Skorpion on Rushup Edge...

Flying buddy Will Deighton and I braved -4C today to try to get some light DS in at Rushup... The snow scenery was spectacular! Trudging up the path to the top was fun, with the snow anything from knee deep to nearly up to your hips in the big drifts...

Sadly the wind was waaaay to far off - maybe 45-50 degrees off slope to the West, and too weak. But I sent the Skorpion up anyway, and tried to get her going, but alas, I had to land on my first DS circuit as I just hadn't managed to gain enough height for the decent dive in. Still, she went up again and I enjoyed 45 minutes of gentle thermal flying over the magnificently white blanketed hills.

Splinter goes 169mph!

Yes the Splinter has done it again - this time on the Skirrid... This was all the more remarkable in that it posted equal top speed for the day as a very well flown Opus MCT. What a model!

Anyway, here's some photos from the day - thanks to George for getting the pics of my Splinter whilst I was flying. The Opus is Adam Richardson's triple carbon MCT - stunningly smooth model and looks to be a superb sport model for strong frontsiding as well...

The Splinter with the white tips is Adam's oak one, and the other one is mine - the 169mph one! Adam's oak one went up to 164mph in the end, but I suspect that he finds it tough to really wind his one up - it's the prototype after all, and the only one with that beautiful pterodactyl planform...

Enjoy!

Splinter DS gets 162mph

Well, it's been on the gun - she's gone 162 at Rushup Edge in only 25mph of wind! I have no doubt there's LOADS more to come from this model. Honestly I could not see any evidence of any flex whatsoever. It's just totally solid. Beautiful in the DS circuit too. I just need to hone my circuits and then I have no doubt that the airframe will do a lot more if I can hold onto it! Hopefully Kiwi Steve will have some photos for me from the day - I'll post em up when I get them.

One happy Splinter pilot!

Zim

The Mynd - final BMFA round...

Oh well we were let down by the weather yet again. Mike Evans did his best to get the comp running but alas the conditions were drifting in and out of legal throughout the first round, started at 1330. Still, a good day all in all - I was pretty pleased that I finally managed to do a "proper" cut recovery by pushing some down in when I missed Base A rather than my usual massive series of S banks to make the base. Was pretty happy with the Skorpion on the course, but mostly pretty chuffed that the settings that I had working in big air on the Icecream slope seemed to feel quite nice in very marginal conditions on the Mynd too.

Other notable achievements for the day:

John Sage completed a WHOLE round without cutting - well done John!
Simon Thornton shattered that minute barrier than has eluded him for his entire F3F career, with a 70.
I fell down two rabbit holes, having never done that before.
I couldn't make the range finder for setting up the course work, as I was holding it up the wrong way round to my eye. Funnily enough, it kept coming back reading 25cm.
The Dynamic 40" stayed up - again!
Katherine managed to film Joel thermalling for some time. Now that's dedication!

I'll post some pictures later on in the week. But there's not a lot of point, as there's not many flying shots and we're not a particularly good looking bunch.

Roll on the winter leagues!

Zim

The Skorpion...

Had a couple of flights with it at the Icecream slope yesterday. That was the first time that I have had it out in a bit of a blow - ye gads it was quick! Fiddled about a little with the differential and I think I now have a setting that gets it going where I want it in a reversal. Just need to remember to do it in a comp now! I've also gotten over my fear of having the aileron trailing edge fully follow the flap trailing edge in snap-flap and I'm sure it turns better this way rather than with less aileron than flap. Whether it's safer or not, I really have no idea. Anyway, here's a photo of her - thanks to Kevin Newton for the pic...

Foamies rule!

These two shots are from Day three of the Welsh Open - Paul Middleton and I got a little bored and he generously offered to use up his supply of wing bolts by letting me try to catch his Wannabee (?) as it came running along the Wrecker! Thanks to Alvaro Silgado (Spanish Al) for the pics :)

BMFA League F3F @ Tinkers, Huddersfield

What a build up! I went off to Tinkers for a bit of a practice last thing Friday and man oh man it was wild. Loads of wind, turbulence and fear! Still "Rocket" Ronnie Lampe was there to give me a couple of pointers to help keep the model in one piece and thankfully that's what happened.

The EPP boys were sadly blown off the hill on Saturday with winds gusting up to 110mph, so Saturday was spent wondering with some trepidation what our F3F day would bring on Sunday. As it turned out, it was hardly excessive, and with the features of the hill, and the conditions, made for a very technical comp which rewarded those able to find the compression zone very near to the slope edge. Simon Thornton put in a masterclass of the right balance of controlled aggression and flying skill to win yet another round. Greg Dakin was just unreal to watch as usual, and the Knewt was on form as ever, despite his day being slightly blighted by stepping in a very generous cow pat.

Richard Bago was up there again - he just quietly keeps on getting up there does our Rich, with some excellent flying to take third spot. Nice to see you back from overseas mate!

At this point, despite only coming in 22nd, I'll have to give myself an honourable mention, given that I made buzzerman Frank Hulton dive for cover on Base B with a "bit" of a safety line violation. I'm taking this as a good sign that I'm occasionally finding the courage to fly a little closer to the edge!

Well done to my flying buddies Adam and George - Adam for leaving me choking on his dust yet again by recording an excellent 9th despite my beating him in the first two rounds (false dawn there!), and George for maidening his first 3m model and completing his first F3F comp on a new hill all in the same day!

Anyway, herewith the photos of the day...

The Splinter...

Ok so it's a while since we maidened these things, but I'm still amazed at how it flies... For those who don't know what they are:

Adam's: Solid 300yr old English Oak; PW106mod fitted with RDS etc - 60" span with a wing loading around 35oz/ft.

Mine: Solid Idigbo hardwood; PW106mod no RDS etc - the production prototype - 60" span with a wing loading around 31oz/ft.

Mine is the one doing most of the flying in the vid, apart from the two DS passes at the end when the music stops - that's Adam Richardson's Oak one. If you fancy one, they are available to order from Adam at £550ea. Takes him and his Dad Dean a full week of work to make two! They come completely finished - all you have to do is chuck your gear in. Pretty much an ARTF except they are hinged as well!

The day on the video wasn't particularly great either - only about 15mph on the Skirrid, but they handle the light conditions really well as long as you can let them drop a bit off the launch to gain some speed. Once up to speed they are seriously efficient models.

Welsh Open 2009

A few pics of the weekend... Well done Graham Reed and Team Watering Cans!

(if the slide show plays a bit fast for you, then hover your mouse over the pics and the play/ pause buttons will come up - you can then scroll by clicking at your own pace...)

Abbo's Night Out in Bridgend...

Try to imagine what Abbo's saying!!!

Welsh Open - didn't come last!

What a fantastic weekend. It all started rather hilariously for me as I was drawn as first in the flying order - no pressure then! In retrospect I think I probably had my best air in round 1, but didn't fly it aggressively enough - I should have probably taken 5 seconds off it. However, I was pretty happy all in all to place 38th out of 50 pilots. Whilst we have a large number of fantastic F3F pilots here in the UK, it was really interesting to see how some of the Euro guys go about the course.

Also got to see all of the new hot kit coming onto the scene - the Martinet was there in both long and short flavours, as was the stunning new Aeromod Alliaj HM - I've got a bit of glider horn over this one. Freestylers were ten a penny, and there was even a lone Radical. Skorpions were very much still in evidence, and were smattered all over the placings from 1st down to 47th - still a seriously competent model in the right hands. The Ceres has become a very popular model, although the new Extreme is starting to become more visible too. There seem to be more and more RaceMx's at competitions, and several other competitors now have theirs on order as well. And of course Espen Torpe was there with the yet to be renamed "Cyril". Although it looks rather like a Ceres, it has a new tail, fuse, wing and section. Pretty much a new model then!

Anyway, pictures will be up later once I've gone through them all and come up with a few good ones.

Club 2000 Project - the Razor

Night before the Welsh Open...

Crikey - still can't quite believe it myself. I've managed to get up the reserve list, and ended up gaining an entry to the Welsh Open F3F. I was really looking forward to just spectating it, but now I'll be flying alongside some of the best pilots in the sport. Goal? Don't come last!!!

The Wrecker in glorious but not very windy sunshine 09/09/09

Chris Van Schoor aka "Woodstock" was over from Ireland to spend a few days flying with us, and as usual when Chris comes to fly, most of the wind disappeared!

I managed to re-maiden my JR Models Madslide before Chris arrived - it had been on the bench for a tidy up as well as getting some decent servos in there. Flew great - was lots of fun, but doesn't fly "big" enough to really enjoy the Wrecker. So I'm going to try her on a smaller slope - I think that will be a better fit for the model. Here's Tom Satinet giving her the heave-ho...



Will Deighton was also there with his Acacia 3 - a maiden for him and his first 3m model. Flew it really well with loads of confidence despite the intermittent lift - top job there - I'm sure we'll see him on the F3F circuit soon enough!





Mike Evans was flying his RCRCM Sigma F3B which continues to impress him. Looks to have good potential for F3F...



Then Mike started to play about a bit so that we could get some interesting shots of the model closer in to the edge. I guess Mike felt pretty comfortable with the Sigma as I didn't even need a zoom for most of the shots along the edge! Fun!






I flew my Skorpion F3B again, and again in really light conditions. Got a little worried at one point about 5 minutes into the first flight when I found myself half way down the Wrecker with not a lot of lift under the wings, but thanks to a couple of pointers from the lads, I soon found a spot and was enjoying a bit of thermalling over the valley. The next flight I decided to push it a bit and put 3 slugs in - the conditions weren't that different but the Skorp showed again that it's a really versatile machine and I flew it in the light conditions without any cause for concern, except this time it was a little more fun when diving in with a little ballast onboard. Really enjoying this model - hopefully I'll enjoy racing it as much as I have enjoyed flying it so far!

For some entirely bizarre reason, I actually failed to get ANY pics of Chris or any of his models! No idea what I was thinking there, so apologies Chris!

Dedication or stupidity?

The cold side of F3F at the Hole of Horcum during the 08/09 winter league...