9 Trouble Free Flights

I had the Harmon Rocket out today for 3 flights, what a great flyer it is with a nice throaty four stroke engine. Also had 3 flights with the Mini Pred helicopter without crashing it and 3 flights with the little Tiger Moth in the calm late afternoon. I was at the field for 3 hours and I didn't check but I think the wind was probably 3 miles per hour!

All good things must come in threes then!

GWS Tiger Moth Maiden Day

Last year my daughter bought a GWS Tiger Moth for my birthday. It was quite a surprise especially since really it's the indoor model and I don't care for indoor flying. So it lanquished on a shelf for the rest of the year but recently I decided to assemble it, fitting a lighter lithium polymer battery pack than the heavier NiCad pack it was designed for. I also used the now commonplace 2.4Ghz radio system which also meant that I could fit a lightweight receiver. All these hopefully giving it chance to fly outdoors on calm days.

A couple of weeks ago such a calm day arrived so I decided to give it a try. The wheels are pretty flimsy so it would struggle to take off from grass (so I thought but I have done so since). There was no one on about that had hand launched a model before so I decided to try it off a tarpaulin sheet, that worked a treat. I wish I had remembered to ask someone to video the maiden flight which revealed a huge amount of yaw to the right, too much to correct with rudder trim so I had to hold the correction in on the transmitter throughout the flight. Amazingly it flew quite well, so well that I was able to land it back on the tarpaulin which annoyingly I couldn't repeat for the second flight in the video below.

By the time of the next visit to the field I had remounted the motor with more left sidethrust and it flew a straight without any yaw on another clam day. I flew it again yesterday when there was a light breeze and it coped though I would say it was on it's limit. All the same calm summer and autumn evenings may well see this dainty little aeroplane floating around.

An Unexpected Walk

It's not unusual for me to go for a short walk along the canal near to my home in Middlewich, on this occasion though my wife came with me and we decided to follow a path that we had not really noticed before.

It was 25th January, another cold breeze gently blowing but on the whole not too bad and the start was pretty normal, following the Shropshire Union branch to the shortest canal in the country, the Wardle Canal at just 47 metres long. The Wardle canal joins to Shopshire Union canal to the Trent and Mersey Canal and is famous for it's picturesque lock & lock keepers cottage.

Trent and Mersey canal near the Wardle canal junction

Having reached the Trent and Mersey canal we turned north towards Northwich for a short distance. The sun was behind us and a pair of swans were meandering along the calm water and beyond the bridge were some narrowboats belonging to Middlewich Narrowboats. A typical Middlewich view that requires the passerby to reach for a camera. I only had my phone camera with me but it didn't do too bad a job. Soon after this the canal runs parallel to Brooks Lane and on the opposite side of Brooks Lane is a public footpath though the industrial estate and into the countryside; we decided to explore it. The footpath was mostly well marked but in places became less clear. Mobile phone to the rescue again this time with GPS and maps and so we were able to follow the path as it headed in the general direction of Holmes Chapel then north again towards the A54. 

My Mini Pred Helicopter with training aids - in 2008!

By a happy co-incidence a small diversion had us walking past the South Cheshire Model Flying Club field where some other members were flying a helicopter. I've had a helicopter for years but haven't flown it for a good while but just lately these same chaps have been trying to encourage me to give it another go and on this occasion went so far as to let me have a fly with a buddy box connected (a training system) and I did alright. Hmm, we'll see!

By this time most of the afternoon had gone and it was time to head straight back towards Middlewich and home. All in this walk was very nearly 5 miles, far more than I usually walk and I was all in too!

Some Extra Work

Jambusters, a book by Julie Summers, has been the inspiration for an ITV drama to be screened around spring this year and will be called Homefires. A friend of my wife's passed on a recruiting leaflet from Boss Casting  which mentioned that location filming was going to be based around the Bunbury area of Cheshire; an area we know quite well, in fact I used to live at nearby Spurstow. Well we decided to apply and we were both accepted!

It was a very interesting experience and gave quite an insight into how the sets were made up and managed. Some days were an early start and though long, seemed to whizz by as we were kept fairly busy. This particular production's rate of pay wasn't brilliant but I more did it more out of curiosity really and enjoyed it very much, so much so that I just might do something similar again.

More information about Jambusters is available on Facebook and more about ITV's Homefires is here  
   

Middlewich and The Great War

I haven't posted much about my working life for some time, as much as anything because I've been busy... working. The bulk of time at the moment is taken up with Middlewich Heritage and building up the Great War project part of their website. It's no small task as the project involved many parts of the Middlewich community and all very thoroughly recorded. This wide involvement produced a massive amount of historical data as spoken words, documents, photographs and video, all of which needs to be added to the website in some kind of order.

Middlewich Town Council and Middlewich Heritage have accumulated a great deal of experience in putting on festivals and the such like, so when the Great War project culminated in the Great War weekend it was no surprise that it was a brilliant success. The weekend generated more material and in addition to involving the community in remembering those that gave so much it invoked a modern day feeling of community too. That must be a good thing.

It's been a bit tricky getting on with all this due to having tendon release surgery on my left hand but I've managed; it's held up my model flying a lot though. So the the plan is to get this work done and then take it a bit easier so that there's some leisure time available.

Winter Forest Walk

The New Year came in not too cold, bright and cheerful so an extra day off on 2nd January to enjoy it was hard to deny. A family trip to Delamere Forest for a round trip walk starting from Barnes Bridge Gate on Ashton Road was the order of the day. The trees gave plenty of protection against the light but cold breeze and the sunshine brought out colours not often associated with winter.

It was good to have both of children with us as they have busy lives too and we don't spend as time together as I would like. Our route took us to Blakemere Moss, a small mere in a direct line from Ashton Road to Station Road. A closed path caused us to divert along the side of Blakemere Moss which turned out to be a good thing as it was very picturesque. From there we headed back to and across Aston Road along the back of Hatchmere Wood. A turn west joined us up with the Sandstone Trail and back to Barnes Bridge Gate. A pleasant 3.75 miles, just about the maximum I can manage at the moment. 

The timing was good too, pushing 4pm when we finished with sun just setting and the breeze dropped we'd had the best of the day but I wasn't ready for home so we headed of to the Hollies (a large farm shop & cafe cum bistro) on the A49 at Little Budworth for coffee and toasted tea cake, very nice.

Needles to say I took a photograph or too, it would have been terrible not to record such a lovely day.

World War 1: Aviation comes of age

World War 1: Aviation comes of age  is 3 week long course that is intended to take up about three hours a week but I found the optional further reading unmissable and so I had to allow more time.  

This also meant that having started the course late I was even later finishing it - it took me about 5 weeks in total and I really enjoyed it. Just shows how flexible the the cours is. It's a free online course from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for War Studies.

The course cover many aspects about the early days of aviation and how it evolved raidly through WW1 bring about the formation of the Royal Flying Core before the war and the Royal Air Force by the end of it.

There's many other intersting courses like this available via the Future Learn website so it's well worth a look.

SS Great Britain

We went to collect my son from Bristol just before Christmas and made good time on the journey, in fact with time to spare. 

Bristol is a fascinating city with many old buildings blending in reasonabley well with the modern, it's harbour and just the general atmosphere a being alive and well, thriving in fact. Faced with an hour or two burn it wasn't difficult to think of a good number of places to visit; in the end we went for SS Great Britain.

SS Great Britain was designed by brunel and was launched at Bristol in 1843. It is one of the most important historic ships in the world being the first steamship built of iron and also the first ocean going ship to be driven by a propeller and not paddles. More information is on their website.

The few hours turned out not to be enough time to do the visit credit but that's okay, the ticket is valid for as many returns visits as you like for a year, so next time we go to Bristol we can finish off of our tour properly.

Would You Visit Middlewich Museum?

Image from Middlewich Heritage

Middlewich has a long history readily traced back through modern history, Norman and Roman times. So why not visit Middlewich Museum? Simple, you can't there isn't one. 

You could be forgiven for thinking Middlewich is that little place that the A54 cuts through however locals can tell otherwise and that's part of the problem. Locally there's a huge amount of articles and data that is inaccesible to the public. Well Middlewich Heritage and other local groups are hoping to this right. Plans are in early stages though it seems that a trust managed museum may be the way to go. To this end a survey is being carried to try to establish what the public feeling is and what would be liked and your participation would be appreciated:

• You don’t have to be a resident to have a point of view, the survey is for all to fill in. We need the public’s point of view on heritage and on heritage in Middlewich to enable us to work in a more focused way, bring new projects online and make decisions on how we can best serve the public’s needs.
• The survey will be on line until 6th February and is mainly tick boxes so it will only take a couple of minutes to complete.
• The more responses we get, means we have more information to guide us with any future plans or fund-raising for the town and the surrounding parishes.

Please use the link below to load the form and pass on the link to others you feel would be interested to take part.

Thank you in advance

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LRDVY65

As part of the preparations a visit to Ribchester museum was arranged to see how a relatively small museum can be succesful. I was pleased to be involved in this along with half a dozen or so other representaives of local groups. We gleaned a lot ideas and in keeping with the plea above completed a questionare whilst it was all still fresh in our minds.

Archaeological Timeline - Middlewich Heritage

Salt Hot House - Middlewich Heritage

Wardle Canal - Middlewich Heritage

Community Dig Finds - Middlewich Heritage

ARP Wardens - Middlewich Heritage

Jodel

At our club's open day I was fortunate to win a fantastic raffle prize, a flight in one of our member's aeroplane.

Hilary & I Ready To Fly

This was a Jodel DR1050 and the flight was from Wellesbourne airfield in Warwickshire on 25th October 2014. The day had started quite breezy and wet and though the rain subsided by the afternoon it was still quite breezy; if I remember correctly it was blwoing at 20% to the strip. My wife Hilary came along too and after our pilot, Steve, had completed all the ground checks we set off down the strip. I could certainly feel the breeze as the aeroplane worked up towards take-off speed and then off we went in the general direction of Evesham. Soon after that Steve asked me if I'd like to take control, hah, can a duck swim!

Jodel DR1050

We passed Stratford on Avon on our right, Evesham on our left and continued in the general direction of Pershore until we reached the Stensham Services on the M6 at which point we turned back towards Wellesbourne. Well, I’ve had my hands on the controls of an aeroplane once or twice before but bouncing around in the breeze was a new experience and I have to say I quite enjoyed it. Of course Steve landed the aeroplane, which in the conditions was, erm, rather attention grabbing.





It was a great flight and I'd love to do it again.