Month: January 2013

  • Sunday 27th Jan 2013

    Sunday Evening: Today was sunny with high cloud, warm 20C and calm. Until yesterday the wind had roared for a fortnight and it had only been 12 and 13 degrees, but today was amazing. There was a gentle wind, interrupted by the odd thermal. The Bixler was in it’s element and so was I ! One thing I really enjoy is hunting thermals and today was perfect. I had a really long first flight.

    I had two flights
    with the Pioneer and one with Lady B.

    Later I flew Bixler again and was out over the valley when the
    engine failed, I had one shot at landing it…… Although there was lift to the east, on the western side the air was sinking, so I had to judge it perfectly. I flew just over the olives along the ridge downwind, then had to make a hard turn back toward the top terrace before I got cought in the sink. I was a bit too high, but I stuck the nose down and fortunatly I did get it onto the terrace, maybe not my best landing, but at least it was OK. The motor wouldn’t run at all, I was gutted, Daniel is coming to see us in a few days and I was looking forward to him having a fly of this one.

    There was only one solution
    , get another one. The new Hobby King warehouse in Holland had some in stock and the postage is only 8 eruo’s and from Holland there’s  no tax, so it’s on it’s way.

    But the story doesn’t end there. Later in the afternoon I decided to re try the speed controller that I had ordered with the Bixler. When I first tried to set it up, it had failed to work at all, but I had a feeling to try it again, so I used the Piwaka’s gear to test it on and this time it did.work. Mmmmm

    Following this success
    I decided to try the Bixler again, I had already taken all the radio gear out of it and had a good tug at the wires to make sure nothing had broken, but when I put it all back  together again, it too worked and I had a third flight. Ooopps…. the replacement is already on the way….. Oh well, obviously it’s a favourite model at the moment, so now I will have a spare one.

  • Wednesday 17th Jan 2013

    Wednesday Evening: Today was partly cloudy 16C very windy. The good weather came to an end several days ago and since then the wind has roared day and night. Obviously no flying.

    Four years, three months Longer than the First World War and finally today the letter that should end the hostilities as they say……..

  • Wednesday Evening: Today was a little mistier than the last week and cooler at 13C, but until now it has been sensational, a mini summer with no wind and 19-20C every day in warm sunshine. I flew a lot again on Sunday, but then Monday morning the car wouldn’t start and I thought it was because I had charged too many batteries.

    Beccie had a hospital appointment at 9 am Monday morning with the top heart surgeon in Spain and Chrissie needed to be there too, so we had to call Jim to drive her to Denia. Thankfully the surgeon doesn’t want to operate on Beccie as he thinks in time the problem with her crushed viem may become easier.

    I tried to charge the car, but I was unable to charge the battery, so had to wait until they came home later to jump start it from Beccies car. I did have another couple of flights during the day because this spell of calm weather is unprecidented and I want to take advantage of it, during the coming months it can blow endlessly.

    I flew the little electric Tiger Moth out over the valley to the south after the sun went down and with the thick warm air rising the model flew very slowly and it looked so real. When I landed it rolled out perfectly and didn’t nose over for the first time EVER, it was it’s best flight

    As it turned out it, the failure was very little to do with my model battery charging, it was a dud cell in the car battery, which cam happen anytime. I bought a new one and a new charger, so was a little more relaxed about charging my models back up again today. Also I have been checking the new car battery with a volt meter to make sure I don’t wipe it out.

  • Saturday 5th January 2013

    Saturday Night: Today was another gem, Clear and sunny, 20C and not a breath of wind all day. I had 5 flights, 2 each with Bixler and Lady B and one with Pioneer 2, conditions were expceptional, like putting the flight sim on beginners mode….

    I had to take Benji to the vet this morning because he was limping and very lathargic, turns out he had a cats claw ebmedded in the top of his foot. I checked all of the other cats and no one was missing a claw, so it wasn’t a domestic incidence. Unfortunatly since Henry our resident wild cat disapeared at the begining of December,  there have been other wild cats about. Henry, who’s purpose in life seemed to have been defending our lot used to keep them away.

    This is Pioneer 2…. Built in July 2012 is flown regularly.



    And this is Lady B
    , this model is approaching 7 years of age.

  • Friday January 4th 2013

    Friday Evening: Today was clear and sunny 16C. A shit of year has ended, the shit hasn’t yet, but it’s not quite as deep as it was a year ago….. We had a strangely quiet Christmas with Daniel away in the Philippines visiting Shine’s family and Beccie called to duty with Antony’s family in Javea, although they did turn up late afternoon.

    New year was a non event
    , but it was a hell of a lot better than last year when Beccie was on the cancer ward in Valencia. In fact today is the anniversary of her first chemo session.

    On a brighter note, we went out to a restarant in Jalon for a fabulous dinner on my birthday.

    The inside of the bar was reminisant of the dolls house model….

    The following days were the nicest warmest stillest days I can remember since I began flying again. the 22nd of December was 22C with absoloutly no wind all day. I had 9 flights and flew everything, including the SE5A

    This is the Bixler, I got it for flying the video camera, but I fly it as much as the others because it’s so nice to fly. It has a 1.4m wingspan, but is so light it can glide and soar in any lift coming from the valley.


    This is the yellow V911
    Micro 4 channel helicopter. It has real servo’s and has so far completed 53 flights.

    We went to Maria’s
    on Wednesday for their new season reopening and were welcomed like long lost family. It was lovely, young Maria and her family had been to the Pyranees for their holiday and she gave us some cheese made by friends who have a farm up there, it was gorgeous, you’d never get anything like it in a shop! The her husband Kico gave a a small caraff of his home made wine….. Oh it was delightful, totally natural, it was lovely!

    Today Beccie has been to see another specialist at Denia hospital because although the cancer has been completly eradicated, the damage it caused to her main viens by her heart is very serious and they still don’t know what to do about it, so it goes on. I dropped Chrissie off at Beccies house in Gata, then drove into Javea to buy us all a pie for lunch. There is a bakery there called The English Bakery and actually their pies are supurb, well worth the trip to get them, of course the girls were kept waiting for the obligatory hour+ so I went to Monroe’s for a beer, but the pies were still warm enough by the time they got back.

      

    Tammy and Lucy together…….