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