August Glider Day

Our aero-tow on Sunday was blessed with some dry and very warm weather. The event was well attended with Felix from the Okehampton Model Flying Club kindly providing the tug with his Titan. It was also good to meet some new members for the first time and we hope they enjoyed the event  also. There were a wide range of classic scale gliders that showed off the high quality building skills of their pilot owners. It was very impressive to see them follow the tug up to around 1000 ft before releasing. Unfortunately the wind was from the NE and there was not much lift around although Joe managed to find a thermal on his final landing approach and promptly abandoned that in favour soaring up – and up until that pocket of lift disappeared. We also had a few e-gliders that had their flights during refuelling and lunch breaks. Cliff’s Bird of Time with his recently added e-pod flew well. The flying site seemed to have it own “Bermuda Triangle” of gorse that seemed to pull a few gliders off their initially central landing approach up the strip into the adjacent gorse to the muttering of  their pilots. Some photos from the day are below and hop across to our Facebook page for more from our members and comments about the day.

 

 

5 Mtr K7 Build update from John

John has sent me an update on his 5 metre K7. It is looking impressive. I can see John looking out for volunteers to help carry this beast to a launch site. I am looking forward to adding further updates to our Gallery.

The 1/3 K7 short kit arrived from Laser Cut Sailplanes sometime in June and a while after that SLEC sent the wood I had ordered in order to begin construction. They were very quick, just a couple of days.

Progress on the fuz was reasonably quick and straight forward after some considerable plan studying had been done. Many of the pieces slot together very accurately but sanding jointing faces to the right angle before gluing was necessary at times. I did have a couple of ‘lining up issues’ but if you have a modicum of building behind you they are fairly easily overcome with patience. I have recently completed the 0.8 ply cladding and the nose skid. PTFE tube is installed in the rear enclosed area of fuz to direct the closed loop cable to the rudder. The nylon covered fishing trace slides easily inside. None of the construction so far is built over the plan, I have the fuz plan hanging from the ceiling near the bench for easy reference, however you do need space for a model this size and I am fortunate to have just enough, the wings will push things! Many thanks to Maggie for looking interested.

John

New home page photo

Chris, Martin, Mike and I went up L.H this morning. I gathered from the experienced pilots comments that finding a thermal was challenging and conditions lumpy although the weather was clear with a light NW breeze. It was good to see Martin back flying today and I just managed to capture his launch before his craft became a dot in the sky. It is our home page photo for this week. I tried to capture other launches but was too slow for their rapid assents.

AK RC Models – Teignmouth have bought Bekra Models in Newton Abbot

Tony who own AK RC Models in Teignmouth has bought Bekra and will be reopening the shop on 4th July. Tony says that the shop has had a major refit and that there will be a greater presence of RC aircraft and cars with much more of the stock on display. Both shops will offer some common items but each will retain their specialisms.

We think that this great news for RC modellers and flyers in our region and we wish Tony all the success in his new venture.

Petes Evening Flying at L.H

Pete has posted a couple of cracking photos of flying as the sun is setting up at Little Haldon. I have chosen one to head up our home page. Check it out. There are also some more photos of the club’s evening flying on our Gallery page

Evening Flying 17th June

Hi everyone, actually no one saw the sunset last night as we had by then drained our batteries or gone home. Anyway a beautiful evening on the strip with a light NE breeze. The car park was full and later double parked, a successful meeting I’m sure you will agree. Our illustrious chairman Cliff treated us to some evocative flypasts by his WW1 biplane and Tim maidened his Inside F3J, seen at the last club meeting, remember those, and deftly launched by his wife Carolyn, flew away with no issues.

One success story was the recovery of a model from 30 to 40ft up a tree. The model was recovered without a scratch early this morning by an ingenious pole and hook, very well done by a determined pilot.

Regards

John

A 5414mm Ws K7 build is John’s next project

Just a few flights of last winter’s KA7 scale glider build by John and the plans for a 5mtr plus K7 have been bought. I hope you are not wishing the summer away too soon John.

Home Page lead picture

To try and keep our website current, I thought it might be interesting to have a lead picture or video clip on the home page that I will change at least monthly and possibly more frequently. To kick this off the lead clip is of Roger’s FMS Pitts S2 taking off at L.H today; as coincidentally it is the same model as covered in June’s RCME. just click on the home page to view.

I also have a few video clips from recent maiden flights and near maiden of a flying bicycle at L.H and am in the process of reducing their sizes to fit within the constraints of  our hosted site.

If anyone has an interesting photo or  video clip then please email it to me and I will load it up to our website.

Robert

 

Returning to flying after a long lock-down in 2020

It was a glorious morning on Thursday 21st May when we met up at Little Haldon (socially distanced and sanitised of course). A gentle breeze from the North West with thermals and buzzards following our gliders up and up. Several good flight were made, reaching a good height in the thermals although areas of sink could easily be found by those less experienced at reading the signs like me. The land owner, Ralph Rayner, kindly brought up some top-soil to fill in some of the divots.