Sunday’s race on the Crest was a bit of the throwback and for all the right reasons. Perhaps it was the small number of us or the fact that it seems a relatively long time since many of us had met up but as we headed off to the Crest the atmosphere was more like a stress free day’s sport flying.
The wind wasn’t exactly ripping up trees, there’s be no risk of your wing blowing passed you after a slope side crash. But this was the crest and there was enough wind to have the laminated ballast cards being thumbed through various types of metal being inserted into models.
I’ve been loving my Merlin lately, a lack of flying time just hasn’t let me set up the willow 2 properly but the Merlin’s solid feel meant I was very comfortable to be putting 800g of lead in. Once the clag had cleared the breaze dropped off to around 7-10mph and pretty well stayed there all day. Normally this would make ballasting easy, 500g (1/3) and off we go, but the wind swinging to the south meant that the lift could pretty well stop.
It was clear that the conditions could quickly change from low 40s good to mid 70s bad and back again. The Merlin’s short boom and forgiving nature managed to compensate for my poor thumbs. With a little look from the conditions everyone knew they could take a round but bad luck and you were gone. I had a bit of both, including a top 3 round finish.
With laminated ballast cards being sacrificed in the hope of wind those who like a good blow were starting to get twitchy, Whilst the Lord Dakin just needed some dark magic cantations.
Thanks to Skip for making sure the day went so well.
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