Saturday Sortie

On a Northerly, Westbury i consider is the best soaring ridge in Wiltshire... if not the Universe (within a 30 mile radius of my house) So was no surprise to find a whole load of freaks and strange types prepared to spend 4 hours on a cold hill in Feb.


Lots of maidens too.. Marks 'New Sting' flew beautifully and joins the 'Big Sting' and 'Sting' of models he has owned. Not a creature of habit Mark. We also had a Electric Typhoon and a Carbon Blade.

The Trashy end of the field... riff raff confined to the gully, see right.....                                                                







Marks lovely Ash also flew very well as usual










Giant Zagi dry humps Geoff. I am lying down for scale purposes. Did well in the wind!

Dumpster looking very happy, normally his maidens are very dramatic and end in disaster. His Electric Typhoon did not buck the trend. To say we are a little weary of that prop is an understatement. What with Daves dodgy programming not knowing how to turn the motor on or off, and his obsession with 'firmware' upgrades to his transmitter, which rendered it alien to him, it was amazing it actually flew! But it did with the usual cussing and swearing from him and went like the clappers. Martin reckons we wont see it again.. think i agree!

I had over 10gb of footage and had to whittle down to 4 mins, so apologise if you ended on the cutting room floor.. but that's life. Kick the wife, kids, dogs and cats out.. turn up to 11 volume!





Rob

FPV Zephyr Time

 I've been busy upgrading hardware on the zeph, all in the name of safety ;)

 First upgrade was a 14dbi patch. i have been running on an 8dbi patch but wanted to explore 'further' possibilities with flight distance. This is mounted on EZ tracker, so i have constant tracking. due to weight of dish had to upgrade servos in pan and tilt gimbal. Now have a couple of 9kg servos operating the tracking!




Second upgrade was a UHF radio, in my case a very nifty unit that plugs directly in the back of a futaba tranny (courtesy of Bobster Bill) in the trainer port. All i can say is... Bloody brilliant! Rock solid so far up to XX Kms! If i was to recommend a UHF system i would recommend a certain American manufacture, with an affinity for welsh mythical creatures....          Lastly fed up with catching half my plane in the HD footage i made a new GOPRO/FPV camera housing that sits at the front of my Zeph (I had to abandon the beautiful carbon fibre first one i built as i forgot the negative effects carbon has on range. So if anyone wants a indestructible GOPro housing made of carbon let me know)

Quick Vid of this mornings test flight. Martin was good spotter as ever bless him...


Rob

F3F Cancelled, FPV Time!

 This was supposed to be a nice article about our 3rd round Welsh F3F comp... however due to weather it was binned. So we meet 0800 at my house and go to the Secret FPV training ground... for some training!



... and boy do we need it!

Yesterday Martin proved the prowess of his long range Quad. Basically pointed it in one direction, hit the gas and held on tight! The 'return to home' switch on his transmitter is starting to wear down to a stub due to use the big girl.....




One day we will talk about gliders again... Rob

Quadding in the Snow

 Had a day off work today, so thought I would have a little poke around Staverton and the canal with the Quad.

Unfortunately the wind and snow on the blades had a negative effect on the video quality ( Jello effect) but it is still pretty good given the condition.





Martin

Butser Hill

The Southern League F3F January leg was held at Butser Hill, just south of Petersfield

We rocked up at 8.30, should have been there 20 minutes earlier but somebody had typed the wrong post code into the Sat Nav, and it wasn't me. Dumpster arrived just after us, apparently he doesn't use a sat nav he follows his nose?

Anyway we go out of the cars and there was a brisk NNE wind, and I can confirm it was absolutely freezing. As a result I was reluctant to take my hands out of my gloves and take any pictures or video. This has resulted in a short and not very sweet post

Tony giving Graeme's Race M the once over just before he launches it for him










Dumpster elevator horns and clevis became detached on the needle . This was a very fiddly , it was freezing. There was a lot of f'ing and jeffing!













Just checking
''Are Martin and Rob really beating the Dumpster?" 

Anyway, The video. Very little footage as mentioned due to the reluctance to take my hands out of the gloves so this is as good as it gets. At least you will be able to foot tap to the music!

Martin

Imber Village FPV... From the deck!

Martin was having a great time showing the world how to FPV, thought i would post a video showing the "behind the scenes" of the Imber Vid in the last post below.




Rob

Imber village and Salisbury Plain FPV'd by quad

Nothing to do with slope soaring, but we decided that today would be the day for Mission Imber( Salisbury Plain). Rob would do long range with his zephyr and I would keep it a bit closer with my Quad that now has been FPV'd up.

Unfortunately weather conditions ( visibility 30 metres ) put pay to his zephyr but my quad with the option of ''return to home'' took alot of the risk out, so it was mission on.

This quad did a brilliant job, the DJI Naza was again totally robust and the Fat shark FPV system performed very well with no range issues

A video of mission. Sunrising, rolling mist and the go pro housing continually misting up have made the quality a bit patchy but the content is great and you wont get to see too many shots like these. Volume up!

Martin