Today's flying session 10.01.2007

[BobJ]

Actually they recently closed manchester airport!
At the "cat and fiddle" (bike mecca and slope soaring site) there is a subscription dial in and internet access wind machine that at about 3pm was reading from 55 to 96mph average 73mph.
This is one of the few machines in the normally reliable network still working!

Hey I have flown Zagi's by the Cat and Fiddle when it was blowing to 69mph, we did have to use more than a little lead weight!

Cheers
Bob

[Ade_Law]

cat and fiddle, is that the bikers pub on that most excellent but notoriously dangerous road near matlock? Not been over there in the beema but even in a citroen C15 van it was good fun! managed to keep up with a lotus 7 type car was a real pain, drove like a girl round the corners and booted it down the straights making it impossible to get past him, until one of the fast sweeping right handers :-)

few years back went to a F3F event at eastborne.

far too windy for racing so it got cancelled. i think somebody measured the wind in the SW bowl of the long man at 75mph. needless to say normally fast 60inch foamies full of lead were just going backwards or down. Careful use of the controls made a little headway. landing just resulted in a bounce and it floating off down wind not not flying resulting in a long walk. Could barely stand up, eyes were streaming, couldnt see. breathing was hard work too!

later on in the day the wind shifted round WNW so we went up to devils dyke. got the acacia out. wind had dropped a fair bit but it was still a lot of effort to put the model together. Acacia took 500 grams of brass. that was the only time it felt underballasted! I really miss that model :-(

Ade

[Smoothound]

Think we peaked here at 66mph today. I went up Mill for a look but could barely get out of the car up there let alone fly anything


http://www.shorehamweather.info/WxFlash/


I'm sure up top it was probably higher top speed

[Ade_Law]

If you had gone forward down to where the gate used to be you could have got out of the wind and would have been flying in the area of most lift so less chance of getting blown backwards.

Ade

[Smoothound]

Yeah but getting there from the car would've been a challenge let alone getting there with a model and Tx in hand

[Ade_Law]

would have been worth it tho, high wind flying is great fun.

even better if your on a hill like this...

http://www.knewt.com/bwlch/thebwlch.htm

Ade

[robgt]

Ice cream slope, NW
Best Competition Time 35.02 (Ade Law 9/2/03)

Well done that man
Cheers,
Rob

[Smoothound]

would have been worth it tho, high wind flying is great fun.

even better if your on a hill like this...

http://www.knewt.com/bwlch/thebwlch.htm

Ade

Yeah I've heard of it but not sure my balls are big enough for that yet, I will go take a look soon though

[Smoothound]

Ice cream slope, NW
Best Competition Time 35.02 (Ade Law 9/2/03)

Well done that man
Cheers,
Rob

Shhhhh don't encourage him please

[Ceejay]

You could join my club, we fly out at J9 of M27 (Locks Heath). Electric only though.

I'd like to come along for a visit, at least. Could you be a bit more specific as to the whereabouts?

Cheers

[Ade_Law]

thanks rob :-)

when the lift is on the course F3F is great fun. most of the time its a thermal lottery :-(

give me a shout if you go. stronly recomend the N-NNE "slope" (more like a cliff) 15mph is the same lift as mill hill in 30 but its ALL going UP!

its called the wrecker for a reason!

i was sport flying up there once. sunny, nice 15mph breeze. full lead in the acacia. the lift on that slope is super smooth and 6ft back from the edge theres little or no wind. So if the sun is out its warm.

after about 5mins stooging around i found myself with a 2.8metre moulded glider full of lead at around 1000ft above our heads.

for those that dont know. these things are big, efficient and very slippery. Some are capable of 300mph using dynamic soaring.

anyway... back to the storey.

so i rolled her over (oh err) stuck the nose at the ground. about 2/3 of the way down the pitch of the whistle stopped increasing. as i gently pulled around the turn at the bottom to level her out the tail fluttered and took one taileron and half of one Vtail with it.

got it down after a few very nervous mins walking back to the landing area.

hmmm i seem to be pondering the old days a lot tonight!

Ade

[Smoothound]

I had a similar moment on the North slope at Mill a few weeks back. Not as high and with the Wanabee not anything expensive. Got in a really good thermal and got up extremely high, no idea how high but model was specked out. Pointed the nose down and let it go.............when I tried to pull out at around 60-80' there was no response at all....I had full up elevator and nothing was happening at all....it finally pulled out at around 10' by which time my under wear was brimming I've not done anything similar with that model since, dives of more than 45 degrees are off the repetoire

[Ade_Law]

I have seen models that fly neutral at lower speeds (45deg dive CG test)
but when you really get it honking it will try to tuck. hence you needing full elevator to get it to pull out.

or your just sufferent from control surface/hinge or linkage flex.

Ade