As I get older I find it more and more difficult to get the motivation to get out of bed and go slope soaring, especially on a cold, damp Sunday morning in mid December. Roll on next year's Spring and Summer seasons. The main reason for this morning's outing was for me to meet a potential Club member called Tim who I had arranged to meet up with at Beeding Bowl. He told me that he was an experienced model flyer of electric powered models but has not done any sloping for some time. So with that in mind it was up and out, today was most certainly a "layers" day regarding the winter clothing.
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| Group Photograph |
I was the last to arrive at the slope, I was surprised that such a large number of Club members had turned up. In total, gathered around the windsock were eight fellow flyers plus me. This equates to almost a quarter of the Club. An awesome turn out on a fairly dismal day.
Aviation was being committed by Club members who, all to a man were struggling with the atmospheric conditions. I was quickly briefed not to fly over the left hand side of the bowl and to fly high. Launching my model into the air I noticed what they meant about the conditions. The windsock showed that the breeze was on the slope but the lift was most marginal and at times the models just dropped out of the air. This happened to some of our most experienced model flyers so I did not feel too bad when it happened to me. Looking out towards Lancing College all I could see were grey clouds, at least it remained dry for our session this morning. It was good to see so many of our regular flyers out but also some of our newer members were on the slope. This included Mike H who joined the Club earlier this year in Feb and he brought along his SAS Wildthing to fly.
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| Mike H - Wildthing |
Our Club Chair and Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) and thoroughly nice bloke, Rob S was present with the Club trainer, again an SAS Wildthing as he was expecting to provide some instruction for Tim. However, Tim only required limited assistance from Rob before he was away with his own Wildthing. All was going well until after landing it was noticed that a control horn was broken rendering the model unfit to fly until repairs are undertaken.
Robin S was flying his rather impressive Chris Foss Phase 5. I have been so impressed by Robin's build that I too have purchased a Phase 5 plan from the legend that is Chris Foss and also acquired a set of CNC cut wing ribs to assist in the building. It's another of my many future projects. Robin's other model for today was a Wildthing.
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| Phase 5 |
I think one of the best looking models on display today, including the Phase 5 was the Hawk belonging to Paul H. This aircraft not only looks good on the ground but also flies very well and looks very impressive in the air. He also had a RCRCM Mini Vec but I did not witness that model flying.
Most of the models today were versions of "Flying Wings" Russel H had two nice models, one being a Wingbat and the other a Xeno. Despites the conditions they both flew very well.
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| Wings |
Nick V who is a most experienced flyer and I consider him to be my personal instructor flew his Wildthing but he also had a normal looking glider that he called a "Bullet" apparently it looks like a bullet. His other name for it was "Bitza" that means it's a bit of this and a bit of something else.
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| Nick V's Models |
Poor old Kevin M was doing really well until he decided to enter a spot landing competition. The number of competitors was one, just Kevin. The idea of having the landing area right in the middle of the glider park did seem a bit odd. True to form his approach could be described as unusual, faster than probably necessary and his Wildthing went in nose first like a rocket, most impressive. Kevin also brought along his Starlet but that stayed in the protective bags today. This part of the slope will always now be known as "Kevin's Divot"
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| Kevin M's Models |
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| Impact Point |
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| Kevin's Spot landing site |
Another one of our regular flyers is Martin J who flew two models today one being his usual Wildthing and a rather nice Coyote.
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| Coyote |
As I sit here compiling this entry I can now reflect on the past year, we as a Club have maintained our numbers. A few members last year did not renew their memberships but this year I have had a number of new enquiries regarding Club membership with many of those joining this year. Last month we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Haywards Heath and I was nicely surprised that 37% of Club members attended and many stayed for lunch afterwards. That, I feel is an indication of the way that the members are trying to support the Committee and the Club as a whole. A number of motions were passed that included the election of next year's Committee members and next year's subscription. I myself have assisted a fellow modeler in Melbourne, Australia in obtaining a Chris Foss Phase 5 plan and a Phase 6 kit. Rob S, as usual has been like a dynamo, leading our Club and his involvement with the BMFA SE Area Committee as well as his charity work for prostate cancer. Also, his work with the students at Warden Park School, Cuckfield. Although I am younger than him I do find it at times challenging to keep up with him. Well done Rob. We have flown at many sites across Sussex this past year including, Itford Hill, Devils Dyke, Wolstonbury Hill, Beeding Bowl, Mill Hill, Firle Beacon, Bopeep Hill and the "LongMan". The Club has held a model glider kit auction with half the proceeds going to charity. I was introduced to First Person View (FPV) by Nick V. A flat field training day was held and many members including myself learnt a lot from the more experienced flyers. I arranged a visit to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Brighton City Airport to discuss model flying at Mill Hill. All in all a very good year but once again the weather was not kind to us but we hope next year will be more favorable.
Something that I have learnt from this mornings activities is that is not all about the flying. It's actually all about a group of like minded "Chaps" with a common interest who are all good friends that can share a joke. Any subject can be discussed and comments made regarding model building and flying techniques can be made by all irrespective of experience and considered answers given in return. I feel privileged to be the Club Secretary of such a small friendly flying club.
On that note, I wish all Club members a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, this also includes all our readers of this blog both within the UK and overseas.
Happy Landings to you all.
