January 27, 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.