Saturday 19 March 2016

Ditchling Beacon Saturday 19th March

Hi All,
Paul and I braved the freezing NE winds this morning at the Beacon.

We arrived at 9:00 and I was amazed to see that Paul had brought his 1/4 scale Olympian scale model (the same as the one on the cover of BMFA news this month).
It's got a 3.75mtr wingspan and we had to set it up in the car park taking up about 3 parking spaces. Once it was all together, Paul carried it carefully across the road and we got it over the stile to the NE facing ridge where we both had to launch it to keep it under control. The wind was gusting and taking the model with it  - I've never felt so much lift from a model before. One short push forward and it was away.
I must say that I'm completely won over by scale models now I've seen this beauty flying.
The landing Paul made was straight from the 'How To Land A Massive Model In High Winds' textbook  - (I saw it somewhere - I think !!!).
The airbrakes were very effective and come from both above and below the wings. It landed so gently even the scale pilot had a grin on his face.
As we were packing away the Olympian we met Bernie who was up the Beacon to walk the dog, so he didn't fly with us today.

Next we assembled my 'new' Phase6 which once belonged to Paul, was built by Tim and was sold to Adam, who didn't really fly it, so he sold it to me on Wednesday (are you keeping up ?). I asked Paul to trim it up for me and then I took over and was completely bowled over by the way it handles. I just love it and want to fly it again !
After some while I landed the Phase 6 and Paul had by then launched his M60, so I watched that for a while until the cold got the better of us and we retired to the cars.
Altogether we both had a brilliant morning (or an hour anyway), flying.

Rob

5 comments:

  1. Sorry I could not make it today. I would have liked to see the Olympian fly. I have a question, Phase 6 or Middle Phase I have always wondered what is the difference?

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  2. Middle Phase primary a trainer and the Phase 6 is the next move up from a Middle Phase. The Phase 6 goes where you point it (if that makes sense?) not to stable as it performs great aerobatics as the Middle Phase is more stable and sedate. Hope that helps Scott?

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  3. Thanks Paul, yes that's great.

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    Replies
    1. When will we see the Pilatus coming out to play, Scott?

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    2. Don't feel quite ready yet Paul. I want to practice my landings with something a bit cheaper first!

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