If Carlsberg did flying days...

 

What a perfect day up Westbury.. Northerly winds 10mph bang on the face.. We arrive by one, park up, throw gliders together and chuck off in 5 mins! beautiful clean lift, gave me a chance to fly Rotty with out ballast for the first time. Thought was a little sluggish untill after 10 mins of flying i realised i had thermal flap on! a very different story afterwords. Spent all afternoon on the hill dodging para-gliders in great lift!

Martin negotiating "the trench" with his trusty Scorpion, Tanga still waiting for new fuz (see earlier post as to why) i could tell he was missing it....

Mark returning after a successful sortie.

The line up, Mark flew his Ash 26 This is great model, and lands very well.. so well it almost took his leg off!

Still can not belive its January, Skorp cruising around

which glider shall i fly now?

My Viking2 Looping over the back. Perfect conditions for the viking, being lighter than the Rotmilan i expect will out-thermal, however... not as fast, and not as agile.

An upside down Scorpion.

The hill was covered in para gliders, must of been +20 up, all fighting for airspace. We do our best to bully them off our part of the slope however you always have to keep an eye out for them as they sneak up on you!

We like rounding them up!







Think this is Phil, apologies if not... However this is his name from now onwards! A master at making us all duck, Phil chucked his Assassin around the sky like he had stolen it. I asked him to get it close in shot... he almost took my head off! A sharp wit kept us entertained.

 

 The legend that is the Cubitt (Gilbert) Flying an Ellipse. This glider is stunning, i love it, extremely strong, clean lines, looks great. He was kind enough to let me have a go, it rolls beautifully has a real sense of purpose when flying. You point it somewhere and it will get there without deviation! Amazing considering the age (of both really) This will out fly an awful lot of modern gliders... GET ONE

 This Vid was done at the end of the day, took quad copter up to film Martins landing. A little windy so video footage shaky!

Everybody returned with un-damaged models and big smiles.. Perfect.

Weekend of flying...

Well i have been studying the weather all week... and my tip is SATURDAY WESTBURY!!!!! light Northerly bang on. So see all you Slope Junkies there, We have a couple of good filming ideas we want to try out.....

Rob

Nice one Martin!

Good job on the slope Martin... of course if i was there you would not be quite so self gratifying!!! Still you got to be in'it to win'it....

Quick.. lets move on and push that post to the bottom of the blog... what can i post? ahhh yes quad on quad glider flying...

Staverton from a new and exciting point of view... if its possible!
Rob

My First F3F Comp......It was Mental!

After lying in bed most of the night listening to the wind howelling around the house, I got up at 6am and left at 7am in order to meet up at the rendezvouz point , 9am sharp The BWLCH. I had to stop off twice at the services on the way, unsure if my nerves were getting the better of me, or if it was the hot spicy chilli beef I had Saturday night working its way through!

Arrived at the rendezvous point 9am, after 10 minutes or so it was decided we would be flying from ''Mickeys Slope".The gate was opened and we all made way to the car park area ( a loose description) . It was at this point the strength of the wind became apparent. It was unbelievable. We all struggled over to the launch area, assessed the situation and got on with assembling the models...

I reckon I am an ok / average weekend flyer, Joel West launched first with his "freestyler" just to check the conditions. At this point I realised what a good flyer looks like. He threw it around the course with precision/skill and absolutely no fear. The guys then let me have a quick flight to check conditions / landing area . It was 50 plus mile an hour winds off a hill that is nearly in the clouds, it was said for me this would be a "baptism of fire ". It was all a bit nerve racking but the trusty skorpion did its stuff. It flew up and down the course a few times and landed pretty well. It was now time for GAME ON!!

Joel West prepping the Freestyler

I don't really remember the order that everyone flew in. Essentially it was all fairly straight forward and well organised. You have a responsibility to be ready to launch as the person prior to you is flying. Once you have flown your run you need to be out the way as quickly as possible. Everybody mucks in, you need to take a turn at the stations ( buzzers at flags) . There is always somebody on hand to launch your model for you. Everybody there was friendly, helpful and made sure the experience was a pleasure.



A Yellow Tragi 704 V. These gliders are amongst the most well built gliders around today. Tragi's are generally quite pricey but the finish that you get is second to none. I know I had one of these, it was beautiful.Mine was the Tragi 705V, unfortunately it met its demise while achieving a height record in 2010. It caught a massive thermal and got to 2800 feet ( Rob only got 2500feet). Problem was I lost sight of it, next time I saw it it was in a field 3 miles away!!..nose down

The willow F3F. This glider was designed in Britain. It will compete with some of the most expensive European gliders but you can get a new Willow F3F for less than £500. It makes you think doesn't it

Alliaj F3F, these are very solid, very fast models and seem to be very popular nowadays

ANOTHER SKORPION F3F... Mark Southall was there with his skorp. Everybody has seen the video on Youtube. It appears after talking to the guys today that the Skorpion is a notoriously difficult glider to set up , a trick little bugger. Marks looked pretty good, but I may use this as an excuse??





Anyway now on to the flying. For my first flight I made my way down t the dug out. This was a small area on the side of the hill that it was actually possible to stand in with relative ease without the fear of being blown over. I gave the nod to Joel and he threw the Skorp off. I gained height for 20 secs ( about 180feet). AJ was counting down, I heard him count down10 seconds and that was it. Nose down, gain speed and enter the course. I did the 10 laps, I tried to keep it tidy but I was clearly turning a mile to late, I was going 20 yards past the markers both ends. Once I finished the 10 laps my time was called as 63 seconds, I walked then to the landing area vowing to do better next run. I landed the glider and then walked back to the paddock. Walking the 70 metres to the paddock carrying a 3 metre glider is no easy task in a 55mph wind.
I decided the next flights I would keep it tidy ( as I felt I had done a good job of this ) but make sure I turn alot earlier i.e be upside down and ready for the buzzer. My next few times were 49secs, 48 secs, 55 secs and 47 secs.

It was thought by all this was a reasonable introduction to F3F comp , although they could of have just been being nice to me. I will definitely do the next one. It is strange, I am not really competitive but I know I can do better, I want to do better and I will do better...

OFFICIAL RESULTS

1	Joel West	3949.41
2	Simon Thornton	3861.55
3	Mike Evans	3807.13
4	Martin Newnham	3727.67
5	Mark Southall	3725.10
6	Ian Mason	3104.51
7	Martin Drewett	3025.54
8	Stuart Brooks	2761.58
9	Rob Runyeard	2225.36
10	Tony Robertson	2005.53
11	Roger Hillman	725.55
12	John Treble	595.82

I am chuffed to bits with this result and just as happy with the following comment that was posted on the F3F Yahoo group

Martin Drewett  also deserves a mention flying his first F3F in very difficult conditions got his PB down to 48:07 once he started to find the bases.

Happy Days!!

CountryFile Quad glider flying

Check out CountryFile!

 This is my first stab at full-on celebrity status.... i know, i look better with the goggles on....

Onsite filming!

Also check out www.skypower.co.uk who i work for... Also nothing to do with gliders, just a shameless plug!



Rob

Westbury Rocks!

While Martin was out enjoying his first F3F event in windspeeds over 50mph (his report to follow) i was left behind with commitments, however i did mange to take the Rotmilan F3B out for a spin at Westbury White Horse! This glider is impressing me more and more. 2/3rds ballast in 30 mph winds, it climbs really well, but what gets me is the speed! it cruises around at a great rate, just drop the nose and it goes ballistic!! i tried some reflex along the wing, this only made it faster!!!!

As for turning... its on the proverbial rail.

Lots of people about today.. Mark (wigwam) Pete Gilbert and about 50 thousand zagis... Mark and myself flew to sunset, and there is nothing more to finish the flight off then gaining height whilst walking back to behind the parking, then steaming in with as many aerobatics as you can think of before landing on the ultra smooth grass... Nice weekend of flying, and i feel very smug ;)

Rob

The Rotmilan is flown!

well an afternoon off work mixed with doctor appointments (still no cure for gingers I,m afraid) I managed to maiden the Rotmilan. Wind speed 27knots at Roundway hill! All caught on video (to follow) thanks to The Drewett.

Bit mud on wingtip not dent!

Impressions...
Trim perfect, c of g to far back slightly, to much elevator authority and disastrous mixing of elevator to spoilers!  I have to sat that this ship is very very quick, quicker than a Italian crew ship captain leaving his ship!

Not the best vid for flying, however you get the idea.....

Rob

Quote of the day

I say "were bloody Lucky you know with these gliders and all"
Martin says "to top it off... You know me"

Westbury tomorrow afternoon if anyone is interested.... Watch you don't crash into martins ego!

4 Days to go....

There is now only 4 days to go until I fly in the F3F winter league at the BWLCH in Wales.







The Skorpion is Ready,I am not. I won't be taking the ASW as backup

 












Clearly due to the problem with the nose on the Tanga (would have been my preferred choice) I will be using the Skorpion . I have spent a little time on the set up added a little more snap flap, increased the throws on the rudder and added a little more expo on the elevator and ailerons. All this has been done to try and induce a bit of a bounce in the high speed turns. I have no idea whether it will make a blind bit of difference or not but I hope it does. I have no expectations of doing well, my aim is to have some fun, not come last, see some decent gliders/flyers and come home with the model in one piece!


I had made arrangements to meet the WigWam at Roundway today to try these new settings but unfortunately when we arrived there was a huge amount of Mist, visibility was down to about 100metres so we decided to make our way home again

Hopefully Friday afternoon there could be a decent westerly blowing so I should be trying out my new settings and maybe Rob will grow some testicles and maiden the RotMilan. Who knows?



Martin

F**K IT.....

Sunday 15th
You will have seen from Rob's post that the morning was not a great start to the day. We had some fun with the Quads but this was limited due to the strength of the wind.

The wind strength was good news however as I had an appointment booked at the East facing slope at Clench Common. Rob had pussied out of maidening the RotMilan as he was suffering from a mild dose of Man flu ( not sure he is qualified for this particular illness), but I trekked over regardless. I met up with Paul 'Aris' man. After a probing flight from the lower slope with The Tanga F3B we decided the wind would be more square on at the top as the glider was bouncing around. We walked to the top of the hill and prepared for launch.

I launched Pauls highly polished Aris for him, I then launched the Tanga. It was quite good fun darting about the skyline, pulling a few good loops and all the rest of the usual stuff. We decided after about 30 minutes that we had probably had enough, an easterly biting wind, bright sun in our eyes all led to the fun being somewhat damped.

Any of you that know the top of Clench probably know that it is not blessed with the best of landing facilities. I realised the point at which Paul 'Aris' man noticed this, it was when he bellowed ''shit, where do we land??"

After some deliberation Paul decided to drop the Aris onto the side of the hill, after a few attempts he did execute a very nice landing. I decided I would try and get the Tanga to land on the top of the hill on an area probably 15metres x 10 metres ( felt smaller at the time) with trees to one side and behind, and a fence running down the other side. I did actually manage a fairly good landing however the nose of the Tanga did drop off!!

Fortunately the nose has had a crack appearing /getting bigger on it for the last 6 weeks or so. In anticipation of the inevitable event I already have a new Fuselage on its way from BretaModels. The new one will be beefed up before it has radio gear installed.

Paul 'Aris' Mans   ARIS.. Highly Polished and very well built



TANGA F3B...This is definately a weak spot



Next one will be beefed to the MAX!




















I am hoping the new fuz will be here within the next week or so. There is no doubt that this the weak spot of this glider. We ( myself and Rob) discussed it when it arrived and I have also in the past discussed it at length with the manufacturers Breta Models. It is a shame because the wings and tail really are a work of art, but the fuzz always has let this glider down. As I have said, the new fuzz will be seriously strengthened before it ever gets airborne.




Martin

ChavQuad flying!

Best viewed in HD on youtube...

Rob

ChavQuad* Glider cont...

Nice one Marty... there was only 5 calls to me, but technically you did muster up every ounce of creativity in that old bag of blood'n'bones of yours and create a beautiful thing! well chuffed with you... Also chuffed with your flying, (i witnessed the very first flight of the ChavQuad* and was impressed with its stability) this is ChavQuad* Glider flying on a shoe string, you can build them cheaper but why bother, Alex @ UAVShop is a legend and is on email 24-7 so contact him for one. Or you can buy this..

VC-450 Whitespy Quad Glider

I don't want to hi-jack Marty's post but this is the Mutts-Nuts, carries a GoPro2 camera, FVP'd up and flies very well. Videos to follow... however (shameless plug time) check out Country File next Sunday, you might recognise a ginger idiot!

*Due to having lighting system similar to a Citreon Saxo from Trowbridge.

Rob

You bulid it, I fly it.....Not this time

Monday 9th January a parcel arrived from http://www.uavshop.co.uk/  . Its was not a sports glider, more of a toy to enhance the whole radio controlled experience.It was the X4 Pro Quad Glider....



There's alot in this little box



The box is now empty, where do i start??

























Now for those of you that know me, you will know at this point I was stood looking at all these bits in a cold sweat with the shakes. I wasn't sure what I should do. Should I proceed to build it or stuff it all in the cupboard out of the way. I chose to continue. I loaded the instruction manual onto the laptop and proceeded to build, and to be fair there was alot of screws that needed putting in, to build the frame together with some simple soldering but it wasn't too tricky at all...

Soldering the legs to the centre

Here we go!!

Pretty much once all the supporting struts were screwed in , the legs were soldered to the centre plate and the motors were secured to the frame I connected the ESC's.  It was now time to calibrate / programme these. At this point I had probably been working on the Quad X4 Pro for an hour and a half. The calibration of the ESC's did prove to be beyond me, but would be easy enough for most aero modellers. I gave Alex at the UAV shop a quick ring, he gave me some very clear instructions over the telephone. I returned to the QUAD, the programming / end points for all 4 motors was done in 20 minutes.

I plugged in the Flight control box (FY91Q), tidied up the wiring and pretty much that was it.  I couldn't wait to fly it outside but it was dark. The dining room table looked like the ideal place for powering up!



Ready for a power up
X4 PRO QUAD FY91Q Balance



Powered up
Looking forward to doing some UFO flying over the local estate.


Well today ( Saturday) and it was time for the maiden flight. I took it to the local football field, gave it one last check over and that was it. I increased the throttle until it lifted off . To be honest it took about 2 batteries ( 20 minutes) and I felt as though I had a reasonable amount of control . I was able to get it to hover and move about where I wanted it to go.

I think once I get a few hours in and become much more confident with it , it is going to be great fun and should provide a good platform for sticking a Go Pro on

Rob also has one of these ( or a similar thing from the U S of A) he has got through so many propellers that I am sure he has shares in the Prop manufacturer. I have no idea what the problem is ( probably too much for his little brain) , he has been telling me for the last 6 weeks quad flying is very difficult. My summary would be it is relatively inexpensive, takes a couple of hours to bulid / set up ( with a little help from Alex at the UAV shop ) and if you take it steady in a big field you will get the hang of it quite quickly. Only thing I would say is I have strapped some foam on the bottom of mine as a precaution until I become more experienced.

It all works

The Lights help with Orientation

 


X4 PRO QUAD FLYER FY91Q BALANCE EDITION FROM THE UAV SHOP

WTF!!

Stupid fucking wind... knocks out all my favourite launch sites for the test flight of the Rotmilan all weekend.... South Sodding Easterly!!!

Serious Racing Machine!

Sunday 8th Jan

Still on 35mhz Rob with a tranny that looks like a music mixing desk from the 80's. I often ask myself why and as yet I have not satisfied myself with a convincing answer. I can only assume that you are a techno -phobe that is scared to take the step into this century. There is a reason masses of people are migrating to 2.4ghz on a weekly basis and the reason is simple, IT'S BETTER !!!

Anyway today we ventured out to Devizes as the wind direction was a steady westerly with the threat of the odd swing to the south of west. I took the Breta Models Tanga F3B,what a machine, I have convinced myself at least for the next couple of days anyway that this will be the glider I take to the BWLCH January 22nd. It bounces out of the corners and I am convinced it exits faster than it enters, this is nothing to do with anything I am doing it is purely the model

TANGA F3B and a 21st century Transmitter - Rob!!

In my defence although the capability of the Tanga F3B massively outweighs my ability, I have spent alot of time on the set up of the control surface throws and the general set up. One thing I have probably spent a disproportionate amount of time is the set up of the crow braking, it is super smooth and incredibly effective. I am now catching the large percentage of landings



This resulted in a beautiful catch, like picking fruit from a tree

 There was also a decent gathering of other aero modellers. We had Phil the masterclass Huddlestone doing his usual slope hogging, sorry slope soaring. He was doing the usual fast low fancy flying and trying to squeeze the Ocelot though small gaps, Mark Wigwam Wickham was also doing some of his usual smooth flying with the Carracho and the BIG Sting.


Mark "Wigwam" launching the Carracho F3B

 

The "Hudd" giving another masterclass
Spot the Ocelot..


























We also had Malcolm with his trusty Multiplex ASW27B and the ever popular Blade, nowadays sporting a newly painted blue nose cone which apparently make it 100x easier to see. Today Malcolm also became a member of the 2.4ghz club, he had bought a conversion set for the tranny and 2 receivers - 50 quid!!!.... Go on Rob, do it!!
Unfortunately Paul from the bottom of the hill was just leaving as we arrived .

Malcolm tracking the Asw around the sky



The Paddock..Malcs new blue nose cone on the blade

 




























It was decided at the end of the day we had all had a jolly good time, and to be honest 12 degrees centigrade and a gentle westerly in the first week of January is not to be sniffed at. Global warming anyone??

Old school

Im still on 35mhz... i know what your thinking, why?  Well as more and more people migrate to 2.4 the chances of channel clash are less and less, its proven technology, matched with my Multiplex 3030 which dates back to the steam age and looks like a green breeze block, is still one the most versatile tranny's out (incidentally good info here about programming the 3030 in layman’s terms) I only generally buy Multiplex or Schulze receivers, i have never had a problem with either makes ever, i'm sure all the others are fine but thats my preference.. I know i can get 3km out of Multiplex IPD receivers from My FPV machines, and never had any interference problems with my carbon F3B/F3F machines also (this is how i do it Thanks Samba)

The other good thing about 2.4 is the price of my favourite receivers has dropped. I picked up the below for £13 delivered from EBay.... A Frickin Billy Bargain!

 If you do but from Ebay make sure you do serious range checks, there are some unscrupulous people out there. But this is a full scale receiver and are brilliant for electric aircraft due to the high suppression of electric interference. This one will go on my FPV Quadcopter. Lastly one other aspect of 35 mhz is it breaks the ice! you rock up to the slope and have to make contact with people to check on freq, get the conversation going etc etc! With 2.4 now you can ignore your fellow flier, Fuck them i'm on 2.4! well that what Martin says......

Rob

The First

Well, this is the first post! We hope (that is myself Rob C, and two dimensional Martin D) that we can impart all our knowledge of all things radio control... in Martins case not a lot, to the world. We will bring you an honest account of reviews of our models, our launch sites, the gear we use, what others are flying, whats hot and whats not!

We may not be right, and it may be biased! however its what we think!