Slope Soaring and Falconry at Itford Hill

Today must have been one of the driest days we have had lately. Given the chance of some flying I grasped the nettle and charged up my batteries and departed for the flying site. I met Robin at the top of the hill around 12:30. Also up on the hill today were our fellow flying colleagues from the Sussex Radio Flying Club (SFRC) who were already flying their gliders. I did notice on the ground that one foam glider had already sustained considerable damage in the form of a complete fuselage break just behind the wing section. I do understand that repairs will be undertaken and the glider will fly again.

Visibility today was excellent but with a very strong wind.

As usual I opted to concentrate on my circuits and landings. Thankfully, this time I did not land on top of any trees but still found it challenging to land my Wildthing where I wanted it to land, more practice for me required, I think. A number of SAS Wildthings were in the air at one time performing formation flying and maybe a little combat.

For me the highlight of the session today was the arrival of the Falcons, we were given the opportunity to watch these magnificent birds of prey flying at full speed. They were being exercised by the use of an electrically powered slope soarer with a lure extending from the aircraft's tail. We watched in amazement as the falcon climbed to height, retracted it's wings and dived down at full speed trying to catch the lure as the aircraft passed below.

After a few hours on the hill it was time to call it a day and go home. In summary, the highlight of the day for me was the super air display given to us by the all time flying professionals..the Falcons.

Itford Hill 12/02/2020

CAA Registration

Hi All,
As you all know, we have been caught up in the European Legislation regarding the registration of drones (which now also includes all model aircraft, etc.), but on our behalf the BMFA, LMA, FPVUK and other groups have liaised with the CAA to secure the most sensible solution they could get.
As we're in the BMFA, our solution required us to allow our BMFA details to be sent to the CAA to register us as 'Operators' and we have (or soon will) received our 'Operator ID number' from the CAA.
This number is all we need to be legal as long as we attach it to every model we fly in easy to read letters of at least 3mm size. It doesn't have to be on the outside of the plane, but must be easily accessible (like in a battery compartment), without the use of special tools.

We are currently 'exempt' from requiring 'Flyer ID numbers' because we have either a BMFA 'A' or 'B' or have taken the online competency test.

Those who have yet to receive their email from the CAA will do so very soon, and the requirement to attach the 'operator ID number' has been put back from 23rd Feb till the end of June.

This is all explained on the CAA website , but basically what we need to do is number our planes with our 'operator ID' when we get it.

Best regards
Rob Stanley

A very sunny and bright day at Itford hill with friends from the Sussex Radio Flying Club (SRFC)

I met Nick, Robin S and Steve a member of SRFC at the car park and we took the long way up to the top of the hill. By the time we had reached the top Mark was in already in the process of assembling his gliders behind the tree line at the top. This little bit of shelter gave us some respite from the very cold biting westerly wind. We had blue skies, full sun and the visibility was excellent. So, leaving behind the sanctuary of the trees, flying began. We were joined later by Colin and Derek from the Sussex Radio Flying Club (SRFC).
We all had a very enjoyable time flying around in clear blue skies and I counted five SAS Wildthings on the slope today one belonging to me, Nick, Robin S, Colin and Derek had one each. Other gliders flying today was Mark's RCRCM Vector which flew really well in the blustery conditions and he pulled off a number of super landings. Steve flew his Wisper and Derek displayed a Chris Foss Phase 2 glider circa 1969. Robin S flew his Aztec well in the challenging conditions. I concentrated as always on landing practice and again ended up in a tree but with encouragement and guidance from others I did manage to improve my landing technique a little by the end of the session. After about two hours I called it a day as it was really cold and departed the slope along with Nick leaving behind the other guys who were still enjoying the flying. In summary, a really good flying day but very cold.

My SAS Wildthing again in a tree.

View across the valley.

Flyer's getting ready to launch.

The glider park.

My first Mouldie glider

I thought I would make a start on a blog about my first mouldie, write a piece, add photos and spec of my model I ended up with.
After joining the club around October 2018, I started flying again after 12 years with a wildthing 46, which is a real confidence giving model to break me back in, I was hooked and after joining fellow member on the slopes, I got to see what had happened in the world of development of models over the last 12 years.

I was use to building a model from wood and too see these precision moulded machines was an eye opener and I knew I wanted one, one day.
So after watching the BMFA classifieds and chatting with Paul H I set myself a budget, I knew I wanted to start off with a second  mouldie, since a new fully kitted out model was out of my reach.

With Pauls input, he suggested I put a wanted advert out on the BMFA, here I was having a nightmare, I just couldn't  get myself into the system, even after help from the BMFA admin.
So I went to BARCS, within a day after placing my advert with my budget of around £300 I started receiving model offers.
Paul Kindly reviewed them for me and then fours days later I was offered, what I would of said was a gem, a 2.5m F3F moldie, fibreglass carbon reinforced and carbon wing, kitted out with servos ready to go, just add receiver in fantastic condition called a Big Bird.

Photos to follow and I love it, great colour too, red with blue under wing stripes.

I started back flying with Spektrum radio but was intrigued by Frsky and it programing options, so found a Taranis x9d + to try and with some help from Mark and Graham set to work programing the radio.

Story to continue, with photos, setups and flight report.

Do you fly at The Long Man of Wilmington?

Slope Soaring at the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex

The Long Man is a well known venue for leisure and competitive slope soaring and works in winds from SW to W to NW to North. It is a scenically very  attractive location and is now a part of the South Downs National Park. All the flying slopes, and there are several of them, are on, or a short walk from, the South Downs Way, a national walking and mountain biking trail from Eastbourne to Winchester.

What many users of the slope may not realise is that slope soaring is only permitted under a licence granted by the landowner, the Folkington Estate. The other party to the licence agreement is the South East area of BMFA.

A quite substantial license fee is due each year which was mainly paid for by the South East Area BMFA, but because of the changes to the way Area is funded this is no longer an option.

BMFA SE will continue to be the licensee but all funding from this year will be provided by local clubs. These are the East Sussex Soaring Association (eastsussexsa.co.uk) and Sussex Slope Soarers (slopesoaringsussex.blogspot.com). Consequently, all model fliers outside of these clubs will need to buy an annual permit for £10. There are details of this on the BMFA SE website (southeast.bmfa.org).

So if you want to fly at Long Man do join one of the local clubs or get a permit, Both clubs have very modest annual subscriptions.

The Long Man has been a slope soaring site for at least forty years and we all need to make sure that it continues to be so.

Ray Wells

Secretary, East Sussex Soaring Association

February 2020