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North West Slopers


Rooster-X

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Got bored of re-building the Artist today and noticed a break in the weather and so jumped in the car with the trusty Xenon and zipped up the M6 to Farleton Knott, this is the handiest slope for me as its only 20 min away. The wind was bang-on from WNW, the sun shining and with my new magnetic switch working I braved the 35 mph winds and got some awesome lift, after a few runs it was time for a landing, its best to walk back a long way so that you can land out of the lift zone, noticed that you can get some DS kick out of dropping through the dead air in the landing zone, makes for some exciting landings, but full flap managed to slow it down enough for a landing.

More ballast was loaded and more practice runs, trying to anticipate that imaginary buzzer, and a few inverted circuits and aerobatics thrown in just to keep it from getting boring. The wind built more and more and after the third two handed launch which tried to blow my TX over my shoulder I decided to call it a day, still good to get out.

No photos today Paul was MTBing around Grizedale forest.

Tom :)

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Sounds like a great day out ; can I ask where you get these magnetic switches and are they small ? I want to put a switch of some sort in my mini vector and as you can imagine, space is at a premium .

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Couldn't resist and went to the other WNW for the last hour of daylight.Wish I had not bothered as I spent most of it looking for the Mart on the wrong side of the hill!Luckily help was at had and we found it before dark, cheers Mark and Paul.

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Yeah fine luckily, just need to glue a small seam on the fuse where the tail sits back together.

Made the turn to land to deep and got blown away by the very strong wind. Was legging it as fast as I could (hurdled the broken wall) - think it was about 20ft of the deck when I lost site of it. Must have walked past it whilst searching as Mark found it in a small sink hole whilst the rest of us were about half a mile down the valley searching.

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Try the little front landing slope next time? :)

Glad to here its OK, have had that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach myself a few times, not nice.

Tom

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Paulupton said:

Yeah fine luckily, just need to glue a small seam on the fuse where the tail sits back together.Made the turn to land to deep and got blown away by the very strong wind. Was legging it as fast as I could (hurdled the broken wall) - think it was about 20ft of the deck when I lost site of it. Must have walked past it whilst searching as Mark found it in a small sink hole whilst the rest of us were about half a mile down the valley searching.

:eek: f1.4 f16 f1.4 f16

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Well after watching the weather forecast like a hawk all week, managed to get a couple of flights this afternoon with an Artist re-maiden after all the repairs she needed after Eastbourne, F3F is a cruel mistress :confused:

Barbon was the Slope of choice with the foretasted Westerly, unfortunately the wind was a bit off with a touch of south which killed the lift even though the wind was blowing about 15 - 20 mph. Had to dodge a few hail storms as the weather fronts rolled in off the Irish sea, but I could see the good weather over Lancaster and Morecambe and waited patiently on the slope.

The weak lift meant that when I chucked off with half ballast I nearly landed out while fighting an out of trim model that doesn't have a lifty wing section like the Xenon, fortunately I managed to nurse her back up and then had to try and get enough height so I could walk back to the landing zone, this was compounded by the low cloud base so I had to be careful not to loose her. So much so that I even tripped up over a rock walking backwards, but fortunately my many years of crashing MX & Mountain bikes meant I managed to fall elegantly and end up sat on the ground with my eyes glued to the model and the TX still in my hands :)

The elevator compensation was well out on the crow as well so landing wasn't pretty, but Barbon is an easy place to land, just got to avoid the occasional rock.

2nd time out and a few adjustments and zero ballast and the lift was a lot better, this model is a lot more active than the Xenon and its hard to hold a straight line but she bangs the turns a lot tighter. I think the CoG is right on the limit as she doesn't pull out of a dive test like the Xenon, but is quite neutral. Maybe its time to pull some lead out of the nose of the Xenon. The roll rate was slower than the Xenon, so I landed again for more adjustments.

3rd time out and the lift started to die, you could fly but you couldn't bang any turns and I soon got bored, so decided to land before the next hail shower and call it a day. I was happy that the Artist is set up again ready to race, its amazing how much out of kilter she was but she has been re-built so it should be expected I guess. I've learnt a few more things about set up (cheers Rich) and was able to apply them to the Artist so can't wait to try her again a race, I still think this model has a lot more potential but it was a big mistake as a first model, the Xenon has taught me a lot more as it is so much more stable and easier to fly. Oh well hind sight and all that ;)

Tom

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SE/ESE, Turbilator or Gareth?  Gareth is an easier walk and easier to land but not as 'scary' and wind will be in the face and not on the back.

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