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Charmouth April 2007We arrived at the field around 08.15 on Saturday morning to be greeted by a very cold and robust wind blowing directly onto the flight line. The sky was white overcast with the brightest patch right on the flight line in your line of sight. Not a good start. After duly handing over our Transmitters to control we waited for the weather to change for the better. There was not a lot of action until around 10:00 when the sun behind the clouds had moved round, making visibility far better and the wind had shifted around 45deg to the right. I will admit that I don’t like flying in wind because I am just not used to it. I am still learning maneuvers and just about how to correct them but in wind it just overwhelms me, so I was a bit disappointed. The flight line was very long allowing up to ten pilots to fly in relative comfort. The pilots that did brave the weather did an amazing job, most of them up to 3D Masters standard; indeed a lot of them are entered into the Masters this year. My first and only flight of the day was untidy to say the least but I kept it in the air and got it down in one piece. A walk around the pits area indicated that the pod and boom model was the choice of the day and the of these the most poplar were either .90 IC powered machines or '600' size electrics, of which there were a good number. The IC models were dominated by the Synergy N9, various JR machines including the Vibe and the new Avant. This was the first time I had got close-up and personal with the Avant and it looks to be a nice piece of kit.
As anybody who knows me will tell you, I have an unrequited love affair with the Synergy. Therefore it will be of no surprise that the one model that got my undivided attention was Roger Hamilton’s Gas Turbine powered example, yes turbine. He was still building and setting the model up so no flight tests. I have included a picture which shows just how small and neat the installation power plant is. I spent Saturday night as a guest of Century UK sleeping in their lodge at the nearby Newlands Holiday Camp. After a great evening just relaxing with good friends and one of the best spur of the moment barbeques I have had for a good while, I shared the floor in the sitting room with the models which can be seen below.
Sunday morning dawned bright and still at the Holiday camp which is sited on the side of a valley. However the flying site is located on a hill top not far from the coast. If there were any wind blowing it would be sure to show, so fingers crossed for a calm day. Well my wish came true, calm and sunny Whooo Hooo!
I had two flights during the day. The first flight my pit crew (Graham) carried the Synergy out to the flight line for me, I felt very professional, but also following us out was Adam Turner (2006 Sportsman Masters winner!) Oh great. Got to do my best now, no excuses. I took off and went into some sideways Tic tocs half piro to the other direction and carry on, they went ok much to my surprise. The flight line was busy all day and it was necessary to queue at Tx control to get slot. This time a walk around the pits showed a slightly wider selection of models including a number of scale machines and two massive Vario turbine powered machines. These latter models were flown a number of times during the day and looked rock solid in flight. Adam flew the 620 Swift electric with 10 cells! Flips and rolls about an inch from the ground. Well the inevitable had to happen to a rapturous round of applause from the gathered masses. A part of his blade landed on someone's car around 200 yards away, locally with no damage. At the end of the day I went to retrieve my Transmitter the organisers thanked ME for coming! Their organisation was superb no problems encountered all weekend. Will I go back for the fun fly in October? Yes, I just hope the weather is as good. See you all at the Masters. Dave. |
