March 19, 2013

  • Tuesday 19th March 2013

    Tuesday mid day. Clear and sunny 18C, medium easterly breeze. The strong wind blew relentlessy for the last two weeks, some days were very cold, others warmer, but you can't do anything when it's so windy But today started out calm and the air was just stirring at 8-50am.

    I took the Skylark out for it's first flight since I added the colour trim, in fact it was only it's 3rd proper flight. But by 9am the wind was starting to blow from the east. After Skylark I also flew the Pioneer, but I had to cut that one short and land early due to the sudden uncrease in wind strength. It's impossibe to fly here with an easterly wind due to the turbulence caused by the village and the air falling into the valley behind.

    A little later I tried a flight with the Bixler which at first was soaring, but again the wind changed and suddenly there was no lift, only sink.... I tried to land on the top terrace as normal, but as I approached the model was dragged down at the last second and hit the wall below head on, splitting the front of the fuselage along it's joint. Not a huge problem, in fact it's fixed already, but once again the trecherous turbulance here has become evident.

    Update: The wind dropped about 6pm and I was able to have three more flights, first with the Lady B (it's been a while since she flew) then Skylark, which was concieved with these still warm evenings in mind.... She's absoloutly what I wanted, it's a pussy cat to fly, uses next to no power and I love landing it. Final flight was with the Bixler and I managed to find a thermal for a couple of minutes, so all in all a good day for flying.and all three landings tonight were "text book"

    I, on the other hand am still suffering from some flu thing... I tried to do some gardning this morning and that ended up with a major coughing fit follwed by the afternoon asleep on the sofa, it had totally wiped me out. Kieran has been here today doing some gardening, so I had to drop him back to Jalon before I flew.