Wednesday 22 September 2021

Welsh Open

  

  What a weekend, the Welsh open never fails to deliver a fantastic weekend of good company.  This year’s race was 3 days of seeing some top draw flying that was like a mast class at times.  The first obvious lesson was don’t turn up to the race tired, damaged models and poor flying will most likely follow- In my case the pre-production Harrier I have enjoyed for nearly 18 months was cartwheeled on fight 1.

  The day did allow my to sit and watch some stunning examples of EM turn flying, particularly from the Austrian team.  With some brain picking the weekend really did turn out to be an educational experience.  The delay in the day 2 start allowed me to test fly my first production Harrier and that was it- I wasn’t going to put it down for the weekend.  With the stock set up, my times started to come down and scores up.  This continued through day 3 and some respectable flying showed how

  The typically thermic conditions gave everyone a chance of a good run but as always the better pilots just seem to make that bit more of what ever they get- regardless of style, model or slope.  Flying EM turns certainly seems to give more air speed but further travelled, when compared to the straight lines flown by many British pilots.

  A great weekend, well run by Kevin and the SWSA team.  Now to practise those turns!


Sunday 12 September 2021

Back to portland

 The Whitesheet club's 24th scale day of the year inspired me to return to Portland for the first time in many years and the first time with my Harriers. 

  It's my first trip to the sea side for a while and the Portland cliffs were an enticing site. With the prospect of racing off the wrecker next week it felt a good choice. 

  I don't think that I'd fancy self launching a design without the Harrier's fuselage to grip onto. But with a landing spot chosen and ballast added she was soon away and ripping the edge.

 The predictability that come from a model I've flown for well over a year really helped to put the harrier in the compression more often than not.  And that made it fast and fun!

  A walk on chisel beach on the way home with 2 scratch free models helped me smile all the way!