Storm flying

  Sorry, no pictures from the weekend but after flying the my new Willow 2 in such light conditions last week, the chance of flying in the big winds we had this weekend couldn't be missed.

  Not properly set up and using about 800grams of ballast in winngs blowing from 25-45mph probably wasn't the cleverest thing I've ever donw but wow was it worth it.  The Willow 2 was away straight and then I couldn't believe the progress I was making around the sky.  The turns are getting better with each tweak but in a straight line- that even i can't mess up, she accelorates and shifts like nothing else!

  I am very biased but I didn't half have a smile of my face coming home from the hill!

Willow 2 Maidened

  I’ve been pacing up and down getting ready to maiden the Willow for a while now and Sunday gave me the chance.  A busy Whitesheet in the sunshine but very light air was my chance to maiden the Willow 2.  Once the model had been inspected and approved by just about everyone there she was quickly into the air.

  Even with the lack of set up it she shifts!  As I improved the set up through the morning the Willow 2 just got better and better- co-pilot wanting his lunch brought a halt to things but its clear that as well as being built to an excellent atandard the Willow 2 can accelerate better than any model I’ve flown, give her a sniff of lift and that tail coes up..  Definitely more set up to go before the nationals in June but I can’t wait.

  It was great to see Whitesheet so busy, it’s not so long ago that Whitesheet seemed to have a real lack of flyers.  I don’t think that there’s a better place on the main land to enjoy a day’s flying in sunny light conditions.  

Broken a tail? cracked a fuselage?

  I nearly forgot to post some pictures of the spare tails and fuselages that I have been sent in my last goodie box.

  I can offer the fuselage booms and nose separately

and the tails either sepatately from £50 or with a fuselage.

Drop me a line for the price on your combination.

just 1 willow bargin left

  I'm going to be boxing up a few Willows over easter!

The only one left is the white/blue willow 1 model.  The paint marks are so light on this model- I think we're getting fussy:-)  £350 and it's yours.

The E Merlin is also waiting for a suitable set pilot!

Willow 2 pictures

As I promissed here's  a few more pictures of the complete Willow 2 model again.  I'm plannning to get it built ready to fly ovver easter.  The look of tthe nnew fuselage annd tail makes a huge diffeerence to the look oof the model- I know that the wing is fast!

The wing came from these amaizing cnc cut molds- no wonder it works!

Put together the completed model it looking good

  I'm goinng to offer the first batc of thhese models at £500 each as a special offer.  Get in touch!

A box of real goodies!

I'll post some more pictures and text later but 2 really cool new models landed this week.

The first is the e merlin. A complete new fuselage molding. Crisp, clean and very very stiff. Unidirectional carbon from leading edge to tail. The fuselage is made for 38mm motors

If you're a budding f3a pilot we want a test pilot for this one!

Biggest news of all- the willow 2 fuselage and tail have arrived. Stunning molding again. Ive been testing the new wing for a good while now so i'll post about the models history with lots of pictures later. I cant say how excited i am about this model.

day 2

  Day 2 of the Champion of Champions race was another challenging one, the Ice cream slope was it’s usual variable self but full ballast seemed to be the order of the day again. My second best time of the day came from a flight with no climb out at all as the lift timed it’s entry to the slope with my own.  My own flying had too many wait for the buzzer moments to really maximise the air and climb the placings. 

Dave couldn't get help fly the Merlin- fast!

  Those EM pilots with a plan clearly out flew the rest of us to be honest.  Pilots who really knew where the course was regardless of the conditions and carried the energy through turn after turn could blast their way through the patches of weak lift and really milk the good air.  The Sultan of Smooth Simon Thornton was my pick of the day for doing this, he Fosa, Extreme, Freestyler,  Ceres White model with orange spots looked as if it was on rails- very fast rails!

  It was great to see Dave Wright of T9 making up the 4^th pilot to fly a Willow model this weekend, after picking up his Merlin on Saturday he was racing it straight away and putting in some excellent runs,  I can’t think of many other model you could do that with.

 

  Abbo's Caldera consistently ripped up thhe edge all weekend- showiing it's aerobatic genes!

  There’s really no where to hide with a competition design to have the best pilots flying the fastest models for the most rounds possible.   My own lack of racing was exposed but you can’t argue that the top pilots were there this weekend.  Well done Martin for keeping the race going in the face of those throwing bricks and vowing never to come again (they did!).

  After 2 days of tough racing Mark Redsall came out a deserved winner- See you nnext year Mark!