A Good Morning’s Flying at Itford Hill 5th Feb 2022

An early start this morning which again necessitated me to de-ice the car. Whilst waiting for the windscreen to clear I noticed that the promised 20-25 mph wind was lacking. Fortunately, I had charged up my Dream Flight Ahi just for this reason, if needed. After a 40-minute drive. I met Kevin M in the lay-by, and we ascended the hill. 

My Wildthing and Ahi

On the top of the slope, only a very slight breeze could be felt. We spent a few minutes having a catch up and we now think that Kevin may have solved his Wildthing trimming issues. In the past he has been adding weight but recently he weighed his model and found it was a lot heavier than it should be, so he has recovered it making it now 50 grams lighter.

Kevin M's Models

Flying commenced and Kevin’s Wildthing flew much better today, I continued to practice my landings with varying levels of success.

Robin S arrived with his Phase 5 but during assembly of it he noticed a fault with the wing joiner system and decided not to fly it and packed up his model. He seemed happy as he could go home to watch the 6 Nations rugby.

With the wind now picking up, Mike G arrived on the slope, recently back from abroad displaying his newly built Middle Phase, which has taken some 2 years to complete but getting ready to launch it, the wind took it out of his hand and the rudder assembly was damaged. It was nice to have him, his son and his grandson on the slope making it a 3-generation day out for them. Being prepared they had a spare Middle Phase in the car which was collected and brought up to the launch point. This second model was Mike's sons.

Mike with his Middle Phase

Mike with Grandson

3 Generations 

Robin A arrived with his Phase 6 but by this time the wind was so strong, and he decided not to risk the model but to fly his scratch-built wing instead.

Robin A's Phase 6

And his Scratch Built Wing

Without doubt the highlight of the day was poor old Kevin M who, whilst concentrating on flying his Wildthing was interrupted by a rather naughty Border Collie exploring his nether regions which made him loose control of his model. Oh, how we all laughed. Kevin thought that he had made a furry new friend.

By this time, I had experienced a very hard landing. Which resulted in a broken servo arm, a bent push rod and the fuselage had become detached from the wing. As it was now getting a bit busy with walkers, runners, cyclists and even more model flyers turning up, I considered it was time to go home for a sausage sandwich and spend the afternoon fixing my Wildthing.

Wednesday 2nd February at Itford Hill

 Today we decided to go to Itford Hill as the forecast was for up to 20 mph WNW winds.

I arrived at 08:30 to meet Kevin M and we walked up the hill but there was not the forecast wind at all, in fact it was so light we couldn't fly anything at that time. I had taken the club Wildthing in readiness to train Gordon S who was due to arrive a bit later. Kevin M had his own Wildthing and Let 13.

We tried the Wildthings but there was very little lift and we decided to wait for a while in hope of improvement. Meantime Kevin and I flew the Let 13 quite successfully as it's light and has quite a good wingspan.

During this time we were met by another flyer called Ollie from New  Zealand but he has been in the UK for 14 years. He had a SAS Mamba and a Weasel which he flew but that too wasn't getting enough lift. Ollie kept persevering with the Weasel and was getting some good flights from it at times.

After quite a while we were joined by Gordon S but I was unable to give him tuition in such light conditions. Robin A also joined us with his Alula and Mefisto and was having some success with the Alula despite the light conditions.

Later we were joined by Harry B with his M60 and 2 other guys who had a number of models between them. One of  them flew his Wildthing but realised that the lift wasn't sufficient.

Later the wind pick up and went slightly to the North so we flew to the right of the slope and there was enough lift at that time to get sustained flights but insufficient for me to give Gordon any tuition. Harry's M60 was too heavy to make any sustained flights but the Weasel and the Alula were doing very well. Later Robin flew his Mefisto and that went really well.

Altogether a very frustrating day in many ways...

Rob Stanley