Mark Evans Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Since not many posting in sportsman, and that I technically can, here is a easy 4 min to beat. I could have gone longer, but the lift I was in was really good so I tried to be clever and come upwind and find something else even though I wasn't very high, that soon put me back on the ground. But still it was a fun morning practicing reading the air and then trying to low launch into it. Not that I can throw very high anyway or have brilliant air reading skills, but it's all practice. Jon can blow my time out the water with his own Auri once he has it in the air. Got the Auri set up well now, really like how it flies, glad I've finally stuck with one plane for the first time ever. Really felt I made some progress with it today, just learning it, flying it out a little and getting a feel for how it comes back etc, something I never really did with the other planes before. David, how on earth do you see your plane at those heights? your log looks like you were over 250m in one of your flights? I start to get nervous by 70m lol. I should probably fly F5J really to be able to see the plane at a good height. Mark | Sportsman | F3K | Auri | 4 minutes | 9th June 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulR Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 On 02/04/2020 at 12:34, MikeDLG said: I too went out yesterday. Lovely conditions, light wind, lift, clear air and high cloud. 38 minutes ago, Mark Evans said: David, how on earth do you see your plane at those heights? your log looks like you were over 250m in one of your flights? Mark - having been at about 360m yesterday myself I'm even more amazed at the 1510ft (457m) shown in the data from Mike's flight back in April! I do make sure I clean my glasses before I go out! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Evans Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 My eyes are definitely not good enough to see a dlg at those heights! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Well done Mark, glad you're finding the Auri suiting you! Really hope now that you don't change it but stay with it and practice, practice until it becomes part of you. Re heights, my only experience of anything as extreme as Mike and David's was when I recently lost (later recovered with a broken fuselage) my 2mRES, having struggled with its orientation at 430m about 1km downwind. I imagine that, although DLGs have a slightly smaller wingspan, one can more easily flick into speed mode and shallow-dive on a single heading to quickly regain a sense of its orientation before turning for home...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDLG Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 18 hours ago, PaulR said: Mark - having been at about 360m yesterday myself I'm even more amazed at the 1510ft (457m) shown in the data from Mike's flight back in April! I do make sure I clean my glasses before I go out! The clarity of the air and whether the sky is blue or cloudy can make a big difference to how high you can see your model. If there is high cloud, the model tends to remain a black silhouette against the white/light grey clouds and is easier to see high up. With blue sky, it will disappear more easily. All my very high flights have happened when there is low wind and the lift takes me pretty much straight up so I am not to far away from myself, keeping the distance as short as possible from my eyes to the glider. My record is 2424ft (739m) and there is of course Martin Godden's famous 3000footer! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 Mike F, Expert (that's a laugh), F3K, Snipe Mk1, 12:41, June 17th. I went out to try a new CG on my old Snipe - it had drifted back to almost 63 mm behind the root LE. I had remembered it as 62. (Flew my 'new' Snipe for the first time on June 2nd - cg at 62.5 at first, then tried 60.5 and it was better - easier to fly smooth tight circles.) So I have now changed the old Snipe to 60 and I like it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Evans Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 Should have sold that 'new' Snipe to me, I'd have paid double for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDLG Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Interesting session today. One of those day that makes you question your ability/sanity! The lift never seemed to be where I thought it was. There appeared to be good indications via change in wind speed and direction, but it was not that easy. Reminded me of the conditions we had in Denmark at the 2nd WC. I remember standing the lunch queue talking to Martin Herrig, who like me, was struggling during the first 2 days. We both complaining about the conditions being difficult to read, not making sence. I was relieved that someone of his ability was having similar struggles to me! I had a lot of quite short flights, but did a few in the 4-6min range and ended with one longer flight of 20mins. Although that very nearly ended at 6.5mins. I was low, about 20ft, just upwind and blindly wandered into some good lift. That flight was hard work the whole time. The air seemed quite turbulent. MichaelS | expert | F3K | Votex3 | 20:36 | 22nd June 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mutogen Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 BenJ / Sportsperson / Mosquito / 3mins 30secs. Just starting to get the hang of my new Toro and was very pleased to chalk up this time today. Quite turbulent air in a suboptimal flying spot but managed to work a very twitchy plane in low pockets after a good launch. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDLG Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 14 hours ago, mutogen said: BenJ / Sportsperson / Mosquito / 3mins 30secs. Just starting to get the hang of my new Toro and was very pleased to chalk up this time today. Quite turbulent air in a suboptimal flying spot but managed to work a very twitchy plane in low pockets after a good launch. Nice one Ben! I hope we get fly together someday soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Just realised challenge 8 is open. Mike F, expert (snigger), F3K, Vibe Mk 1, 18:55, July 11th.. First time out with the 'new' Vibe. Time should last until tomorrow before it gets beaten... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDLG Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 You finally built it! Hooray! 5yrs, not bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cirrusRC Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 flew from a different field yesterday, was quite a bit winder than forecast and the terrain seemed to amplify the infill. It wasn't until gone 4pm that conditions went really nice. After a full day on my feet, I opted for a bit of deck chair flying. Had a really nice flight just before 5:30pm. Flying my light NXT, had to work hard for first 15 minutes with one very low save. Then found some decent smooth lift to climb out. Very pleasant end to the day. David | expert | F3K | NXT | 28:02 | 12th July | 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonym Posted July 13, 2020 Author Share Posted July 13, 2020 Nice flight David. A few of us had a good day flying mainly F5J over at the polo fields at Little Bentley yesterday. I flew my Hawk Mini a few times but didn't do better than: TonyM | Expert | Mosquito | Hawk Mini | 2:05 | July12th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 I also got out on the 12th with the 'new' Vibe. I launched a flight at around 1130 yesterday - the next time it touched the ground was at 1815 TODAY. Sadly it spent most of that time 60 ft up in an oak tree.... Our local common has signs about sticking to the footpaths for fear of disturbing nesting skylarks. I fly from a wide path at the edge of the common, right against a tree line. The model got lowish and I was scratching in weak lift when I had to move myself rapidly to keep it in sight. I was running, watching it through a tree, at one point, when disaster struck. I lost control /orientation and down it went into the woods. I found it in a tree near a private drive after a three hour search and, after asking permission, I spent a total of about ten hours getting it out over two days. Many shots needed with the bow/arrow pulling fishing line to get good placements. When I get a good line position, I pull up a piece of sash cord (thin rope) to shake the branch. I slowly pulled off branch after branch (some dead!) below the model trying to shake out. It was stuck fast. Turned out a thin branch was embedded in the wing back to the spar - no amount of shaking or wind was going to release it. Finally broke off the relevant little branch which fell releasing the model into a fairly gentle inverted spiral glide with a bit of tree still embedded in the wing. Lots of cosmetic damage and a slightly folded wing with a broken spar. Oh well.... The trees shall not have them! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDLG Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 Damn, sorry to hear that. I had a slightly (compared the that) frustrating flight today. First flight of the day. Boomed up in lift and figured I’d give 30mins a crack to beat Dave’s 28mins. All was well until about 24mins in, someone turned up at the field and started asking me questions. I got distracted and next thing I knew I had found all the sink and was down at 27mins or so. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cirrusRC Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 The last time a member of public came over to talk to me, I ended up putting the model in a tree. I clearly can't multitask. Sorry to hear about the damage Mike, hope you can get it air worthy again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Evans Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Do you more experienced guys still have days when you think it's going to be good but when you get to the field it's just horrible? I woke today with it looking great outside, sunny, warm and with a light breeze coming through. At the field it was a different story, lift seemed huge when I could find any, but sink was brutal, my plane was just falling out the sky at times. I'd be flying along nicely trying to move away from an area and next thing it's just falling out the air tail down. And when I did find lift it was really throwing my plane around low down (like that video David put up on his YouTube channel with the low Blaster save), I'm not a high launcher so I was struggling to throw above the rough air on my field. Don't think I did a 2min flight today. The increase in wind was lasting quite a few minutes with short calm gaps in between, so that means big lift coming through quickly right? I don't have ballast and my plane is 240g empty, would today have been an ideal day to have had some extra weight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cirrusRC Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Would be boring if it was always easy. Yes we all have those days where the conditions don't match expectations. Ballast helps with inertia and cutting through turbulence. No good though if not enough lift to offset the extra weight. What you describe is the lift/infill cycle. Sounded like a good day to experiment with ballast. Always good to have the option. At least you got out for a fly 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 But think about it - the forecast for today was for light winds with little gusts increasing progressively to higher winds and much higher gusts, all under and increasingly clear and sunny sky with temperatures quickly rising to the mid-20s - so lots of turbulence to be expected surely 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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