Post by thevon on Jul 3, 2009 21:41:38 GMT 10
A bunch of us got out to Lemontree today, for the first decent westerly of this season. I was late so Sean, Garth and John (Wag67 with his beautiful VW beetle) were already there, up the top near the dozer. It was very spectacular driving in – I could see Sean’s Erwin doing impossibly fast circles over the ridge as soon as I got to the house. The sky was blue, the grass green and dry, and the wind was quite strong – probably varying between 15 and 30 knots at times. But although the action was spectacular, I found that Sean wasn’t enjoying it much. The conditions were rough, with the wind being westerly rather than the ideal SW for the site. Sean is the master of smooth, but he was fighting hard and having more than the odd near-disaster.
Nick arrived soon after, happily armed with strawberries, and Shane made a surprise entrance as well, so it was a great little crowd! We all got flying. My radar gun has recently arrived (replacement after burglary) so Garth quickly got it clocking speeds on the Erwin – I think it was lapping around 120 – 130.
Nick was straight into the DS with his Skua. The only time he’s been gunned was a light day at Pedwell Rd, frontside DSing when he got 48mph. We’ve seen him improving and getting faster, but there’s been no gun so today he was totally rapt to be clocked at 80mph. He was doing really neat laps too. The Skua must be a good thing to hold its line so well in those conditions. Shane got his Magnificently Modified Reaper working nicely too but it got downed by a big backdraft and went into a tree hard, taking a big length out of one leading edge. I was really impressed with Shane – he pinched some coreflute scrap off me, cut and folded a wedge and taped it in the deficit! It was an almost perfect foil! Back in the air very soon!
I warmed up the brain and thumbs with the JW60, maxing out at a neat 100. Garth flew the Albatross 2.5m moldie on the front and it sounded like someone ripping cardboard when he got shocking flutter in big diving fly-passes!! He was unperturbed. John flew his Dart and had to do some running repairs, and unfortunately lost it in the scrub later! Bummer!
Since it was a bit dodgy we all went down to sus out The Bowl, but it was fluky too, and there were some scary rollovers entering the bottom turn. You’d get a few neat big laps then suddenly everything would change down in the bowl and you’d get blown straight up, or sucked down in a roll. The tragic casualty of this was Shane’s Reaper, which got lots of good laps but then in a slow-ish dive-in, got rolled in rather terminally. A very loud thump. Poor Shane, it wasn’t good. That Reaper is a work of art and I hate seeing the damage.
Having spent far too many hours building it, I was very keen to maiden the Ditza. But with the dodgy conditions, my lack of sleep and dull brain from a bad headache and the associated painkillers, I wasn't feeling very brave. I made sure I got a photo of it before flying it!
But the CG calculations must have been spot on. It flew straight out of the hand. I did some tweaking and DS’ed it a bit in the Bowl. No probs. Everyone was very impressed. While we were having a gasbag and a bite to eat, the wind gusted up and Nick yelled for the gun. Everyone jumped up and Garth gunned Nick’s stock 1.2m Skua at 114mph, then the next lap it clapped its wings together and went down! Never seen anyone so proud of themselves for breaking up a plane mid-flight, but Nick was ecstatic! He’d upped his official PB from 48 to 114 today. We all had a good laugh and recorded the event for posterity ….
Then we drove back up the Lemontree ridge and Sean got his fully ballasted Carbon Bird wound up. Man, it was doing such smoother circles than the Erwin had been, and tracking well. But occasionally at a manic speed it got spat up vertically or rolled at the bottom! I had my heart in my mouth. Much more exciting than watching TV. Garth moved all round the hill to get a good line with the gun, and Sean gradually got the bottom turn lower, more consistent and aimed at the gun - and was soon up into the high 140’s and a max of 153 in a good gust, which is the new record for this site.
I nervously launched the Ditza and dived in up near the Lemontree. It went like a champion. I got 128mph, and I think there’s lots of room for improvement with ballast, refined settings, more practice with the plane and more sleep. I'm really stoked with it. It flew very well and very fast. On high rates the roll rate is very fast. I love the strength of the vac bagged wing. You can smack a few woody weeds on landing and there's not even a mark. Leaves hollow moldies for dead in that respect.
A great day with a great bunch of guys, at a great site and lots of great planes (well, a couple less than before …)
Nick arrived soon after, happily armed with strawberries, and Shane made a surprise entrance as well, so it was a great little crowd! We all got flying. My radar gun has recently arrived (replacement after burglary) so Garth quickly got it clocking speeds on the Erwin – I think it was lapping around 120 – 130.
Nick was straight into the DS with his Skua. The only time he’s been gunned was a light day at Pedwell Rd, frontside DSing when he got 48mph. We’ve seen him improving and getting faster, but there’s been no gun so today he was totally rapt to be clocked at 80mph. He was doing really neat laps too. The Skua must be a good thing to hold its line so well in those conditions. Shane got his Magnificently Modified Reaper working nicely too but it got downed by a big backdraft and went into a tree hard, taking a big length out of one leading edge. I was really impressed with Shane – he pinched some coreflute scrap off me, cut and folded a wedge and taped it in the deficit! It was an almost perfect foil! Back in the air very soon!
I warmed up the brain and thumbs with the JW60, maxing out at a neat 100. Garth flew the Albatross 2.5m moldie on the front and it sounded like someone ripping cardboard when he got shocking flutter in big diving fly-passes!! He was unperturbed. John flew his Dart and had to do some running repairs, and unfortunately lost it in the scrub later! Bummer!
Since it was a bit dodgy we all went down to sus out The Bowl, but it was fluky too, and there were some scary rollovers entering the bottom turn. You’d get a few neat big laps then suddenly everything would change down in the bowl and you’d get blown straight up, or sucked down in a roll. The tragic casualty of this was Shane’s Reaper, which got lots of good laps but then in a slow-ish dive-in, got rolled in rather terminally. A very loud thump. Poor Shane, it wasn’t good. That Reaper is a work of art and I hate seeing the damage.
Having spent far too many hours building it, I was very keen to maiden the Ditza. But with the dodgy conditions, my lack of sleep and dull brain from a bad headache and the associated painkillers, I wasn't feeling very brave. I made sure I got a photo of it before flying it!
But the CG calculations must have been spot on. It flew straight out of the hand. I did some tweaking and DS’ed it a bit in the Bowl. No probs. Everyone was very impressed. While we were having a gasbag and a bite to eat, the wind gusted up and Nick yelled for the gun. Everyone jumped up and Garth gunned Nick’s stock 1.2m Skua at 114mph, then the next lap it clapped its wings together and went down! Never seen anyone so proud of themselves for breaking up a plane mid-flight, but Nick was ecstatic! He’d upped his official PB from 48 to 114 today. We all had a good laugh and recorded the event for posterity ….
Then we drove back up the Lemontree ridge and Sean got his fully ballasted Carbon Bird wound up. Man, it was doing such smoother circles than the Erwin had been, and tracking well. But occasionally at a manic speed it got spat up vertically or rolled at the bottom! I had my heart in my mouth. Much more exciting than watching TV. Garth moved all round the hill to get a good line with the gun, and Sean gradually got the bottom turn lower, more consistent and aimed at the gun - and was soon up into the high 140’s and a max of 153 in a good gust, which is the new record for this site.
I nervously launched the Ditza and dived in up near the Lemontree. It went like a champion. I got 128mph, and I think there’s lots of room for improvement with ballast, refined settings, more practice with the plane and more sleep. I'm really stoked with it. It flew very well and very fast. On high rates the roll rate is very fast. I love the strength of the vac bagged wing. You can smack a few woody weeds on landing and there's not even a mark. Leaves hollow moldies for dead in that respect.
A great day with a great bunch of guys, at a great site and lots of great planes (well, a couple less than before …)
