Paulupton Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Decided to give the southerly slope at Hawes another chance today. Tom and I had visited ~4-5 months ago but the wind speed was very high and it made for blustery conditions and neither of us really enjoyed flying there.Today was a different story, 10-15mph warm southerly made for good flying conditions and enough compression to get a bit of practice in. Still not the epic conditions that the hill looks like it should produce but good all the same - maybe if it pointed west it would be a different story.Slowly getting a list of slopes with different wind directions together in the Hawes area. Just the east side to sort out now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster-X Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 Sounds a lot better than Parlick although I did have the company of Parlick regular Ron and some new guys flying Weasels. As I turned up the slope was awash with Paragliders but no sooner had I parked up and they all landed out, I sat in the car listening to the Formula 1 qualifying on the radio enjoying the unseasonal sun, but eventually I hiked up to the top. Chucked the Xenon out into nothing, but soon hooked some weak thermals and had a very relaxing afternoon of just gliding rather than soaring. Still it makes a nice change, no pressure, even landing across slope no problem (no wind). My new found friends were pleasant enough and I spent more time chatting than soaring, makes a change for me. They were aghast when they found out how much a Xenon was and how they would be very nervous about crashing it, I told them it had been crashed many times and it just flies faster after it loses its newness I remember a time when I too thought I would never be able to justify the cost of a mouldie, how things have changed over the last 18 months Tom PS - see you up Pendle tomorrow :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloper Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 we were swarmed by the Jellyfish at HOH too today, we ended up having to leave them too it as there wasnt enough room to fly round them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster-X Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 I just had to keep an ear out for them rustling up behind me, over me, to my right, to my left, I kid you not there were hoards of them! :eek: One guy even turned up with a speed chute and went slalom flying a couple of feet off the path all the way to the bottom, narrowly missing me as I walked up the path. He then hiked back up for another go! Fortunately (or not) the lift was weak enough to keep them at bay and we had the sky pretty much to ourselves apart from when a para-glider hiked up, launched and flew back down to the bottom. Wasn't even enough lift for the big boys (full size gliders) or maybe their runway was too water logged ? See you tomorrow, might have to dust off the D60 for some front side antics if we have enough wind. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulupton Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 ESE and sun forecast for Wed aft, booked the afternoon off on flexi, fingers crossed the forecast stays good.... Looking for some big hill flying. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulupton Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Well the sun didn't turn up, not where I was stood anyway! Sunny in the valleys as usual. Decided to head up the lower slopes of Whernside instead of the usually favoured Gragareth, last time I flew here was with the compact and it had left good memories. Its roughly 1.5 miles to the slope from Chapel le Dale church, very tough going with 2 F3F models and associated ballast, think I will stick to 1 model next time.... Anyway, less of the grumbling its all part of the fun! Within 50min I was at the usual flying spot directly above Ellerbeck but the wind was crossed slightly to the east. Decided to walk further up the ridge to Combe Scar as it looked from below like it had a bit of a bowl shape to it. Got to the lip of the scar and peered over what I would guess to be a 30m vertical drop - not bad on a ridge which is already 500m high. It was very quiet on the lip so guessed the rotor was going to be an issue, first job was to find a suitable landing spot out of the rough air - fortunately around 50m to the left the ridge top had a slight rise on it and seemed to be out of the rotor. Landing spot found, it was time to commit the Race MX to the air. Standing on such a precarious edge reminded me a bit of Pierre's recent videos so decided to give it a good downward throw to get it through the rotor. I was then treated to 20min of some of the most exciting flying I have ever done. I don't claim to be able to do the EM turn but it was the closest I have got to looking anything like. A safe landing with no issues and I changed over to the Martinet as I have been waiting for an opportunity to fly it in vertical lift since getting a bit closer with the set-up (cheers Rich), WOW I am beginning to love this model, its not noticeably faster than the race M in a straight line but the turn is ridiculous. After 1.5 hours of flying I was exhausted and had a butty before calling it a day. Guaranteed that next race day I will be back to struggling around the course but it was a great session for a bit of confidence. Unfortunately Tom the camera man couldn't get out of work today so it was a solo trip with no footage maybe next time ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster-X Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Sounds like I missed a good session. Good practise for the Typhoon race next year? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloper Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I need to get me ARSEn up there :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulupton Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Rooster-X said: Good practise for the Typhoon race next year? Typhoon race sounds :censored: expensive to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloper Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 posted on behalf of Floydupton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulupton Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Cheers Rich Second photo is looking NE towards the summit of Whernside, just visible in the distance. Just past the summit the ridge turns due E and the slope is massive. Flew here once with the mini dragon before it got sacrificed to DS. Had to crawl to the edge as it was really blowing, only managed about 10min flying before trying to land in a horrible rotor even after walking at least 30m back from the edge. Been tempted to take a 3m up there in 15-20mph (5-8mph valley) conditions but the combination of wind direction and no clag at 700m in the dales doesn't happen very often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isoaritfirst Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Looks like a stunning spot Paul.There are very few Easterly slopes around - but those there are all seem to be stunners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gromit Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Sounds like you had a 'Cracking day'. Sure looks good from the pics & description :cool: Easterlies for me are very poor Stuart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster-X Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 Busy day up the hills today, went up little Ingle first thing to get my DS fix with the D60, alas I was on my own so no video or speeds, but was the fastest I;ve ever flown and conditions were superb, wind bang on West blowing between 50 - 60 mph. First flight I nearly lost her in the sky when she vanished for a couple of seconds in silhouette, then when I dived into the dark side the sun popped out from behind a cloud, again I lost sight of her found her at the bottom of the hill, completed a lap, but losing confidence I didn't dig in deep enough the 2nd lap and she rattled along the shear layer and I bugged out of the lap, immediately hitting a wall of wind on the front side, unable to get back to the lift, she did a beautiful auto landing without crow on the top. Second go, and this time I dug deep and was rewarded with an almighty kick of speed, the shear was silky smooth and once up to an estimated 130mph she locked into the lap beautifully. Having tweaked the rates down previously she was a lot less twitchy and easier to control. The good air would come when everything calmed down and went quiet and life was good, then the bad air when the wind would start gusting creating turbulence, and the model would get bounced around, the secret is no to over correct and try and coax it back into the circuit. Again like last time I was drifting away from the back of the hill, think I need a few clicks of down trim, maybe setup a flight mode to do that for me when I switch to DS rates. Landing was easy and the model was ice cold to the touch when I picked her up, presumably the wind chill, this was with half ballast (73 oz) in the belly no tip weight in this light weight 57oz D60. Third go with full ballast (89 oz) and it was even better, easier to control, more locked in and even faster, unfortunately rain then hail stopped proceedings and a hasty landing in poor visibility with hail pinging off my face saw me landing a little too close to the front side where the vicious rotor nearly had me as it picked the model up like a paper bag, fortunately I quickly killed the crow and with full aileron correction, managed to put the starboard wing tip in the soft dirt and got her down in one piece apart from another bent wing bolt, tough little beastie. Decided to call it a day for DS and walked back down the hill back to the warmth of the car, and travelled a couple of miles North to Barbon to meet up with Paul for a little F3F practise. Again with strong winds fantastic compression meant some fast flying which seemed to favour EM style turns as there was too much lift for reversals as the models kept getting blown out of the turns, some photos below and video to follow, once I've sifted through all the footage and edited it down to a couple of minutes Tom https://picasaweb.google.com/102640557863514635522/20111127Barbon?authkey=Gv1sRgCOH0tbzNmeGBJg&feat=flashalbum#5679789774409089202 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulupton Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Must resist replacing the bag of bits in the spare room :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonesoaring2003 Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Hi Tom Glad you had a good day! Stuck at work this afternoon looking at XCweather was painful! But I'm now off til Thursday! Looking forward to the video. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isoaritfirst Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 very nice set of pics there Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster-X Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 Sorry to hear you couldn't get out of work Alex, I've been off all week and this was the only day I got to fly :confused: Cheers Mike, we seem to get some nice light this time of year, when the sun eventually shines. Here's the video, apologies for the music (Stone Sour) but I was rushing and didn't have time to sift through loads of cd's so just picked a random track Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulupton Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Good work Tom, the view from the bottom is great. I think that's the best conditions we have had up Barbon, massive lift with moments of stupidly fast air. With your new positional camera work its a good job you have had a hair cut recently :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonesoaring2003 Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 That video is stunning - looks like a lot of fun, agree with Paul the shot and pan out from the bottom really works! Wasn't sure about the colour scheme of your Xenon but it seemed to work well in the air.And there's nowt wrong with the sound track - made it feel even faster!Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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