FxRES April 2024 2m F3L/F5L Monthly Duration Challenge

[JBF]

Yes that’s me moaning about the covering quality

[Carl]

Kavan Resco : F5L : 18/04/2024 : 23m 53s

Absolutely gorgeous day down here in Devon! I popped down to my local field earlier this time to beat the 9 to 10 mph wind that was forecast from midday. Barely a breeze which made finding thermals much easier. But they were pretty weak.

I had one flight circling with three buzzards, but they were having to do the occassional flap of there wings, and that flight didn't last too long.

The best flight time so far was approx 4 mins. I went for one last flight. I have three battery packs for the Resco, from which I get six lauches from each pack, making 18 launches in total. I had 17 launches, so I had one launch left available.

I thought this last flight was going to be short too, but I came over to where my streamer was indicating a light thermal, and it was enough to maintain the current altitude (which the Altas graph shows was about 40m). After my timer called out 3 mins I noticed the Resco starting to climb very slowly. My streamer started indicating more to my left, so I moved the Resco over to my left and continued slowly climbing. Then the streamer indicated to my right, so I moved the Resco over to my right and still climbing. This continued and found the Resco climbing higher and higher. I thought I must be only 200m up, but shocked when I downloaded the Altas data what the actual altitude was!

Fortunately I have very good long eyesight, and basically allowing the Resco circling handsfree at this point. There was just no wind up there, so it remained in the same spot, circling away quite happily. I could just about make it out circling.

I was very close to the decision to force the Resco down to a lower altitude, and I heard the timer call 13mins, after which I felt a change in the air, and sure enough I was beginning to see the Resco more clearly, it was coming down of its own accord. I was aware I needed to get home, so I didn't go hunting for another thermal but just let it slowly come back down to earth.

Towards the end of the flight, I was hit by a strong, violent thermal that ripped my cap off my head, and of course you have the associated strong sink to go with it.

A magical flight

Carl

[Richard Newsham]

I bet you hardly blinked for 9 minutes.

[cirrusRC]

You should be a fighter pilot with eyes that good.  Nice.

[Carl]

2 hours ago, Richard Newsham said:

I bet you hardly blinked for 9 minutes.

I just didn't dare take my eyes of it, in case I lost sight of it. It was directly above me the whole time, giving me a crick neck.

[Carl]

1 hour ago, cirrusRC said:

You should be a fighter pilot with eyes that good.  Nice.

Fortunately it was directly above me, and stayed in that position. It was strange that there was no breeze at all at that height making the Resco drift.

[Richard Newsham]

Harden Moor. 4:10pm to 5:20pm. 10mph + gusts. Northerly wind.

Windy, gusty, cold, overcast. Great for practice. Not very good for a long flight. 14 flights. Non over 2m 20secs. 

Hope I have better luck tomorrow at 9:30am.

[AnthonyB]

CRESt / F5L / 20/04/24 / 10:59

The day started with a good frost all over the ground, but no wind.

There was still no wind at 10:30 so I just had to fly, with some new settings which I wanted to test.

Reasonable second flight, after some trim changes. So here is the flight.

Little bits of lift, with little bits of sink. Then at 5mins (whilst in lift), there were 2 buzzards off to the West, so I left the good air to go and join them. They were 100 – 150 yards apart, circling, so I went for between them. It was sinky getting there, but it would be worth it. Once there I circled and certainly did not go up. I bottled it and set off back. Big sink again. I got back to some lift but that just vanished and down it came.

I was geared up to land when the air got better. It just would not go up, but again it did not come down. Then it did – and fast.

I actually took a camera with me to the field, so a photo of the model.

To the right is a stream, with a barbed wire fence each side. Off in the distance is a drainage ditch to the next farm. This again has a barbed wire fence each side. Beyond that is the railway line, with fences both sides and you will not get through that. All these things give a great incentive not to land outside.

OK then a little bit of gratuitous cuteness.

[Richard Newsham]

Purito-E : F5L : 20th April 2024 : 2689s 44m 49s

Harden moor - Time 9:45 to 11:45 - 2 - 4mph N - temperature: nice in the sun but cool when the cloud rolled over - developing Cumulus

First couple of flights I hit pockets of lift but couldn't stay centered in them. This flight was quite a mix. Luckily I could string a couple of thermals together to eventually get the all important height to start looking for the bigger stuff.  At the end the period of cloud cover wasn't small enough to allow some warmth through so there it ended. I would have liked more but glad of the rest when it was down.  It's just total concentration.  I did take my eyes off the model to glimpse at who had just arrived at the field. I shouldn't have and took a second to find the model from where I had 'parked' it in the sky. Lesson learnt!

At 400m meters or at the time, that's high enough for me, I opened the spoilers but they didn't look to be having the effect I wanted them to have so it was nose down as well.  They work but don't seem to work as well when you are in a thumping big thermal. I suppose a nice problem to have however worrying at the time it may feel.

Richard

 

[Hydeflyer]

F5L Eli. 20/04/2024 Bredbury. Claiming 8 min 46 sec

First proper attempt at a decent time this month. After several 2 minute flights a nice strong thermal was connected thanks to a couple of buzzards almost out of sight above the field. Unfortunately, the breeze took me way beyond the visibility comfort zone and I had to come back after 5 mins. Managed to hook another bit of lift for a further 3 mins before losing it again. Weather was fine and dry with light north westerly 5-8 mph although only a max of 12 deg after early frost.

[AnthonyB]

I have so much work to do in the garden - the flying is  just for when the work is done.

BUT - I simply can't stop looking up.

Over and over most days, this happens and I cant get it on video.

I pointed camera at where I thought the gulls were - NOTHING on screen.

This is what I got - 

 

[JBF]

F5L Medina : 21/04/2024 : 310s - 5m10s

Approx 1730h - Sutton Valance - Cloudy with occasional sunshine, Wind - N 15mph gusting to 20+, cold, car indicating 11'c.

Not a great day for flying an FxL model, but its what I have to fly right now (local slopes are for SW/W) and my only opportunity to fly this weekend.  I waited to later in the day in the hope of the wind easing, which it did a little (but not much), and some sun broke through occasionally.  The Medina had no chance of penetrating in standard form.  I added 60g of balast which made her flyable but she could have done with more - something I need to sort out.  The 60g I flew with was an impromptu addition of a single ballast slug from my Schwing, placed in the space under the wing.

Think these conditions were pushing the Median to its limits - while launching, the tail/boom were visibly twisting whith the gusts.  There was plenty of thermal activity but time in between, speed they travelled downwind and ability to penetrate back into wind limited flight times.

Anyhow, this was the best flight, had another around 4 mins and lots of much shorter flights.  It was an opportunity to see how the glider handled in these sorts of conditions and also test some changes I made to my TX setup (flight pack monitoring, throttle arm switch, timers with callout).  Only my second time at the site so also an opportunity to learn about lift generators in the area etc.

 

Edited April 21 by JBF

[martynk]

I am back (although I feel like I need a holiday) and welcome to JBF..  

 

     

[JBF]

F5L Medina : 22/04/2024 : 15m58s

Approx 1630h - Sutton Valance - over-developed cloud with occasional sunshine, Wind - N 3-4mph, still cool, car indicating 12'c.

Put in a sneaky hour before picking my son up from nursery, the best of the day had passed but after yesterday it was still very pleasant.  Still learning the glider and site.

 

[Richard Newsham]

@JBFNice save. You picked up a lovely thermal.  And especially at that time of day. All is not lost. A nice two and a half mins of thermal turns. 

[martynk]

Well done.  A cracking flight.

     

[JBF]

Thanks, improving but nowhere close to the Richard, Cirrus, Carl.  Don’t think I could see my model at 800m that’s super impressive.

I did find I was wrestling the glider around every turn, it was very difficult to trim for level flight and to maintain speed around turns, seemed to want to circle nose out.  I played with moving the CG a few mm forwards just before calling it a day and that seemed to make a world of difference.  Hoping for hours more fun to come, FxL seems like a great introduction to thermal soaring.

[Will_A]

Medina : F5L : 24-04-24 : 1 hour 11 mins 8 secs 

Amazing conditions this evening in Ashton Court Bristol. When I first arrived it was a bit breezy for the Medina, so I flew my CX5 F3K for about 1/2 hr. There was patchy but good lift, blue sky with nice cumulus. Then as the wind dropped I decided to fly the Medina. First few flights weren’t that great. Then the wind dropped almost completely and I caught some soft but consistent lift up to 500m. Eventually the lift seemed to be almost everywhere and it was hard to lose height for the majority of the flight. The 2 big drops from height were using the spoilers.  

There were times when it was so high and a bit of a distance away that I was struggling to make out orientation against blue sky. So I flew more based on having it against a white cloud for better visibility and closer to me, than where the lift was.  It took quite a while to relax and get comfortable with flying so high and make very small stick movements to avoid any nose down / high speed situations, which would have been hard to see and could have caused flutter.
my eyes were struggling at the highest point  at 623m.  So hats off to you Carl for flying at 800! Wow!

My longest ever flight by a comfortable margin. Landed around 8:15pm  Made even better by a wonderful sunset and being surrounded by cowslips and orchids. Flying doesn’t get much better than this. 

[Richard Newsham]

Purito-E : F5L : 24th April 2024 : Not longer than a previous flight

Harden moor - Time 16:00 to 17:35 - 2 - 4mph N - temperature: hat and scarf - Wide cumulus

Finished work early (all hail flexi time) and thought this is too nicer day to not go flying before picking number 3 daughter up.

Flight #104 - 28m 35s.  With the clouds how they were and the odd bout of sunshine there was always a chance of catching a thermal.  They were very leisurely thermals.  Once up there it was a matter of mooching around a wide area and picking up a bit of lift.  Up there it seemed for a while I couldn't go wrong.  I had hoped for a save at the end but couldn't keep centered.

Flight #112 - 13m ish.  After a few up and downs I caught on to this thermal.  Time was running out so tried a couple of rolls.  Not quite like I saw @Alex Maxfield perform his roll at Buckminster a few weeks a go.  His was very nice.

Richard

[cirrusRC]

1 hour ago, Will_A said:

Medina : F5L : 24-04-24 : 1 hour 11 mins 8 secs 

Amazing given the cold spell and so late in the evening.   Just goes to show it's always worth heading down to the flying field.  Well done.