March 22, 2013
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Friday 22nd March 2013
Friday Evening: Today was clear and sunny, 20C and there was only a light easterly breeze most of the day. I looked out of the window at 8am and it was dead still and I thought this is going to be 9am next week, so may as well get used to it. I had a whole hour of still conditions during which time I flew the Skylark and the Bixler.
As the day went on the wind did get stronger, but it remained directly from the east which produces areas of lift from time to time, which is perfect for the Bixler to soar. Today it was random, but in between thermals I used her motor to gain height again.In the afternoon there had been a long calm spell, so I decided to put the Bixler up again, bit it was only airborne for about 5 minutes when the wind quickly changed to the south east and turned the air to "scrambled eggs". Flying isn't an issue, but landing is.... I flew out into the South valley to approach and found the model was being sucked downwards, it took full power to escape. As I approached I held the model level and it arrived over the terrace at just 300mm, perfect for a landing, then a gust thrust it up 3M and with no airspeed, promptly dumped it in the nearest almond tree.... Bit embarrassing if someone was watching from the restaurant as I'm sure they were!.
Chrissie bought me a weather vane for my birthday, it had to be ordered and has been a while, but I received it yesterday and fitted it this afternoon. With that and Benno's one back up, I now have a reasonable idea where the wind is.In the end it dropped completely and I had two Skylark flights back to back, I love it! It's a dream. Finished with Bixler 9 or 10 flights today, lost count
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