Christmas Delivery

I've been told now that my Christmas delivery of models is on it's way.

I have 2 Merlin models, definitely my favourite sports/racer and when the wind blows that new joiner and tough build make it my weapon of choice.

perfect for winter flying and racing and the best model available today for- £450

Contact me for more details

Thanks for the pictures

Thanks to Simon Jones for the Willow 2 pictures.  As I do much of my flying alone good shots of the model in the air are hard to find!

 

 

A day out and Mark's Willow Maiden

  No pictures from this weekend but a stunning day on Aggies on Sunday.  The plan to get some air time in before the foam arrived didn’t go totally smoothly as the wind swung around for most of the morning.

  The delay in flying gave me chance to catch up with Roger- worth the trip alone!

  As so as the weather was flyable the Willow 2 was the first away again and soon cruising about.  It’s cheating flying a model like the Willow 2, in marginal conditions when parts of the slope are working and other not the pure distance that you can travel from lift to lift always amazes’ me.

  As the Air build up I had chance to add some ballast for a flight.  With only 500G she really did feel on step and so smooth and slippery.

  I know that family commitments will mean no Champ of champs for me this year and so the winter's flying will be more about fun and picking the odd race.

  At the opposite side of the country Mark treble was maidening his Willow 2 and I a comp- you have to admire his confidence!  He was doing well until a receiver battery issue had him strength testing the model.  Here’s a few of his build pictures- lovely work!

Willow vs the Weather

    After being restricted to a couple of light air days flying since the Welsh Open I wasn’t going to miss out on the 40MPH wind forecast for this weekend.

  The Low cloud meant that my new red winged Willow 2 was the ‘sensible’ option, ignoring that I haven’t flown this model before.  Phil Taylor and his Ceres were to be the warm up and cloud base finders.  Unfortunately Phil’s flight only lasted about 10 seconds as he managed to flick 4.5kg of model in to Devon slope.

  This did mean that he was available to launch for me.  I can’t explain how much I enjoyed the flight.  Not a click of trim and the Willow 2 was away, I’d only put around 1kg of the ballast in but she was making good progress and really building up speed.  Hands off on the edge?  Yep she just tracks on and gets faster and faster- More proof that it’s my thumbs which have been slowing down the Willows for all this time.

  I was able to play with a number of different turn styles, each one done well kept her screaming around the slope.  It was noticeable just how little flex or control fade I had.  The Willow 2 remained crisp, smooth and fast through everything.

  A few high turns in later flights showed that the cloud base was coming down.  It’s an un-nerving feeling to watch your model disappear into the grey!  It would take more than that to take the smile off my face!

 

  Great flying

Willow 2 is top of the Table

OK it might have been my thumbs all along, the Willow 2 in Clayton’s hands had a storming day on the Mynd this weekend.  I don’t want to get distracted by round Zeros meaning the result won’t count to the league- Well Done Clayton.

  It’s great to see the philosophy that you don’t need to spend over £1,000 on an air frame to win working still.

I’ll  just have to keep blaming the kids for my poor form!

Rank	Competitor	Score
1	Clayton Lansdells	2939.37
2	Mark Redsell	2919.62
3	Mike Evans	2898.59
4	Simon Thornton	2813.44
5	Peter Gunning	2794.11
6	Paul Stubley	2778.61
7	Andy Burgoyne	2730.54
8	Gregg Dakin	2699.69
9	Martin Newnham	2629.69
10	Mark Treble	2567.33
11	John Treble	2467.13

Welsh Open- 3 long days for 15 seconds of Ecstasy

  What a 3 days!  The Welsh open has a habit of leaving you feeling weathered and  exhausted but with 3 days of flying, alternating from the Crest to Mickies and back to the Crest on the final day, there were broad smiles on the faces of all Pilots.

  First of all the organising team, I can’t praise these guys well enough.  Day 1 had us all skipping merrily over to the Crest well before the start time and we found Knewt and Mark Treble fumbling on the start line.  I have to admit t being puzzled at first but the new timing gear they were setting up more than proved itself.  Automated working time, count down, lap counter and round time- also combined with the times being show on the safety line- you can’t get much better can you?

  The low key highly effective approach went through the full weekend, even the Buzzing was organised without the use of cattle prods.

  The conditions over a total of 13 racing rounds were always ‘good’ and often challenging but the wind stayed between 8 and 14ms al weekend and so the race did not become a contest of these with the most Tungsten.

  Day 1 saw Joel West show just how to fly a reversals course.  With the rest of the cream was steadily rising to the top myself and fellow willow flyer Clayton were finding out how important practising on course is.  I’m convinced that I was spending as much time off course than on it in the first rounds.

  Day 2 saw us move to the far side of Mickies, only a sharp shower stopped us from starting on time and the course was set up for an immediate start.  Perhaps it was the bleary eyes starting to emerge but day 2 saw the first models damaged that I can remember.

  I had been delighted with the performance of the Willow 2 on day 1 and into day 2, only my thumbs and a set up that was feeling too soft to race (Devon set up) were holding the model back.  Then 4 rounds in I saw Frank and Martin fly in front of me and a thermal showed itself for them.  I launched climbed beautifully, came on course a little early to make use of the air and off she went.  16 seconds and 6 of my most enjoyable legs of F3F I can remember.  The Willow screamed, I pulled her round as fast as I could and she shot around the course.  Unfortunately the thermal passed too quickly and I slowed down before my PB was safe.

  With the usual grumbles of Thermal lotteries from different pilots, the skill of Martin, Simon and the Dark lord Dakin were a master class and whatever the lift they made the most of it.

  Day 3 and it was a less than merry skip along the Crest to Mid Wales.  The Welsh open Marathon was proving tough, our number was dropping off and mistakes coming in.  My own was to simply hit the hill as I tried to run along the edge.  A cartwheel and wing recovery later and the only damage was the servo tray coming loose- tough toys these Willows!  The number of pilot mistakes seemed to step up again but the reaction to this by the Dark Lord was to fly the hardest and best flight of the day in his last round- stunning!

  The weekend is a great chance to see other models and modellers.  My feeling this year in the UK is that the new models have mainly come from different ways to bolt various Baudis parts together.  I love the look of the Radical Jazz flown by Daniel.  I didn't realise just how many top 10 places Clayton achieved with his Willow 2- really confirms to me that it's my thumbs and not the model holding me back!

  Seeing a Spline in the flesh was a treat.  The different set up and ballasting philosophies from non UK from the continental pilots was good to see.  Less ballast and flown with more ‘ping’ to the turn was reminiscent of the Sting guys coming over.   It also showed that choosing a method and flying it well is probably more important than the method.

  So after 3 days the winners were very worthy and a great competition was well run in fantastic conditions which sort out the best pilots.

1 Simon Thornton 10949.04

2 Joel West 10873.91

3 Peter Gunning 10780.76

4 Martin Newnham 10606.39

5 Greg Dakin 10602.92

Two fun days

I've not had the chance to post anything about this year's welsh open, that's probably because each day has seen us flying until after 6. Day 1 w the crest and yesterday on mickies.

There's been some top draw flying from some really good guys. More on the technical stuff later but the biggest news is that Scott Ravenscroft (ex Leek sloper) has managed to stay fit for 2 days- smashing his PB.