Wednesday Afternoon. Cold and windy, 13C. We went to town today to get the post as well as try out a new cafe that has just opened in the plaza there. We also met up with Beccie and all enjoyed a toastada ( which is half a baggette, toasted, then with grated tomato and olive oil, we also had serano ham added, which was nice. I had a beer and they both had coffe each, total cost was 7 euro's, which we all felt was reasonable.

Later Jim bought us a couple of floculante tablets for the pool, which is slightly better than it was, but still resembles the Thames. These tablets will slowly join all the suspended red dust and cause it to fall to the bottom of the pool where it can be removed.

No where near as bad as it was a week ago, but still gross....

This picture was taken during the last full moon, with the moonlight reflecting off the Med.

Tuesday Evening: Today has been cool and very windy, in fact every day for the last two weeks has been windy. We had a very cold snap a week ago and a storm with the worst red rain we ever saw, which has turned the pool green. The shops have all sold out of chemicals too, so there is nothing we can do about it at the moment.

Febuary was very cold, with the exception of a few days toward the end when it was warmer, but no less windy. Seem to me this winter has been longer and darker than before, many more cloudy days and very cold winds, with no let up yet according to the forecast.

I decided to make a Skylark, which was my first commercial kit in New Zealand, it took about six weeks, although a significant amount of that time was due to bad weather and waiting for bits. Daniel came out at the beginnig of the month for 9 days and bought some wire strips, covering film and trim, the rest of the parts came from Hong Kong, although the longest I had to wait was for the nose leg, which took over two weeks from the UK and where I was ripped off for £6 to post it.

Anyway the model is finished now and has had a couple of flights, still waiting for another opportunity to fly it, those hot summer nights will suit this one well though..

The Skylark model under construction. The model uses all Turnigy equipment including radio, ESC and servo's and is powered by a Turnigy 3530/06 brushless outrunner motor.

The model, seen here after it's first test flight with flying fan Saffie cat, who regularly accompanies me to the flying strip and waits to chase the models when they land. I gave her a fright a couple of weeks ago when I did a touch and go with Piwaka, she wasn't expecting it to take off again and puffed up like a blowfish, it was really funny.
 
The finished model with solar trim added

The main difference between this model and the original it the addition of ailerons making the model 4 channel and not just three. It flies really well and fits perfectly into the "basic trainer" slot, being very slow and forgiving. This model is also nearly 1/3rd lighter than the orginal due to lighweight modern equipment.

A mock-up of the first Skylark kit label.

Friday Night. The weather has been much nicer this week, low 20's, calm. Today it was 22c.

Unbelievable, the replacement Bixler I ordered on Sunday from the Hobby King warehouse in Holland arrived Thursday afternoon, it was even delivered to Maria's and only cost $11US for postage. Very impressed.

I went all the way to Alicante airport this morning to pick Daniel up, but when he hadn't arrived at our arranged meeting point I rang Chrissie to see if she had heard from him. She went upstairs to get his number and found a text on her phone that had only just arrived saying he wasn't on the plane. To say I was pissed off was an understatement!

I am building a Skylark at the moment, which was my own design trainer and the first model I made as a kit in NZ. I am sure I have remembered all the parts and how it looked so it is an exact replica of the original (except for the changes to make it electric) I am looking forward to this one!

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 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 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 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.......

Hope you have a really nice day.... Cheers Dad.

Wednesday Afternoon: Cold and blowing a gale. The weather has been awful for the last month, cold, wet and windy, with the exception of Sunday, which was calm clear and sunny and I was able to have a number of flights with my models. In fact the calm weather lasted most of Monday as well with the sky slowly clouding over, so I had a few more flights. Other than that it had been nearly a month since I flew a plane.

My new model the Bixler, which is a foam glider powered by a pusher motor in a small pod and popular as a stable platfor for FPV - First Person View  - using small video cameras. I bought this to fly the HD Wingcam and have had a couple of goes over the weekend. The camera is mounted directly on the nose of the model with velcro, but there is a vibration issue, but once that is sorted out the results are OK (especially the raw video) I still have to find a way to make it appear better on you tube or what's the point of HD!

Because it's been so horrible outside, I haven't been able to work on the Spanish street at all, except to repair the roof..... The wild cat got into the house and tried to jump out of the window using the Spanish building as a spring board, which caused the tiled roof to fall on the floor and severly damaging it and leaving nearly 100 tiles in need of replacement. Each tile had to be carefully cut from the underside of the next, then the replacements had to be painted to match and carfully reinserted. This is of course the opposite way to normal to assemble the roof and is very difficult to do, so it took ages. The roof is however now fully repaired.