Willows are here!

Yep, after more time than I want to remember a box of production Willows met my return from holiday.

Has the wing been smoothed out?  yep

is it stonger?  yep

stiffer?  yep

got one left after I told Tony at Slope Racer? Nope!  they're all heading to Tony.  It's been great to work with a distributor that understand model developement and I can trust so all the Willows will be with Tony as soon as they land.

I'm away to build the Beta I have left for the Welsh open.

artists have landed!

I've just heard from tony fu, he's been stroking his first batch of artist 3s all morning.

The perfectionist tony gets to agree with me now- beautiful, top quality winners

Drop him a line now

Willows on the march

  After taking on Lundy the claim for the Willow altitude record has been claimed by Andy at 8,000ft.  Partly down to launching from the top of the Swiss alps, between drinks at Stefan Bertschi’s stag weekend.  Just goes to show you can’t put a good model down (especially when you’ve got a sports tube to fit it in).  Congratulation and good luck to Stefan.

  The Sanwa Servos are now here and the Willows on their way!  I’ll have mine flying for the Welsh open.  Tony Fu will have them in stock at the same time, although some technical issues are stopping him up-dating the web-site I understand.

  I’ve had to make do with a day at the beach and an evening with the Artist (only the camera phone with me) whilst I wait for Parcelforce.- It's a tough life.

A busy time and still flying!

      The chance of meeting the Dark Lord Dakin himself on the hill and seeing him do his stuff was not to be missed and he had Partland Ducking out of the way of his Caldera in no time. Portland seems to have been my main flying destination lately and on Sunday it was my cross tail Compact’s turn to go out to play.  I always forget how much I enjoy this model- stunning tracking and tank tough to give your confidence a boost.

  A quick look to my mail and it looks like Tony Fu’s first batch of Artist 3 models are winging there way over to him right now.

  In preparation to what should be the first commercial Willows being sent next week I’ve got a box of  Sanwa/Airtronics 94761 servos heading this way.  Defiantly my favourite wing servo and great for other models than the Willow- drop me a line if you’re building right now

2 days in Dorset

  The chance of a 2 day pass to fly and meet up with modelling royalty (Slopetrash himself) is not to be turned down.  Starting at Portland, 3 hours were spent With ‘BobbyR’ in some very light winds and blistering sunshine, initially convincing him that hurling a big mouldie off a cliff in <5mph winds was a good idea and then enjoying that feeling that- yep it was flying (just).  Our time was only broken by Bobby’s missus wondering why his 5 mins had now taken nearly 3 hours- it was one of those days.

  With the sunshine still beating down I fancied some inland soaring to set the Artist up some more.  I’ve moved the CG back to 107mm now (JK’s recommendation in the first place) and true to form she’s a little more crisp, goes where you point her and with just a smidge of diff if performing some stunning racing turns without any sign of being up-set or biting back.  One thing I love about the Artist is the way that she responds to camber- centre on a thermal in this mode and she really is away, but unlike some models she does not stooge around sinking steadily with camber when you’re not in a thermal.

  It was soon time to meet the family Slopetrash for the night before Maiden Castle was chosen for the next day’s flying.  The site is an interesting one, with 3 layers of earth mouth fortifications, each one topped by a narrow path.  We opted for the middle layer and much to Andy’s joy set off on the slog up the hill as the clouds began to break.

  Hills like this are always fun, with a steady flow of thermals adding to the slope lift, it didn’t take too long for Andy to regret sharing a radio!  After joining Daniel in the air for a while it was time to broach the landing- crow along the path and land on the top- or in my case bounce a bit to demonstrate the Willow’s strength as well as thermalling ability.

  As the winds died we opted for the land the planes at the bottom option, with Daniel switching off and our bags much lighter on the way down.  With all my toys flown it’s back to reality with that smile you get from a great trip.

more Summer pics

holiday maidens

  After confirming now that a taking your child to a slope doesn't invalidate your insurance a family holiday seemed the perfect time to maiden the new Artist 3 and get some brownie points.

  So in light thermic air and my new multiplex tx my 2.4gig cherry was gone and the artist 3 was away.

Yes, she's got great natural pace

Yes, she's crip and responsive

Yes, You can easily spec her out and eat up a vertical dive the pull full up- she bounces off the turns

Yes, good new models seem to come in groups

And yes women do seem to have made child care out to be tougher than it seems!

Turn your back for a week to have your nationals and just see....

  Should I be saying this on the Willow blog?

  Whilst I was showing the slower side of the Willow this weekend it looks as if those pesky chaps were putting the Pike precission through it's paces in Slovakia.

  It would be cruel to suggest that UK races could have been planed before February to give UK pilots a chance to race at the Donovaly race this year and see the Pike P.

  Not much room to get your elbows in this one!