Mode Zero

Get it dug out Col and ready to go....

Yep it was midweek. Can't you chuck a sickie

Shaun.

It's over 50 years since I last flew on Baildon Moor (bar t'hat). It was a slope soarer but a free-flight one with the dubiously effective rocking tail - and I lost it!! Let me know if you come across it, it was red and white!

I didn't go flying today, I actually went yesterday but forgot this thread was here.

It's a very long time since I have flown anything with a fixed wing that was not computer generated, so I chose the perfect day to visit Middle Hope at Sand Point, Weston-s-Mare overlooking the Bristol channel.

There was a very slight onshore breeze... well waft really, breeze is overstating it a bit, the two models I had with me to maiden were a Flight Test Simple Soarer a sound design which is constructed from foam board using a glue gun. I can't say I am an enthusiast of the method, even in a heated garage with a high temp glue gun. There was not nearly enough wind to keep the soarer afloat, but it was a great opportunity to check the trim and control surface travels.

The other model I had was a mini Vick DLG, a tricky little tinker to build, made of foam, balsa and carbon and using construction techniques which were mostly new to me. The Rx, servo's and battery are all tiny and mostly came from Micron.

Well, what started out as very gentle hand launches ended up with full blown discus hurls... what a hoot and with such a super sensitive model, what a fine way to start tuning my thumbs back in.

A thoroughly successful morning I'd say.

My Birthday today so at a bit of a loss decided the brave Storm Hannah and go sloping - but where?
Strong westerlies so thought maybe Callow or Pule Hill, settled on Baildon Moor as its nearest!

Up at Baildon it was blowing a real hoolie, could hardly hold onto the Flair Heron on the way up, but flew until rain stopped play, then retreated & put the kettle on for a brew & an out-of-date Pot Noodle Looking out from the van there were lots of thick dark clouds out west...

Glad I went back up for another session though, as John T was up there flying his M60, we flew for an hour or so until the light was bad... quite a pleasant afternoon.

Cheers
Phil


PS I fixed your pics Neil...

Thank you Phil and belated Happy Birthday.

The weather has calmed down a lot here, we have enjoyed 30 to 40 MPH winds every day for a week, great for building models in the garage and not much else, this week is set to be a lot better so hopefully I will get to maiden the Wildthing 60 and get some more flight time in with the other two.

Yup, HBD Phil!!

All this Baildon talk....... getting me thinking!!!

Another Wednesday with very little wind, excellent, off to Sand Point again, this time to maiden the Wildthing 60 and a Bolt chuck glider which I have converted to RC.

Wildthing. Bolt I have to confess things did not go entirely to plan as to start with there were a load of vehicles at the bottom of my training slopes, it appears a costume drama of some sort is being filmed, plus the wind was coming a bit too far round to the West, so straight along the headland. Not matter, still a good chance to check out trims.

The Wildthing was fist and it soon became clear it did not need the extra weight I had put in the nose. That removed we had something resembling a very nice glide...except... up and down elevator is fine, left and right are reversed! How this got past me I don't know, but a trudge back down the hill to the car park was needed to get the Bolt.

A couple of test glides in the car park seemed to indicate all was well, and a couple up on the hill also seemed OK, but again I think it may be a little nose heavy despite the CG being exactly where it was before I started work. Maybe a bit more wind in the right direction would have helped, but a success in that I have taken a twenty quid chuck glider and got it flying...ish.

So, with £3.50 already in the car park ticket machine and a lovely quiet headland all to myself.. well, apart from the film people, it was time to break out the mini Vick again, and there went and hour an a half no problem. In the process I discovered that a poor launch combined with a rudder off to one side a touch will produce a half roll, so that at the top of the climb the model is inverted, a touch of up elevator soon had it the right way up, albeit sailing off in the opposite direction, I also discovered it will loop very nicely and generally had a pretty good time.

Time for a quick coffee and then down to the workshop to figure out what I have messed up with the Thing.

Discovering reversed ailerons is not a problem - just another *** learning opportunity ! (or "AFLO")
I trust you discovered that while doing your "SMART" checks and not after launching ?

Ummm, yeah, smart checks, that's when I discovered it, yup, during smart checks, ohhh yeah, not while the glider was flying away from me, NOOOO, that would be REALLY silly wouldn't it?

Now sorted, change over the servo leads and reverse both channels.

Thanks for the honesty, Neil, that report may just prevent someone else suffering that Gotcha.
It's a bit like landing wheels up (1:1 Scale). There are two sorts of pilot: Those who have not yet done it and those who will never do it again !
In the fullsize world, there are good reasons why Pre-Takeoff and Pre-Landing Checks are known as "Vital Actions"