Feeling The Heat

Chucked most of these off the slope... the models that is,
the gaucanos aren't very aerodynamic.

I visited a site I haven't been to for quite a while on 23/08/16. This was Edge Top near Hollinsclough and I don't think I've been back there since the mixed events of my 2014 visit. No great dramas this time though it wasn't as trouble free as I would have liked.

The main problem was the wind, well lack of it and unfortunately not blowing straight onto the slope as forecast. There were several other flyers there too and that had already found it difficult to get any any lift. I tried the Wicked Wing and I too found the lift insufficient so I did what I always do - sat down and ate my picnic, which was very enjoyable in the hot sunshine. By the time I finished the wind had picked up a  little and moved onto the slope some more. Helped by some thermal activity this changed things and the Wicked Wing was away, until the lift went again whilst I was flying. I had tried to keep reasonably high in case that happened but I turned towards the landing zone to tightly, lost the airflow and stalled into a spin. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, just counter the spin, level out and rise on the lift again; the latter element wasn't there though so it continued downwards and out of site due to the slope seepening lower down. I just had to land it blind as best I could. As far as I could tell it had landed near a farm track and as the slope was rough and steep I decided to go in the car. I stopped near to where I thought it might be, looked up at the slope and seeing the steepness of the it and all the bushes reckoned I was still in for a hard time climbing and locating the model. I got out of the car not releshing the job ahead then to my surprise, no more than 25 yards away, just off the road was the Wicked Wind in amongst some gorse no worse for wear.

Motor off, the Blanik Soared well.

By the time I arrived back at the flying field the wind had picked up some more and I sent the Wicked Wing off on several more flights, the last few being able reach good altitudes and so I decided to try the SAS Fusion. Sure enough the Fusion was happy so some faster and more aerobatic flights followed. I also had the Blanik L13 with me, it's a foamie with a propeller on the front that I've flown and thermalled from a flat field before but hadn't slope soared. I decided that the motor would keep it out of tyroubel but I would try not to use it after launching and even then with  just a little power to assist with the launch. Oops, I launched it and it just didn't make any headway into the wind then dived down the slope. Hmm ended using that motor to get out of trouble sooner than I thought! Anyway I'm happy to be able to report that it flew well, at times too well and it didn't want to descend though moving the flaps up rather than down fixed. I was hoping to fly the SI Secret Weapon too but I ran out of time and the day's flying ended with everything happily in one peace.

The next day was a strange day weatherwise, hot and sunny giving way to grey and quite breezy which made flying a couple of little models quite interesting. I tried the Vampire with a larger capacity battery, therefore heavier. It flew very nicely and gave me a flight time of around 8 minutes. The GWS Tiger Moth bounced about all over the place and at times in reverse! Still it survived the day.

I still have a lot of catching up to do this year and Autumn is almost upon us, yipes another year is rolling on.