Midphase landing in the misty-rainy conditions. Dave's, Paul's and Russ' cars in the distance. Note the yellow blur - Mark Philips in his highly visible yellow jacket!!!!

Shot of Inanda dam from the midphase.....Dave flying just off the left leading edge of midphase

Russ....flying the midphase has his eye on Dave.....dead ahead.....

4 Springfield chickens flapped on over.....er....well....actually drove up to Inanda Hill on Saturday 11 December 2010 for a slopie session in the South-wester that showed up.....
Here is an aerial view from the Midphase of the 3 cars on Inanda Hill.......

Springfield remembrance fly and braai

Hi everyone,

When I sent out the first e-mail (Below is the pre-amble), I would never have believed what the result would have been. Three modellers who touched our lives in different ways, Pete and his amazing scale planes, Arthur and his engineering abilities for his original scale helicopters and that out and out affable character, Lynn. I believe everyone of us who came out of the woodwork yesterday was there because of our PAL's. To name a few, Gary Boase, Mike Thompson, Hynie, Fred and Rose, it was awesome to see you folks "Topside".

Ok, so we didn't get to Inanda Mountain, but Will's Hill was certainly second best option, (I learnt yesterday that Ziggy and William discovered this "Mountain", Ideas for a new name, please),.
It was magic to see so many people gather and enjoy the lift, if you didn't enjoy flying, at least the company was good.

Where to next? I propose that we set up the same get together every 3 months, using the option that we excercised yesterday between Inanda and Will's Hill, that helps balance the travelling for Johan and the PMB lads,

Thoughts PLEEEEEEZE!

I would like to thank Johan and Wi-Fly (sms's) for helping me drive yesterday's event, and to those who didn't pitch, sorry, but you missed out on and awesome day,

Till next time
Russ

Oh, please forward any all the your pictures to dave.greer@monteaglegroup.com and to me twsc@mweb.co.za, I would like to get a montage printed for our PAL"S families.

Paul please titles your contributions ;-)

SkyLark flown from this field - Sedgefield, near Knysna

Sharkie says black and white is right!

Mark confounded us again with the adage that anything will fly with enough grunt. Flew perfectly on the teeny tailerons, just needing a burst of throttle in the turns to counter the ducted fan unit blanking (as Kelvin explained). Turn the video below sound up for the fan howl and peanut gallery commentary. The glorious weather and successful maiden flight hopefully a good omen ahead of the Curry Cup final later on today - Viva Sharks!

Springfield Chickens Remembrance Day Fly and Braai

Hi everybody,

I have talked about it, pondered about it, and last night I talked myself into doing it.

"Springfield Chickens Remembrance Day Fly and Braai"

As you are all aware, we lost three special aeromodellers this year in Peter Milne, Arthur Pienaar and Lynn Bowen, it is time to get together and celebrate these gentlemen.

The inaugural event will be held on Saturday 13 th November 2010, Sunday 14th being the backup day, at the awesome "Inanda Mountain Slope Resort" (The Lodge still has to be built, nudge nudge wink wink). This special place has lots of options, the main one being Wow factor and at 2200 feet above sea level, we are a lot closer to our mates! Parking is not a problem and the slope works for just about every southerly direction, how do I know it will blow Southerly?
Pete, Arthur and Lynn will arrange for it to be Southerly.

Directions
The drive to to top is a simple one and I suggest that we meet at the Sasol on the M25, Kwa Mashu road at 10 in the morning, the route is on tar (31 km) all the way and very quick.


What do I need to do?
1. Bring a plane, anything that can fly off a slope
2. Bring a piece of your favourite protein to slap on a braai
3. Saama rules say "No Booze and Fly", I know we will save the yellow coke till after we have flown, a big please on this one chaps
4. Bring a chair, preferably with a drinks holder in the armrest
5. And lastly, bring a story that some of us don't know about "The Awesome Threesome"

I need your Cell numbers and if you can notify me if you are in or out, I will supply rolls based on conformation of numbers attending. Please tell a friend, bring family, they will not believe the View, our Blog pictures tell the story, but to stand on the top and look around is something that makes you go wow.

Lets make this special and remember our PAL's (Pete,Arthur, Lynn).
Russ Conradt
0828227887

Third time still lucky at Inanda Ziggy mountain

It took a couple of cell calls from Russ to convince yours truly that it was worth a trip up the mountain for the iffy wind yesterday, but this spot came up trumps again, despite the hazy view and fickle wind. In fact, on arriving home, I was amazed that we had achieved any flying at all!

Russ's new "Shongi" aerobat stole the show but Allan Rumney and Mike also had a ball with their Bee foamy wings and Johan had to be a bit more careful with the Limit EX. All managed some useful flying at various times as the thermals were huge. It was a real chance to try out the Le Coq HLG slopie (in pic behind Allan's foamy glider) in lift with zero wind impact and was easily this light weight's best session ever. This site has potential!

Tragic passing of another Springfield stalwart

We were shocked to hear that Lynn Bowen died whilst out on his motor bike, Sunday last. Lynn was one of the regulars during the golden years of Springfield and always there with soaring buddy Heinie. He also enjoyed flying his power Acro Wot at the Cato Manor club. Lynn had recently started his sloping again, after a visit to Volksies and some flying sessions with John. Never a cross word to anyone and a legendary proponent of the Russ Springfield inverted turn, which I used to watch in amazement but could never get my head around achieving. Lynn will be missed by all of us.

Change of direction to NE at Will Hill

After enjoying two magic sessions at the Ziggy Inanda SW sites, it was logical to explore the Umgeni valley further from the NE perspective. Like Ziggy with the SW site, Will had also long enthused about this North East slope. I am not sure if it was the onset of flu or the sheer steepness but I got vertigo like never before and had to decline launching Johan's Limit EX! Allan Rumney was first off with a Zagi but, as it typical with NE slopes on hot days, there were huge thermals but also equally nasty patches of sink! Lucky Allan had his climbing boots on and was later able to enjoy some magic flying with his other craft. The first pic is from the right side of the huge bowl and a look to the far side suggests this slope is not for the faint hearted. Probably the first time I have enjoyed doing perpetual Cuben Eights and Double Immelmans with the Macro! Things got smoother and more consistent as the afternoon wore on and Bill Williams, Will Cranmer and Marco joined us just as things began tapering off altogether. Another awesome KZN coastal mountain top venue and the local crows took a shine to flying formation with Johan's little Limit EX, probably because they were bigger than the Limit EX!

Return to Isivinini (Ziggy) slope mountain

I must confess to gaining a whole new respect for these Windguru type wind forecasting systems, having always regarded Kzn coastal sloping as totally opportunistic and bereft of any planning by weather. Johan Moelich's sms surprised me Saturday and a quick look online confirmed a Sunday SW blow on the way, certainly not apparent from the Saturday weather. I suspect this sms system also explains the recent popularity of the Winston SW slope, given that we seem to be be starved of decent weekend NE blows, of late. After me panicking over my own quite correct directions and going astray for a while, we arrived at the top in sunny and pleasant weather. Again, the wind still top deck made the first launches a bit tentative but all were soon having a great time and Will even found a DS spot to one side - the speeds were quite amazing and how the plane stands the loads even more so. Johan explored another route via the dam road on the way home and found it is indeed shorter for the Hillcrest folk to travel that way. Russ's homework revealed that the locals call the mountain "Isivinni" (big blow).

I believe this will remain a "day trip" group outing slope, with most of the Hillcrest folk still preferring the convenience of the short distance to Winston for sport flying. Well worth the effort though!