superb lift but the weather on the day just wasn't the best. I'm back off their again next month for a week so I hope to meet up with Ian again plus me old mate Steve from A470 Soaring.

Cold, Wet, Windy and GREAT FUN

Hi All,
Yesterday (Sat 15th Jun) Paul, John, Tony, Scotty, Robin and I met at 13:30 at Mt Caburn to fly the SW wind. We walked up to the top in sunshine and it felt warm, the wind was increasing, so all promised to be good. By the time we got to the summit there was rain - a lot of rain, but Paul was determined to maiden his Phase 5, so he threw it into the wind. With a bit of elevator trim, it went very well and we were all inspired to fly our own models despite the weather, so John flew his Phase 6, I launched the Ninja, Scotty had his Wildthing, Tony had his too and Robin had his home-made wing.
We were all up in the rain, but it was great fun. Paul then launched his Phase 6 and between us there were always 3 or 4 models in the air at any time and sometimes 6 at once. After 20 minutes things cleared up and Paul re-launched the Phase 5. At one point I saw Tony landing a little bit behind the hill but all was fine, otherwise we all kept our models intact despite the blustery conditions. After about an hour, Scotty decided that he would try out his Blade and it was worth seeing because with Paul's help at times, the Blade flew wonderfully. That's a great model Scotty.
Altogether we had a great session, many thanks to all who came along to join in, very good fun...…

Ridge Runt - wrapped up

Success! My six year old daughter approves of the colour scheme.

It is partly based on Rob's choice of Solartex covering for his Coyote model. I took additional inspiration from the Diablo featured on the cover of the Radio Modeller, February 1977 issue, (the same image is used on the OuterZone web site).

The colours are reversed on the underside:

The 'Ridge Runt' graphic is a waterslide transfer created on a laptop and printed on an inkjet printer. The lessons learned here were that waterslide decals only work on a white background and spray varnish should only be applied in thin coats, but I can live with that.

For those who are interested, here is the internal layout:

The foam packing in the nose was subsequently replaced with Plasticine to achieve the correct C of G. I deliberately left a gap between the receiver and the elevator servo for removable ballast - Velcro straps will be fixed here to hold it. The plastic tube beside the elevator snake runs to the tail end and is for a 35mhz rx aerial, in case I ever need it.

 

Happy landings

 

Russell H

I've Got The Bug!

The production line continues...….

Go on take a look - CLICK HERE!

Phase 5 Covering Going Well

 

Nearly there now!