Mini Glider - 2024
A big thanks to Graham for CDing the mini glider comp last Sunday. Fantastic weather greeted us for the 2.00pm kick off. Prior to the start while I was practicing I had some alarming noises coming from my Falcon2 and was convinced the wing was coming apart so I swapped over to my 1m Diviant only to find the same noise coming from that as well. It turns out the grass was just a bit longer now, long enough to clip the wing when it’s spinning around. Feeling a bit daft as David had already mentioned last week that I was clipping the grass on one occasion I went back to the 1.5M Falcon. 5 of us were competing. David Poole, Graham, Mike Fantham, John Price and myself. There was a fairly stiff breeze most of the time of about 10mph from the SW so quite a challenge to keep up with any thermals blowing through which didn’t seem to stop David hooking them and achieving an incredible 7 full marks of 3 minutes, so well done David. I was kicking myself (still am actually) as I managed to chase down a thermal just before it was going over the north tree line and get a 3 minutes with time to spare only to totally mis-judge the landing and fall short by a meter giving me 0 points for flight 6. Graham started strong with 2 full marks in his first three flights but then unable to find any more, this was still good enough for second place. John was getting some great launches off the bungee and finding thermals to give him a couple of 2 minute flights. I think Mike was unlucky by the time he started his flights as the lift had all but disappeared so he was struggling a bit to get the times. A quick tot up at the end of the day put David first, Graham second, John third, Me forth and Mike fifth. However after putting the numbers in the spreadsheet turns out a couple of mistakes were made and the correct standings put me third and John forth (sorry John).
Thanks to all involved
All in all a great comp which as my first go at this I really enjoyed and look forward to the next.
Steve Hill
Comp Sec
EMSL Round 3 - 2024
Week No3 of the electric mid-week league saw 3 of us competing, Mike
,Graham and myself. Mike and I got started on the dot at 4.00 in a
lovely 23 degrees and a very blue sky with puffy white clouds to start
with although these almost completely dispersed by the time Graham
arrived at about 6.00pm. The grass is still not too long and the wind
was coming up from Moss End. Mike and I had practice flights before
the start time and both got in absolute boomers , I had to make a
concerted effort to get out of the thermal I was in as it took me very
rapidly up to 460meters, it was quite scary actually. Being prepared
to be thrust rapidly upwards again on my first comp flight I was very
disappointed to only managed 5 minutes but I did get a 45 landing.
Mike nailed his first flight and landing getting a 9.49s and 35
landing. Second flight was a complete reversal of the first so Mike
got 5 minutes and I got the 10 minutes this time and full landing
bonus. After that things went a bit more my way and I managed to come
away with a bit of a lead over Mike. Graham then had his 4 flights in
quick succession, putting his radio issues of previous weeks behind
him and achieving a very respectable score getting him a second place
for the evening. He spent most of his 4 flights over moss end out at
long distance which I’m glad to say he manage to see because I was
struggling to keep an eye on his plane quite a few times. Another very
pleasant way to spend an evening ,just a pity there weren’t more
members giving it a go.
,Graham and myself. Mike and I got started on the dot at 4.00 in a
lovely 23 degrees and a very blue sky with puffy white clouds to start
with although these almost completely dispersed by the time Graham
arrived at about 6.00pm. The grass is still not too long and the wind
was coming up from Moss End. Mike and I had practice flights before
the start time and both got in absolute boomers , I had to make a
concerted effort to get out of the thermal I was in as it took me very
rapidly up to 460meters, it was quite scary actually. Being prepared
to be thrust rapidly upwards again on my first comp flight I was very
disappointed to only managed 5 minutes but I did get a 45 landing.
Mike nailed his first flight and landing getting a 9.49s and 35
landing. Second flight was a complete reversal of the first so Mike
got 5 minutes and I got the 10 minutes this time and full landing
bonus. After that things went a bit more my way and I managed to come
away with a bit of a lead over Mike. Graham then had his 4 flights in
quick succession, putting his radio issues of previous weeks behind
him and achieving a very respectable score getting him a second place
for the evening. He spent most of his 4 flights over moss end out at
long distance which I’m glad to say he manage to see because I was
struggling to keep an eye on his plane quite a few times. Another very
pleasant way to spend an evening ,just a pity there weren’t more
members giving it a go.
Steve Hill
CD
EMSL Round 2 - 2024
The second week of the league was met with an idyllic scene of a perfect mown field, wall to wall sunshine and virtually no wind. Lift however was harder to find than week 1 with no strong indicators. The sky was cloudless on a whole so we were having to look for the odd bird to get any clue of a thermal or feel for the infill breeze in the otherwise still air. David showed you don’t need to have a 4m span to get the points, achieving a remarkable score of 2578 (2600 being the best possible score) Mike was next followed by Me. Peter improved on weeks one score having sorted his low launch heights out. Paul’s foamie met some conditions that weren’t as favourable as last weeks for it so struggled a bit. Andrew had his first round of this year and was finding his feet with his pulsar managing an 8 minute plus flight in the later part of the evening when everything had gone very flat so that was encouraging. Unfortunately, Graham suffered some radio issues which were found to be that both aerials had sheared off in last week’s hard landing, fortunately no collateral damage resulted. Landings were very different with the cut grass now with models having to be slowed up a lot more for accuracy. All in all, a lovely evening.
Steve Hill
CD
Electric launch Open and 2m and foamies 2024
We had another good day weather wise for the open off Esoar event last
Sunday with the wind from the West again just like Thursdays EMWL
meaning you could sit comfortably up wind looking for lift over the
farmyard knowing you didn't have to struggle to get back to the
landing spot. However the grass still hadn't been cut which always
makes it a bit physical getting out to the launch points. 5
contestants took part. Me, Mike Fantham, Graham Stallard, Paul Reynolds
and Peter Williams. The format for this comp is different to the Mid
week league in that pilots fly against a different opponent in each
round until everyone has flown against everyone else as much as that
is possible. The winner of each flight gets 1000 points for that
flight the looser a percentage score. Paul was competing in his own
sub category of under 2m span whilst also going head to head with the
larger models of the 4m class. Paul’s second flight got him a score
that would normally ensure a win for that flight of 10.02s and 40
landing bonus. Unfortunately yours truly managed to beat him slightly.
Graham’s impromptu motor restarts still hadn't been resolved from the
EMWL which cost him a no score on what would have been a perfect
10.00/50 for his second flight and also put his model out of action
for the rest of the comp. Peter seemed to struggle with height on his
launches which cost him time in the scores. Mike and I were neck and
neck with me just a nose in front. After gathering the scores and
doing a quick tot up with Grahams help it appeared First place was
mine, Mike was Second, Paul was third, Peter was forth and Grahams one
scoring flight had put him in fifth. However on checking the scores at
home it turns out Paul pipped Mike to Second place so we'll done Paul,
not bad for a 2m foamie.
Sunday with the wind from the West again just like Thursdays EMWL
meaning you could sit comfortably up wind looking for lift over the
farmyard knowing you didn't have to struggle to get back to the
landing spot. However the grass still hadn't been cut which always
makes it a bit physical getting out to the launch points. 5
contestants took part. Me, Mike Fantham, Graham Stallard, Paul Reynolds
and Peter Williams. The format for this comp is different to the Mid
week league in that pilots fly against a different opponent in each
round until everyone has flown against everyone else as much as that
is possible. The winner of each flight gets 1000 points for that
flight the looser a percentage score. Paul was competing in his own
sub category of under 2m span whilst also going head to head with the
larger models of the 4m class. Paul’s second flight got him a score
that would normally ensure a win for that flight of 10.02s and 40
landing bonus. Unfortunately yours truly managed to beat him slightly.
Graham’s impromptu motor restarts still hadn't been resolved from the
EMWL which cost him a no score on what would have been a perfect
10.00/50 for his second flight and also put his model out of action
for the rest of the comp. Peter seemed to struggle with height on his
launches which cost him time in the scores. Mike and I were neck and
neck with me just a nose in front. After gathering the scores and
doing a quick tot up with Grahams help it appeared First place was
mine, Mike was Second, Paul was third, Peter was forth and Grahams one
scoring flight had put him in fifth. However on checking the scores at
home it turns out Paul pipped Mike to Second place so we'll done Paul,
not bad for a 2m foamie.
Steve Hill
CD
EMSL Round 1 2024
We had a great start to this years competition with the weather being
very kind and some constant lift being produced long into the evening,
wind had swung around from the seemingly endless Northerlies we've
been having lately to more Westerly which meant we were launching
towards the farm yard, much nicer that towards the trees. Grass is now
chest high which in a way was a help as you could take liberties when
aiming for the spot without damaging the plane. David Poole kept up
with his 2m Res and scored a perfect 10.00min on his third flight.
Graham proved how tough the Pike perfect airframe is on flight 2 when
an unscheduled motor restart induced some high adrenalin aerobatics.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and hopefully a few more will come
along next week.
very kind and some constant lift being produced long into the evening,
wind had swung around from the seemingly endless Northerlies we've
been having lately to more Westerly which meant we were launching
towards the farm yard, much nicer that towards the trees. Grass is now
chest high which in a way was a help as you could take liberties when
aiming for the spot without damaging the plane. David Poole kept up
with his 2m Res and scored a perfect 10.00min on his third flight.
Graham proved how tough the Pike perfect airframe is on flight 2 when
an unscheduled motor restart induced some high adrenalin aerobatics.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and hopefully a few more will come
along next week.
Steve Hill
CD
