Springfield Soaring Blog

RIP Sheldon Mcglone

2012-01-11T08:52:00.003+02:00

Sheldon passed away at last night after a battle with, to use his Facebook term, the big C. The whole Durban aero modelling community sends its condolences to Pam and the boys.

I first came in contact with Shel at DMAC in the '70's and then, apart from a brief visit from Shel and his Pivierre thermal glider, met up with him from time to time at the various hobby exhibitions where the modular model trains mob also displayed. Sheldon got really big in to small model trains and RC racing yachts!

Russ and Sheldon became an item at the various DMAC thermal soaring competitions in recent years, where he started with a two metre glider and progressed to a couple of electric thermal gliders and then a more serious "Shadow" competition RC soaring glider, where he enjoyed much success. Russ also got Sheldon involved in the evening foamy flying at Kings Park and Sheldon certainly had maximum value out of that little plane.

Good buddies are as important as family and Russ saw this last journey of Shel's through, with Pam and family. Russ even coaxed Sheldon out of his sick bed to go hobby shopping a few short weeks ago and Sheldon reciprocated by coaxing Russ in to the new no go (for Russ ;-) hobby emporium in Westville!

http://www.facebook.com/sheldon.mcglone

An early mention of the Mcglones at DMAC in 1974

The team orange Witblitz racing team of Dave, Adrian and buddies Russ and Sheldon.

The man himself relaxing at Summerveld.

Sheldon with his foamy park flier - probably the best aero modelling value ever!

Sheldon with the Shadow competition glider at Karkloof Country Club.

KZN slopers doing it for themselves

2012-01-09T09:36:00.001+02:00

This one specially for the "builder of the model" rule fan, John Monk ;-)

Much as I am relieved to have some molded slopers available for us less building gifted slope fliers, I have much respect for those folk building their own. One of the great features of the Two Oceans annual aerobatic competition has been the success of folk like Mark Wolffe and Steve Meusel in achieving excellent results using low tech and home crafted models.

It is thus great to see the Durban area top slope pilots Michel Leusch and Russ Conradt doing some build your own creations ahead of TOSS 2012. Russ reported a successful maiden flight of his new "Quest" at Springfield yesterday and we look forward to seeing Michel's new beast in action soon.

Michel's biggie sloper planform

Finishing touches still ongoing for Michel's beastie

Underside of Russ's new "Quest" SD8020 section sloper

Russ with "Quest" at the successful maiden flight - Toksix influence!

The combo we look forward to seeing fly in due course.

v1 rocket

2012-01-04T09:40:00.002+02:00

Now listen here, children...... ;-)

2011-12-27T15:20:00.004+02:00

Was watching Coach Rudi yesterday at Switchblade, immediately starting practice on the basic loops, rolls and Immelman turns, after maidening the new Cleopatra Fish and the mob having left.

It then dawned on me that the Durban team was for the fourth year in a row squandering valuable practice time, aided and abetted by those who should know better, old hands Dave and Russ. Certainly no excuse about weather either, probably the best winds in a couple of decades.....

Yes it is a great weekend away in perfect slope conditions with like minded people and results secondary but a bit of encouragement from Adi saw fifteen minutes of practice turn the tricky alternating role from a disaster to something relatively reasonable - it certainly helps ease the stress if you know what to do before the time!

A flu relapse had precluded this week's Jo'burg trip but cabin fever and a rare power failure drove yours truly out the home to seek medicine and plot this simple exercise, to gently prod the folk along.

A half dozen of the most reasonable (personally) option manoeuvres were selected and some manual cut and past saw the mandatory manoeuvres stuck on one A4 page and the "reasonable" options stuck on another A4 page, with the total A3 then shrunk down on to A4 and heat laminated for feathers, per the pics below. The logic for my expert class was to exclude the masochistic four point rolling circle and eight point roll and then work backwards from highest K factor. The reason for putting six options instead of four options on the back page was so that six could be practiced and the final four determined just before the event.

The logic on the extra practice routine was because I had been fortunate at the last minute to be talked out of the simple looking but damn tricky inverted flat eight by Russ and Michel a couple of years ago, as some of the Toss locals showed in running out of down elevator and space!

This same red herring inverted flat eight manoeuvre shows up again in Sportsman where again the newbies might be tempted, so thought it worth doing a similar exercise for the Sportsman class, where I would likely be guiding a couple of folk. The outside stall turn and 3 turn spin joined the inverted flat eight on the scrap heap, along with the below eight K factor too simple and cheap options.

This left seven option manoeuvres to practice with the theory that the more hot stick folk like Dean start with the higher K factor stuff at the bottom and the clubbies like Rudi and Mark aim from the top of the shortened list with lower but still useful K factor stuff. All theory and all are obviously welcome to do their own thing - the sheets will be there if you wish to give it a whirl, though :-)

Rough cut and paste before shrinking

The final product, heat shrunk in A5, mandatory front and option back

The scan versions here for any folk who may like to do their own printed of same:

TOSS 2012 Dave suggested Sportsman practice

TOSS 2012 Dave Expert class practice

A look at the other freebase half pipe compo suggests it will suffer from the same K factor thing of a couple of years ago, where a very average high K factor score still blitzed a well flown medium K factor. I have not a clue how to approach that event, should be quite a giggle...... ;-)

The real deal Black Eagle

2011-12-19T08:12:00.000+02:00

Simon Nelson and family took these amazing pics at a bird park, whilst on holiday in the Drakensberg, last week:

Mid week madness!

2011-12-14T06:57:00.002+02:00

Springfield may not be a Switchblade or Inanda but it remains a magic after work slope spot - as Grant, Dean, Simon VL, Guy, Morne and Dave found last night. Dean and Simon managed to nail the Coke bottle once each and Grant must be dizzy from all the side to side attacks at same..... ;-)

Just a couple of cell pics, Dean's LED equipped Radian Pro keeping going well in to the darkness!

Slopers out and about on the weekend

2011-12-12T15:17:00.011+02:00

Despite the BBM moans, we are having a pretty good sloping Summer and the mob headed up to Switchblade on Saturday. Newbie Simon Vacy-Lyle was under Ant's wing and Morne had his newly finished Ninja to test fly, then gave friend (also) Simon some flying lessons. The normal suspects Travis, Grant, Luke, Russ, Dean and Rudi were all in attendance and tearing up the mountain as always. Yours truly had a scare again with the bind on Sharkie and opted out thereafter but was kept busy when oldie Dave Hooker and Alfred arrived with Phase 6 and Middle Planes to be wrung out. Guy and Dave Botterill popped in for a short while to take in the action. Most impressive plane for me was Travis's pocket rocket Swift glider - just as kick down fast as the electric version!

All in all a pleasant afternoon was had by all. The six pack of beer award goes the Dean for the first of the newbie wing fliers to achieve a "reverse Sutherland" (half outside loop coming downwind - close to the pilot's nose!) and was wise enough to keep the outside half loop smooth and large with no flicking - well done Dean, name the beer brand!

Sunday saw yours truly headed for Kingsburgh in pleasant e-fly weather conditions to take in the last chance practice ahead of the TOSS event in January. May make no difference to the TOSS result but been great fun doing the learning curve and was chuffed to crack the sixties in terms of percent result, The determined Simon Vacy Lyle found his way down there just in time for the final flights of the experts and was quite taken with the power flying.

This Dean pic says it all, "there is nothing like standing on Switchblade (or Inanda ;-) and slope flying!"

Luke's new speed freak plane just launched, Grant Dean and Russ looking on.

Morne teaching helicopter friend Simon the joy of slope soaring!

Simon and Morne display Morne's kit built Ninja after successful maiden flight -worth all the hard work!

Luke "play DS'ing" as the mist close in and we all head home.

Could not resist adding the Kingsburgh sea view pics from Colin Addis - oh for some Kzn on the coast slope sites!

Complete change of pace for this Springfielder, flying the pattern league round at Kingsburgh for some TOSS practice.

Another special reminder from Colin of the magic day and how photographs fib - could slope a Gentle Lady though ;-)

Pattern Day Results

Dec 11th 2011

At Kingsburgh Model Aircraft Club

The next event is pattern coaching by Ivan Olivier at the Howick field on Jan 7th and 8th. The next Pattern round is on Jan 22nd at the Valley club.

Judges

Des Cooper, Bruce Clark, Ian Morris

SPORTSMAN
		Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Av of best 2
1	Steven v Niekerk	47,8	66,4	65,8	66,1
2	Dave Greer	59,6	63,9	63,9	63,9
3	Colin Addis	55,5	61,7	62,9	62,3
4	Gijs Wijgers	56,8	58,9	59,9	59,4
5	Stan Hausmann	54,6	60,0	57,3	58,7
6	Lionel Smith	21,9	55,9	53,9	54,9

MASTERS

1	Mark Savage	67,2	70,8	69,1	69,8
2	Arthur Eggar	56,1	63,0	67,9	65,45

F3A

1	Jason Barker	75,5 P	76,8 P	69,4 F	76,2
2	Neil Allen	64,5 P	63,2 P	66,1 P	65,3
3	John Dorse	59,4 P	64,9 P	64,1 P	64,5

This was our first look at the Kingsburgh club's new field at Umkomaas, which has only been in use for four months. With a brilliant view from the top of a hill overlooking the sea and the village, and good facilities, it was very successful. The pattern line we set up was not parallel to any runway or other feature, and some pilots struggled to find the correct box to fly in. The runways also required accurate flying to land on, which kept people on their toes.

Despite gloomy forecasts from Windguru of rain and wind, just the same as at our previous event, we had a stunningly good sunny day with gentle breezes. Some modellers said that it was the first time in months that they had seen their plane against a blue background.

Thank you to our two regular judges Des and Bruce, with Ian Morris joining them, for a sterling bit of work.

In Sportsman Speedy van Niekerk got his act together for rounds 2 and 3 to end up on top, with Dave Greer proving that flying slope soarers does make you a better pilot. Colin and Gijs put in a solid performance. Stan left his large plane in the car, and flew a small one instead. Lionel Smith of control line fame entered Novice, as he had not tried pattern before. When he saw that he was the only entrant he bravely went for the much more difficult Sportsman class instead, and flew well when he worked out what to do.

Mark and Arthur did good flights in the Masters class, particularly when Arthur got to grips with the flightline.

Jason gave us a good display of what the patterns should look like. I flew my ex John Brink "Superman" with Plettenberg power, and enjoyed its smoothness. John Dorse had a big shake up during the week when a battery pack burned out while flying. He landed his Wind110 quickly enough to save the model when he saw a sudden heavy smoke trail.

Regards

Neil Allen

POSTSCRIPT

Having now enjoyed a few of the pattern leagues in the second half of the year, only armed with a R1275 Diamante, R300 Dualsky 900 watt motor, cheapie ESC and a single 3300ma Hyperion battery, I can attest to just how much fun can be enjoyed in the Sportsman class, for very little cost. Gys Wygers has had similar reward from a Big Stick and Colin Addis from a scratch built Neil Allen design, not to forget Stan's Big Beast. Go on give it a tonk, you may surprise yourself and have just as much fun! Cheers Dave.

Springfield comes to the rescue

2011-11-21T10:42:00.002+02:00

There were some very frustrated slopers on the BBM group through the misty and rainy Saturday - the grand plan being to visit Switchblade for the forecast NE on Sunday. Travis reported back mid Sunday morning that Switchblade was still shrouded in the inland mist and fearless leader Russ made the call to switch to Springfield, which turned out an inspired decision as more and more folk keep cruising in all afternoon!

The Springfield shuffle has evolved to a bunch of foamies combating on the front, ala the TOSS and Hermanus mobs, whilst us crunchie flyers played further out and snuck through for the odd "right to left!" from time to time. It was enjoyable to thermal the flying fish Sharkie right back down wind and generally explore the slope.

Gareth was the first to leave his mark on the Springfield pole with his newly refurbished ex Andrew Leusch crunchie - someone please write Gareth's name on the pole with a marker!

Production car race driver Reghard Roets is now one of the hard core BBM slopers and it was a pleasant surprise to have fellow racer, now rally driver, Guy Botterill pop in for a quick decko. Guy has banged his Toko at the mo but will be back.

Foamy fliers Grant and Travis were now studying the various mouldies as the next step up and Mike Smith had a ball with his weasel but decided to keep the Graphite for another day.

Not to forget the successful maiden flight of Rudi's "PE special" Corex Mig.

Russ unfortunately lost his Ash right down the bottom of the slope and there are many offers of assistance to locate to today, such is the comradeship and pulling power of the BBM group calls for magic afternoons like this.

Travis said it best with this BBM post afterwards: "Awesome day guys. Thanks for introducing me to another WICKED spot. Had a lot of fun today thank you."

Mike, Travis and Grant sporting the latest designer T shirts.

The original car park of vehicles with "the pole" - kept filling up all afternoon.

Russ, Grant, Travis, Michel, Mike and Dean just enjoying flying.

Young Thomas in foreground (Russ's nephew) learnt on a simulator and said to Russ in his own words "I haven't had so much fun in ages!"

Some of the sky occupied by foamies and birds.

Andre, Brendon, Gareth, Grant, Michel, Travis, Reghard and Dean

The evergreen Dennis Bird flying his "twinkle roll" Kipper.

There was even a "rent a crowd" bunch of locals spectating.

The gorgeous Fox, Michel flew it a treat.

Brendon's colourful e-wing.

Travis and Brendon ballasting up the single tiplet wing.

Michell's Swift still awesome on slope power alone!

Almost looks like a pylon 1 race turn ;-)

Some of Russ's pics from the Karkloof aerotow day

2011-11-19T11:39:00.000+02:00

Quadcopter FPV at La Mercy lagoon

2011-11-18T08:11:00.003+02:00

Another FPV flight with my quadcopter, this one was flown at La Mercy Lagoon north of Durban.

Russ "Russel's up" aero tow interest at Karkloof

2011-11-14T08:49:00.000+02:00

Some pictures taken at the Karkloof Country Club on 13 November. The main focus was on aerotowing large scale model gliders. The weather was less than ideal with 10/10 low cloud. Fortunately there was no rain. The event was well attended and everyone had fun.

Cheers for now.

Dennis

more e practice for Toss 2012 slope aerobatics

2011-11-14T08:41:00.001+02:00

Reminder - next pattern day is Dec 11th. Venue to be confirmed.

KZN Pattern Day

6 Nov 2011

Howick MFC

Judges

Des Cooper, Bruce Clark, Mike Cox

RESULTS

(Percentages)

NOVICE

Rd Rd2 Best

1 Angus McInnes 55,0 62,0 62,0

SPORTSMAN

1 Lynton Milner 58,6 61,7 61,7

2 Stan Hausmann 61,6 60,4 61,6

3 Dave Greer 57,7 60,5 60,5

4 Steven v Niekerk 52,8 58,1 58,1

5 Colin Addis 54,8 55,4 55,4

6 Leon Coetzee 43,0 54,0 54,0

MASTERS

1 Mark Savage 63,1 66,1 66,1

2 Arthur Eggar 54,8 57,4 57,4

3 Clive McInnes 57,0 56,1 57,0

4 Alex v d Spuy - 55,0 55,0

F3A

1 Jason Barker 69,0 (P) 69,0 (F) 69,0

2 Neil Allen 65,2 (P) 56,8 (P) 65,2

COMMENTS

Windguru was emphatic that there would be no flying all weekend because of drizzle, but fortunately for us it was wrong, and we had cold but flyable weather even with some blue skies, until 2 pm. Thirteen entrants, many from Durban, were so keen on entering that they braved the grotty day they saw from their homes! Our entries are now growing bigger, and I think we will start future rounds at 8 instead of 9 to accommodate this.

The new A12 pattern for Masters was a big hit. Everyone liked the gracefulness of this, and its level of difficulty. The F3A pilots also approved of the new P13, and Jason liked the chance to fly the choice of P or F for round 2. There were no entrants in Advanced. Time will tell if people want to move up to this from Sportsman, or perhaps they may prefer to jump up two steps to the Masters class, which is well supported.

In Novice we were pleased to have Angus McInnes do a good job, and get 62%.

Sportsman was led by Lynton Milner, who is not yet quite used to flying the glo powered "Venus" he acquired from Ian Morris, but still came top. Second place was a welcome new face to the pattern scene, Stan Hausmann from the Umhlanga club, flying his large scale "Beast", after only a few practice flights of our pattern. Dave Greer surprised us with his neat flying of his small electric "Diamante".

In Advanced Mark Savage flew a new "Wind S" 2m into an excellent 66%. The others are still getting up to speed on the new pattern. Alex borrowed my plane for the last round, and flew it without a test flight.

In F3A Jason astonished us by not only getting in a good P pattern, but had managed to learn the very difficult F pretty thoroughly as well in only four weeks! This bodes well for his serious push to try for team selection for the 2013 World Champs. Jason and Arthur have both got new 2m "Wind S" planes, which are not yet trimmed out to compete, making this design the plane of choice it seems.

Thank you very sincerely judges for your long travel to get to the event, and thank you Howick MFC for giving us a bowling green smooth grass runway, and a very welcome braai.

Neil Allen

Just out and about

2011-11-04T15:53:00.002+02:00

Stan with the smaller end of the spectrum SBach

Stan then with his bigger end of the spectrum, the "Beast" at Umhlanga Flyers

Michel at Umhlanag Flyers inverted prop hanging the Flightpro Yak 55

Springfield slope's imposing new addition......

The BBM slopies group Grant enjoying his first Springfield after work fly

Winston slope - Arthur's natty Canterbury wing

Arthur with blast from past Tim Kinsey and his new Multiplex Exeno wing

Nothing fishy about this Sharkie......

2011-10-06T09:31:00.011+02:00

After trying them all, nothing as good as diamond white top with flashes.

The magic contrast hinge open side well sealed and mega movement

Even in the sundown light, the diamond white finish backs Sharkie magic.

Nothing better than a sun downer flight at Zigginanda!

Sharkie text developed from "The" of the "The Sharks" - note the NvS sticker.

After sampling the Minivec first flight, it was realised that other sloper non mouldie grand plans were out the window, including an updated Ghostbuster for the Summer evening light fly sessions. The Luke and Michel Flight Pro "Flying Fish" offered all the wing area of the Ghostbuster, along with the simple uncluttered fuselage and tail end, so it was a slam dunk decision.

The weather finally permitted a mid week afternoon rush to the Inanda slope in idylic weather, yesterday. The 4:05pm Umhlanga departure through virtually no traffic hindrance (surprisingly) meant arrival at the slope 40 minutes later.

It had been decided to stay with the Andy Ellison throw options and CG at 91mm from LE. There was instant realisation on launch that is was fine for the Ellison/Leusch/Conradt nimble fingers but yours truly would be more happy closer to Luke's recommended 85mm from LE. A dive test revealed a dead straight dive that would have finished in the dam so Andy spot on but not my preference, which is for the gentle climb out.

Andy's max aileron throw (12mm up 10mm) was perfect all round, with the slight differential kicking the stall turn over nicely. Aileron low rate was wishy-washy, mode 2 pilots only need apply there ;-). Elevator on the other hand was much nicer on the low rate (5mm each way), given the critical CG setting.

The plane was sweet to fly in the conditions, obviously the slight dihedral etc precluded Minivec rachet aerobatics (not my intention) but it was still damn good and will benefit even more with a 150 to 200 grams permanent ballast on the future CG. With the light inertia, one had to pull harder over the top of the large loops or the beastie would happily float away to the sunset, inverted.

Those who have flown Zigginanda in light conditions will know just how uncannily quiet it is so it was quite shock to hear a wap, wap, wap and a huge whoosh as a predator bird zoomed past my left shoulder, intent on having Sharkie for dinner. Luckily the predator lost interest after trying to follow though a couple of huge loops, although he gave looping a really good try.

Landing was a doddle on the Andy recommended 11mm spoileron reflex with 2mm down elevator compensation. I had gone with short servo arms for maximum resolution but would opt for longer arms, just short of the cover tops, to keep the push rod parallel with the wing surface and minimise any "going around the corner" binding on full aileron and full spoileron combined. I had previously set up the the braking only on low aileron rates so no big deal there but worth noting for those interested.

I have not one single criticism of the model - the plane was a pleasure to assemble (what little there was) and everything fitted perfectly. Having saved by using some cheapy Turnigy metal gear sub micros from Flight Pro on ailerons, I lashed out extra on a pricey HS65 MG for pitch and that, coupled with the (thanks Russ) Craig Baker trick of super glue and micro balloons on the elevator horn hole released by the oiled push rod, meant zero slop, magic! The only change I made was to lay the servo on its side on a ply platform, which meant the piano wire snake ran down and was epoxied to the side of the fuselage and left ALL the room for the ballast area. A useful change as the supplied servo tray places the servo in the center, rather than off to one side, which other reviewers have mentioned as well.

The maiden flight quickly gobbled up a half hour and I landed at 5:25pm, conscious of getting home in day light. Again the traffic waters amazingly parted and I was back in Umhlanga at 6:05pm - a useful two hour round trip but not one I would want to repeat too often so next stop Springfield in the mid week NE ;-)

An excellent buy at the asking price from Flight Pro and I am sorted for the Summer!

FPV Quadcopter flying

2011-10-03T10:17:00.004+02:00

Here's my first recorded videos of the weekend's FPV quadcopter flying. For those who don't know, FPV stands for First Person View, where I fly from a live video feed sent from the quadcopter, which I then view through video goggles on the ground. It's as if I'm sitting inside the aircraft.

The first video was at Umhlanga Radio Flyers Club, and the second was north of Durban at Beachbums Backpackers. The wind was blowing strong this weekend so the video is a bit bumpy, but it was fun!

Famous

2011-09-25T06:10:00.003+02:00

An American friend of mine sent me this page from "Quiet & Electric Flight" Magazine.... I got a bit of a shock! Finding myself in the famous RC magazine. Anyway - pretty cool, just sad that this aerie is in the big aerie graveyard in the sky...

N v S results hot off the press

2011-09-19T14:59:00.024+02:00

North v South CONTEST RESULTS (Top 2 results gave the trophy to Kzn)

Aerobatics

1. 78.90% Michel Leusch (Minivec)

2. 71.92% Russ Conradt (Shongiloma)

3. 71.68% Christo le Roux (Aldij)

4. 71.45% Dave Greer (Minivec)

5. 69.17% Kev Farr (Vector 3)

6. 64.56% Jeff Steffen (Aldij)

7. 61.95% Simon Nelson (OD Weaver)

8. 57.11% Ryan Nelson (OD Weaver)

Second to fourth separated by less than 0.5%!

4 ZAGI BY 4 LAP RACING:

1. Michel Leusch (Jeff Steffen's Zagi)

2. Luke Johnstone

The competitor count is a reflection of the hard core folk who hung in to the bitter end on Sunday, rather than the surprisingly large number of folk who attended over the three days (14 initial contest entries). Friday was bliss SW practice time at Inanda, Saturday wind strong but lift light and Sunday at Switchblade downright Berg wind challenging! Simon's bright idea of the Zagi x 4 racing generated a dozen or so racers who had a blast, a useful idea for keeping things ticking along during "non aerobatic" air.

Reports and lotsa pics will follow on the Toss and this blog, keep a watch out. Special mention must be made of Russ's huge time, money and stress input to the event (not to forget Mandy and Kelly Conradt's magic hospitality), along with Dennis Bird for CD support for Sunday - as well as Luke and Dean for judging. Ever cheerful Adi Critten and Rudi Smook made it all that bit more special. Our appreciation to Tosser's Jeff Steffen, Christo le Roux and Kev Farr for flying up from the Cape for the three days - they have promised a bigger mob for next year, to wrest the trophy back from the Sharkies!

Pics taster:

The Saturday folk play.

Kobus & Christo admire the view.

Some of the Saturday cars.

Russ Conradt made it happen!

Kev Farr and the yellow Zagi.

Mr Ziggi at Nanda - note view!

Ziggi, Chris and Dean.

The aggressive Toss team logo!

Simon's one week OD Weaver.

Some of the mob playing on the Berg wind NW side of Switchblade.

Judges Dean and Luke.

The folk who stuck it out to the very end, late Sunday at Switchblade.

The magic trophy, which the North is not going to easily relinquish!

North v South slope challenge info

2011-09-14T15:32:00.003+02:00

Here is the crib schedule of manoeuvres off the scoring program for the aerobatics part of the slope challenge weekend. A nice range of "non scary-complex" manoeuvres suited to Kzn slope conditions.

Start times are never cast in stone for slope events but Russ's Saturday intention is to meet at the Sasol at 9am for a 10am arrival at the slope. This may vary so please keep in touch with Russ on 0828227887.

For those not used to the route, meet with the convoy at the Sasol garage at the Kwamashu turnoff from the N2/North Coast intersection or follow these excellent Google directions, courtesy of Johan Moelich:

Map with directions

Map with intersection mini maps

Map with intersection photographs

Johan's original Google link

Sneak peek ahead of North v South slope challenge

2011-09-09T17:20:00.003+02:00

The local lads are looking forward to Russ's next week (17/18 September) slope aerobatic challenge against the three Two Oceans Slope Soaring (TOSS) lads coming up from the Cape. A recent brief window of opportunity saw a couple Minivec slope aircraft arrive in Durban and the race now on to have these ready for the event. Mark got to experience the maiden flight in excellent slope conditions at Ziggy-nanda this afternoon. This amazing aircraft was not only a dream to assemble but also completely blew us away on its maiden flight. A vice-less pussycat for relative novice Mark but on rails for aerobatic work, with an energy retention that was stunning..... Mark was quickly trying things he had never experimented with on the slope before. He had followed the instructions implicitly and there was not a single peep of trim needed to any single control surface! Everything else we own slope wise is now instantly redundant - kudos to James the Hambone for the stunning design and the China factory for building it so right.

Yours truly has always been negative about slope aircraft with fully symmetrical sections ever working on the Kzn slopes, well that theory was well and truly proved dead wrong, the effortless way that the craft cuts through the air shows just how clean and accurate is the only way forward, remarkable.....

A visit to Umhlanga club for e flight

2011-09-09T17:05:00.005+02:00

Activity at the college had Johan and Dave pay a visit to the Umlanga club field near Hazelmere dam, instead, where a pleasant morning's flying was had with George and Stan, which were quite taken with Johan's quad copter now being flown remotely from the onboard camera by Johan through the glasses. The picture from the teeny camera was remarkable and Johan's confidence grew with each flight. Also impressive for us was Stan's large scale Pilatus that flew immaculately and had such presence in the sky, it could be mistaken for the real thing! Complete with retractable undercarriage and flaps.

Neil Allen's KZN July pattern monthly report

2011-07-28T11:40:00.004+02:00

[The report and scores as promised in the more personal report:

http://springfieldchickens.blogspot.com/2011/07/e-sportsman-aerobats-at-kzn-pattern.html

with thanks to Neil]

KZN Pattern Round Results

July 24th 2011. A League round (which counts towards qualifying for the Masters event)

Held at DMAC Gromor field

Judges

Des Cooper, Fred Wilkinson, Bruce Bell, Johan Britz, Mike Cox, Colin Addis. Thank you for your help.

The results are tabled in this pdf file above. This scoring work was very well done by Fred Wilkinson. Fred is also interested in tabulating the results per judge, to send in to Ivan Olivier, to have our judges nationally graded.

This will be very useful to us, as when we have a provincial event, which we may well do in mid 2012, we will have qualified judges who live in our province. This reduces the costs and hassle of an event drastically. Also, our judges can be graded and promoted with time, and can become National judges and perhaps even International judges. Note that at the 2011 World Aerobatic Champs S.Africa have Bob Skinner as one of the three jury members, and Christo Rust as one of the 18 judges. No other country has more than this.

It is interesting to see that Fred has evolved into our "stricter" judge. We all know that it doesn't matter for one contest whether a judge scores high or low, as long as he is consistent and places the flyers in the correct order. Fred is quite correctly grading by the stricter judging as done nationally in S.A., particularly for the higher classes. I have just seen the first round scores at the 2011 World Champs, and note that Christophe Paysant LeRoux has got only 79%, and all three of our S A guys got 63%. So that means that even our national standards are too generous for international events.

Comments

A fantastic entry of 16 pilots hits a new record! With the pilots getting into the air in slick succession we managed three rounds, a braai, and finished by 3:00pm. Pilots needing to get away early were fitted in easily. We were lucky with the weather, as the day after the event was gales, floods and snow. There was some wind early on, but the F3A and Masters pilots took the brunt of this.

A lovely venu, and a sociable braai - thanks to DMAC and Clive Gager in particular.

Novice

We were delighted to have Eike have his first very competent try at pattern, quite appropriately with a Matt designed Saphir from 20 years ago. Clive has flown once before, and used his large scale petrol plane, to get the top score 0,6 percent ahead.

Sportsman

Speedy van Niekerk managed to get away long enough from fixing helicopters for the Durban Port, to get back on his Nats form, and break 60%, as did Lynton. Colin and Dave were just behind, with very good flying from Dave Greer with his .25 size electric Diamante doing his first try at this class. It had astonishing vertical performance, but I think he psyched himself out of doing a proper stall turn by declaring in advance that it wouldn't do one!

Advanced

Johan de Lange flew with us for the last we will see of him before going to Saudi for a two year stint. His 2m Osmose was flown excellently. Arthur was less than a percent behind, and when he can get the distance flown correct, he will be as good or better. Clive, Alex and Ian all got over 60%

Masters

John was the only entry, with his 110 size electric Siebart WindS, and did well.

F3A

It is such a pleasure to have Jason to compete against in this class. He got a 68%, and I flew much better without my Nats nerves. We were both flying 2m electric planes.

Distance

None of our 16 flyers flew too far out. A small number of the pilots, such as Johan, flew the right distance out, and it is no coincidence that his score was very high. A 2 metre plane should be flown 140 to 170 metres away from the pilot, and a smaller plane proportionally less far out, so that it looks about the same. Nearly everybody else flew MUCH closer in than that. I know that when a plane gets very far out it is not so easy to see if the wings are level in flight. But just try and get used to seeing it further out. You may be surprised that you can let it go for a bit with level wings, even if you cannot see it as well as you would like. Certainly on a windy day you are going to find it totally impossible to exit from one turnaround manoeuvre, fly straight and level for a short while, do three rolls downwind, then another little straight and level, then do an end box manoeuvre if you are only 100 metres away. Give it some practice and try.

Regards

Neil Allen

Experimenting with movies from recent posts

2011-07-27T11:51:00.003+02:00

Rather than using up blog space, I am trying linking to these slightly bigger than normal movies at 3 and 5 megs respectively. It would otherwise make the movie very small if staying under 2 meg.

The first is Luke's foamy pusher at the recent Ziggynanda slope fly in, worth winding up the sound ;-)
http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z315/iti20090/?action=view¤t=pusherfoamy.mp4

This is Johan's quad taking off at parkie flying.
http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z315/iti20090/?action=view¤t=Johanquad1.mp4

e Sportsman aerobats at Kzn Pattern monthly

2011-07-25T09:45:00.010+02:00

Whew, quite a weekend of e-flying, starting with Saturday early morning with Johan and Paul at Umhlanga, then off to Gromor for some flight orientation for the pattern monthly at same on Sunday. Paul is enjoying his Bug-e electrified R75 foamy and coming along nicely with it, shown at max concentration in the first pic.

Did not start well for yours truly as it was evident that the Dualsky driven Diamante had lost some of it's awesome grunt, almost like dropping from four cells to three but could be any of the three components. A quick call to the LHS revealed no spare battery, so it was a simple case of pressing on as is or risk the title of "chicken"..... ;-)

Progress with the Diamante had been spotty as your truly just could not resolve tearing out the undercarriage with regular monotony, which had put a damper on regular practice. It look some well glued in doublers by Russ, coupled with four mini self tapping screws and a lightweight "soft" carbon undercarriage to finally resolve this a week or two ago. An otherwise excellent sport E craft.

Arrived at Gromor to find Robbie Rowe and his mate Rob about to pack up after some magic flying in the glorious weather. Also blast from the past Gys Wygers, in the pic with Big Stik plane and Rob. Also up there were Ian Morris and Speedy to do some practice, which was a boon as it gave a chance to correct any bad habits from our "blind leading the blind" practice at Umhlanga.

Both Ian and Speedy were most helpful and also helped out with some calling, after a couple of runs. It was clear that I was unused to being instructed by a caller, despite my best efforts to adapt. The other thing was that practice had been on the basis of "flowing" the sequence for best slope style momentum, after all the objective had been to brush up for slope aerobatics, given the iffy Kzn winds over the past couple of years.....

Speedy was armed with the Sebart 110 in the pics and a useful 4th from Nats, so I was starting to feel that maybe I had bitten off a bit too much with my parkie plane against this immaculate, well flown, plane. The weather was so magic, we only departed the field at 2:30pm!

Arrival at the field on Sunday revealed the almost blown off wind sock in the pics and lots of folk gathered around in jackets. Neil's accommodating style of hosting events was again shown in putting up the F3A boffs first in the hectic wind and leaving us Sportman folk till later, when the wind had abated.

I was very, very relieved so see that was in fact quite a cross section of "clubbie" planes and pilots in Sportsman - Gys with Big stick, Colin and Mike with Zeniths, Clive Gager with Cap, and so on. Neil was also chuffed to have a record entry of 16 pilots and a group of new judges to blood. It was also magic to meet up Bruce and Missus from the Kingsburgh club again.

Johan de Lange kindly accepted to call for me and I immediately felt at ease with his calm, non "instructing" style of calling and the first round was completed with some relief despite a hiccup on the roll and completely blowing the stall turn - something that had been anticipated. There were some useful 6's and 7's but zeros and bum scores really hurt the average, so 48% became the start average for my very first Sportsman comp. The second round was pretty more of the same and a marginal increase in average. Fred alias "FW" (not as in Fred Wittstock" ;-) was particularly sobering on the scoring and hammered my wandering out the left edge of the box.

Johan put in some good flights in Advanced and had to leave early, so Arthur Eggar stepped in to call the last round. It is ironic that the only time he bullied me in the whole flight was for the stall turn and it was my first successful stall turn. The stern "right rudder now!" was not to be argued with and worked a treat! Man, it was nice to tot up some scores with no zeros lurking on the sheet and rewarding to have a top judge score of about 62% and lowest of 52%, averaging out at 56%. Does not seem a lot but top dog Speedy and Sebart had managed 59% the first two rounds and only cracked over 60% in the last, so it is tough to break in to the 60's.

All the folk were most encouraging and friendly and I will definitely be back for more, Neil and his hard working team have really put together an excellent formula for what previously seemed an elitist discipline. I would encourage all newbies to add this to their learning curve and it was interesting see Dudley watching most of the event and will no doubt be giving it a whirl at some stage.

Apologies for the selfish personal blow by blow report , rather than the event itself, but it was very much a big first step for this glider guider in disguise....

Neil's more accurate scoring and report published here:

http://springfieldchickens.blogspot.com/2011/07/neil-allens-kzn-july-pattern-monthly.html

Russ's Ziggynanda fly and braai

2011-07-18T15:41:00.015+02:00

Luke's Flying Fish molded slope flyer

Here's hoping IE9 somehow lets me publish this update...... Russ and Michel "rustled" up a suprisingly big group of folk for Sunday's braai and fly - this as a draft run for maybe getting the Cape lads up for an inter-provincial get together in September. Even the ladies present were quite taken with the pristeen site and idylic view. There were some brand new sloper faces, including the two Riaans, Reghard and Mike. The first Riaan with the gasbag flying above his head in one of the pics and the other with the flyer missus in the pics, which will gladden Michelle Goodie's heart. Reghard's scale Fox from Cloudbase Composites was also great to see.

As twice before, I thought the conditions too iffy to even leave home but was not about to be caught out for a third time - just as well because, although scary light, there was ample lift for the lighter soarers. The new Luke/Michel "Fish" sloper (the dismantled white plane in the pics) almost made a mockery of things by tearing around as if it was e-powered - just shows to go that the clean moulded craft with amazingly well sealed hinge lines is just the ticket, from China. Sean Ollermann had a ball with the smilar e-powered Swift that was scary fast, even with motor off. The third projectile of interest was Luke's foamy with e pusher motor that went like a banshee at 750 bucks complete, barring radio gear. All these available from Luke/Michel.

Johan Moelich even flew in the area behind the cars with his new quad copter and it was magic to see Hilton and Rudi Smook at the slope. Adi was furthest travelled from Port Shepstone and Mike Smith eventually worked up the courage to enjoy a flight with the Graphite 2 metre.

Enthusiasm is infectious and the Pietermaritzburg pair of Johan and Adrian were there bright and early with a bakkie full of slopies!

Ryan Nelson's Multiplex foamy was the only casualty although it took some careful fetching to retrieve the teeny little foamy Cessna which flew pretty well with no prop for pretty much a toy.

Russ finished off a magic afternoon outing by hosting us to a braai at his home, thanks Rascal. There is now talk of every second month, which would be magic.

Johan goes e quad flight

2011-07-18T15:33:00.002+02:00

Johan certainly got the attention of the Saturday morning e folk, along with those present at Inanda slope fly in on Sunday. Mechanically simple but electronically brilliant, this beastie flies ala heli, requiring full attention to keep perspective on which way it faces. Quite fascinating.

Retro slope from Doug Irvine

2011-07-18T14:33:00.002+02:00

"Hi Dave,
I know you've seen this picture before but it would be interesting if you posted it on the a sloping site & see who might be able to connect. It was taken at Kloof, overlooking Westmead Pinetown, late70s early 80s.
Just curious
Doug"

Well, funny enough, I do recall three from the front row, starting with Doug himself and his "Silent Squire", Tony with Amigo 2 and Peter Firbank with the Graupner Cumulus. There is a Ridge Runner also lurking in the back row. Over to Russ and any other that era Kloof golf course flyers to offer up some more names.

Flying Colours

2011-07-12T08:53:00.008+02:00

[Click on pic for full size to read text - Natal Mercury 11 July 2011]

Some decades ago, Neil Allen in the early days of his "Neils Natter" motivated how one really only has oneself to blame if whining about a lack of material or outside support for one's publication. I have always subscribed to Neil's principle in my own efforts, especially for blog writings where one finds there is always a wealth of stuff to publish.

Recent submissions have been scuppered by Vodacom Red having the blues and the cockroach Vodacom Edge being useless for net access. For this bit of history in the making though, I just had to make a special effort to publish, hot off the press!

Michel has burst on the full size aerobatics scene with a couple of wins under his belt already and Russ has been charming us all to go support Michel at the Virginia Airshow this Saturday coming, hardly a hardship.

Despite succeeding at all kinds of flight related contests, Michel, along with another RC power aerobatics exceller, Marc Wolfe, have both been moved to mention to me that they both still like to return to their roots in RC soaring, even after all the heady successes. Kind of says it all for me. ;-)

Another name that also pops out of the magazines after he trounced us Kzn'ers in Toss 2011, is Louis Genade. With these three talents plus the proven Steve Muesel and the wealth of Cape slope skills, one can only gleefully look forward to an awesome TOSS 2012 aerobatics compo. Oh ja, not to forget the magic hospitality and special vibe that goes with it all.

My job is now to bait the Highveld and Eastern Cape in to fielding teams of their own for Toss 2012. It remains to be seen if they have the stones......?

Another fine day at Winston Park slope

2011-07-04T14:58:00.014+02:00

Two canterbury Sailplanes Darts, a CS Eraser and Mike Kirby's own design wing. Those Darts really carve up the sky.

A Weasel Pro looking well used - wish I could find mine - she is still lost somewhere on the Winston slope.

Mike de Lange charging his faithful old Brainstorm. Few slopes offer the convenience of park and fly like Winston does.

A Multiplex Easy Glider waiting to get airborne.

A Stargazer, not sure who it belongs to.

More wings, I think these are Windrider Bees.

Michel was also there flying a Pete Milne designed KISS, on loan from Russell - flew it like he stole it!!

My collection, a Windrider Bat, a dream Flight Weasel Evo and a Cavazos Boomerang. The more conventional plane is Alan's CMPro Kunlun - flies beautifully.

Despite what Windguru was predicting, the actual conditions were favourable for Winston slope, so a few phone calls later and 9 or 10 pilots pitched up to the very convenient Winston Park slope for an afternoon of good flying and the usual banter and bs that goes with it. All the usual suspects were there, plus we had three pilots named Mike present which added to the confusion. Late in the afternoon the wind dropped slightly, and the air smoothed out beautifully and the lift was strong and consistent. A great day at the slope, which made the prospect of work on Monday bearable.

Papa Smurf takes in TOSS PSS 2011

2011-06-22T15:08:00.010+02:00

The Two Oceans PSS 2011 event was blessed with light to medium conditions on the Saturday for the half dozen combat folk and three Sportsman's Light craft - who each got through two rounds of enjoyable scale type aerobatics. Kev's P38 stole the show as always and it was great fun to call the beastie through his flights as well have Kev's more erudite calling for my own flights with the hastily entered ME109 - thanks muchly to Jeff for sorting the required picture off his Ipad! Anton also benefited from some useful calling and placed his Impala in a more standard part of the sky instead of his normal brush the grass affair, to take second behind Kev.

Sunday started wet but was soon pomping and the Sportman's heavy lads got in to action. Marc's Mosquito kinked a wing and Christo's amazing sharkie P51 slipped out of the flat eight turn, something more tricky than one would imagine. Carlo maidened his brand new Spit and promptly took the win, along with the combat award, for overall honours!

Saturday night was normal pleasant Dixies dinner and Sunday finished at the Pizza Parlour in Hout Bay. Pretty much everyone involved got armloads of prizes, with yours truly also getting a DVD from Clowns and Papa Smurf pressie (thanks Steve ;-) for the traveller award. More detailed info will no doubt emerge from the formal sources but mention must be made of enthusiastic judge Kurt, Sergeant Major Bill and Chairman Christo, ably supported by all the ex chairmen Kev, Steve and Jeff. Clubs in general could pay attention to how this team operates.

Yup, I promised Kev there was no way in hell I would travel down for a Winter PSS event but I am now hooked after my second TOSS PSS event, even promising to drag Russ Conradt down in chains for next year's event, which the team are considering tweaking more toward a festival, than formal compo.

On a more personal note, while many continue to miss these magic events and the very special setting, I can only think about how ecstatic PSS fans Michelle Moratanus and Pete Milne would have been to witness same, so it was special to fly the Michelle built ME109 (thanks Dennis) in action and have also promised Pete (in spirit) that wing man Russ WILL be there next year with one of Pete's specials.

More on the micro laser track, Z22 Cape style

2011-06-22T14:19:00.009+02:00

It has been traditional in past Hermanus visits to put together a foamy kit or suchlike during the couple of days pre the event, which oft meant an all night'er given the limited time. It was decided to return to similar ahead of the Two Oceans PSS festival this year but also rather go the option of the micro laser cut kits, which have recently proved great fun and reduced in assembly time. So to the Z22 pitcheron in slope form (also in e-power). 22 means just that, 22 inches only!

God daughter Aquina and I commenced assembly at mid day Thursday on 16 June, youth day, which is topical given her involvement in pinning, assembling and sanding the pre "gear and covering" carcass in the second pic (the ribs are all handily pre numbered). All built on a 30 centimetre bread board purchased for the task and donated to Mommy thereafter. Quite apart from the enjoyment of building something through the efforts of a youngster, the sense of achievement on her part was magic. That took care of the Thursday afternoon.

Her friend Brent joined us for the Friday session and his nimble fingers were a blessing for adding the servo arm holes (using his and her cigarette lighters to heat the wire and poke through the arm ;-) and putting the final bend to the pre bent pushrods - did I mentioned that the kit is complete in every detail, like the previous other two laser kits? Accuracy was scary good, especially in the way the completed wing slid on perfectly to the joiner / incidence control rods.

It was then up to Papa Smurf to gently complete the Solarfilm covering, anything heavier would likely have twisted the wings. The tailplane surfaces had been super glue reinforced after Aquina had sanded them to section, something quite superfluous given the clever ply supports.

Yes, the artistic fuselage shape is vaguely porno in being open to the elements but the manufacturer had originally opted not to carry the sexy shaping through to the closed fuselage bigger Z33 and Z55 inch versions, although this has now been addressed in the V2 kits. Folk were even suggesting an FL or suchlike over this one's nose area ;-)

The manufacturer has put a serious amount of thought in to this little gem. Only one example is the tiny magnet trapped on either side of the pivot rod - one then sands the root rib until there is a pleasant "slunk" as the magnet grabs the steel joiner end both ends and those wings are simply not coming off unless intended! The incidence pins float from the fuse rather than from the wings, as is traditional for wingerons/pitcherons - all floppy till the wings are slid on and then the tiny tolerances do their function and everything works to perfection.

I must at this point make mention of my bi-annual (no longer annual) trip visits to Andy and Alan at Hobby Warehouse. Andy patiently dug out all the bits needed for the RC gear, including robbing an indoor kit for two teeny servos and ferreting around for the Hyperion 250ma lipo ("I am a Hyperion man", to coin a Percy phrase) with JST plug I was seeking. Was a bit scary cutting down from two to one cell but I managed.

Whilst aware that pitcherons generally have their joiner/twister rod at 20% to 25% MAC (mean average chord), it was almost by hypnoses that one tend to aim for CG balance there rather than believe the presumably 33% MAC CG depicted by the handy little jig included in the kit (yes). This translated in to yours truly adding an completely unnecessary 5 grams nose weight, which resulted in the first two tests resembling lawn dart as the plane headed down the slope! To make matters worse, I had complete forgotten to check the pitch travels with ATV, so the craft pitched right every time I pulled hard up..... I am indebted to Kev and Mark for retrieving whilst we sorted things. One must remember that the tolerances are so tight that one spline on the servo arm translates to a helluva big difference.

Adjusting the down going left wing travel to 85% of the right wing's 100% sorted that and the second proper flight with 4.5 of the 5 grams removed was a real treat, thanks also to judge Kurt for the launch and encouragement. The little aerie was blitz and patently clear too much for teaching the two youngster on at the busy Chappies venue, much to the disappointment of the youngsters - I have to make it up with a Hermanus visit this year to teach them, I am told.... ;-)

For the intermediate flyer the aerie is a real sweetie and certainly a crowd puller, everyone came to have squiz at it, lying on the table. Anton Benning was quite captivated.

I am a very slow assembler so if you are looking for a one day build treat:
http://www.zaerotech.com/

It is so low on tedium, even for the kids, that I am tempted to suggest to Barry Mirtle that he should consider including in his school science kits ;-)

Staying with micro laser cut

2011-05-30T08:56:00.007+02:00

Such was enjoyment in building of RadicalRC.com laser cut Micro Stick, it was decided to have the next "mini table in front of the TV" project lined up, so shot off an order to Speedwing for their Dart, only three inches bigger in wingspan than the Micro Stick, at twenty inch wingspan.

http://www.speedwing.net/product_info.php?products_id=28

As with the Radical kit, the laser kit cutting is amazingly accurate and a treat to assemble. I would suggest the back to basics ticking off the numbers on the excellent instructions, as I managed to omit the ply floor for the battery bay and resorted to super glue reinforcement there. It was a pleasure to plug in the fin and then find it exactly 90 degrees, such is the accuracy of laser cutting in comparison to the old "die crunch" style. Notice the flatted carbon tows added at the intersection of the carbon rods - once the soaked in super glue had dried, the frame felt so rigid it could be used for burglar guards!

The laser cut compartment lids fitted immaculately and this kit is so complete that it even comes with tiny hold down magnets for the battery compartment and all the pushrod hardware. The elevons are even pre-bevelled, for goodness sake!

The biggest surprise was in completing the model, to find the CG magically spot on half way between the two recommended extremes, without a single gram to adjust. I decided to go exactly with the recommended throws, with ailerons surprisingly at 3/4 of elevator throw but perfect in action, the plane completely solid and on rails, with twinkle rolls still available at the extremes of my own 30% expo on both elevator and aileron.

The only instruction I erroneously did not completely follow was that the craft does not need reflex of any kind. I set up with the elevons dead in line with the top surface, leaving a teeny reflex effect. Simon Nelson did the launch throw honours and the plane tried to do huge loops every time the throttle was pushed wide open, boot fulls of down trim soon sorted that and the plane was enjoyed for one of the best buzzes I have enjoyed in electric flying. Having found the transparent blue and solid white so vision effective on the Micro Stick, I did err in tweaking the combination here to checkers, which simply camouflaged the tips and there may be a retro fit to solid white.

Whilst ARF kits are a boon in the modern age, it is fun to revert to the builder of the model pride in assembling these excellent value, inexpensive gems. Foamies are becoming "so last year" ;-). Next up may be the Speedwing Dart XL or those RadicalRC.com built up space invader style wing options, after the laser cut mini Z22 wing twist sloper.

Sunrise with Mark's new camera

2011-05-20T14:50:00.007+02:00

Saturday past saw the usual magic early morning weather and Mark was able to wield his new larney camera. We were chuffed to have a first visit from Mike Summers who revved his yellow Piper Cub around like a pylon racer - memories of slope days gone by!

Simon performed a successful first fly with the Internet plan e-powered Mustang, which looks to be a winner on the cheapie motor combo.

Mike Smith's maiden with flat plate wing balsa magazine pullout plan Whizzer was damn impressive - who needs balsa ribs......?

The rest is a rogues' gallery of the Saturday morning regulars, who seem to be on the full circle back to crunchy models. Morne has progressed quickly to even practicing the novice pattern with the trainer, which is spurring Paul on with the Fun 400. Russ has upped the PT19 to 480 power and the 19 does the Sportsmans pattern with verve!

and back to Springfield........

2011-05-05T16:33:00.002+02:00

Michel Leusch and Rob Pirie holding the first stage prototype fuselage of a Kzn slope aerobat being developed from the fertile minds and handiwork of Michel and Russ, with more than a bit of enthusiasm from Ziggy. What this blog is about after all (watch out Tossers...... ;-)

The was a recent flutter of worlds excitement after some FAI feedback, which turned out instead to be formalising of F3F slope speed, something not common on SA coastal slopes but may be sparked with advent of world champs status.

to the seriously large.....

2011-05-05T15:52:00.007+02:00

It was a pleasure to visit the serious business of 2011 National Aerobatics at the beautiful KZN Emoyeni site on 1 May. It may have been serious competition but the atmosphere pleasantly informal and it was magic to chat to the various competitors, including a long chin wag with Mark Wolffe of Two Oceans slope fame. It was also neat to see how well Johan de Lange and Arthur Eggar, both products of Neil Allen's monthly pattern series, fared. Quite apart from the old DMAC evergreen hands like John Dorse, Ian Morris and Neil himself.

Johan achieved an excellent second in advanced, along with another Kzn youngster, Brendan from Hobbytech, who achieved a creditable second in Sportsman, using a bog stock Hyperion Helios. This serves an encouragement for us local yokels starting to enjoy the novice side of aerobatics, thanks to Neil's ongoing hard work.

What astounded me was the sheer size and grunt power of the e-power FAI craft - a far cry from twenty-one years ago! Wolfgang Matt provided some retro but very up to date immaculate flying with his anhedral tail Peridot, at the tender age of 63.

It has been nice to read of the appreciative feedback from boffs like Pierre Marias and Andre Stockwell and Neil and his hardworking Nats team can take well deserved pat on the back!

Much chatting was done with Les Ward, Dave Hooker, Dave's buddy Alfred and longgggg time no see Dave Grosvenor.

The day ended with a professionally wow helicopter aerobatics display from Will Cranmer and his team.

From the Radically small.....

2011-05-05T15:13:00.004+02:00

An impulse buy saw two teeny Micro Stick kits on the way from Radical RC for Mark and Dave. It was such a pleasure to clip together these well designed laser cut kits, on a small table in front of the TV. Mark took five hours for the whole exercise, Dave five evenings, so I guess Dave is the TV addict.... ;-)

http://www.radicalrc.com/category/Radical-RC-E-Kits-190

At $27 plus $9 post it is cheap and rewarding fun. There were only two areas of minor trickery. Using Solarfilm instead of the recommended light weight covering material tweaked the leading edge slightly and necessitated some super glue reinforcing of the fin, along with reducing the built in right thrust with sliver of 1/64th ply. Fin decoration was with a never tried before temporary tatoo that worked a treat and lasted, despite the morning dew.

The radio and Mini Ultra Stick (not a large model to start with) are shown to give an indication of the small size. The white top deck on the wing is a definite must for keeping orientation with this little twinkler!

Just could resist the gorgeous little Eflite 250 brushless motor, which proved an ideal combo with a Hyperion 450mah two cell pack and 5x5 prop. The beastie has yet to use more than 160mah for a satisfyingly long flight.

Umhlanga College flying on 22 April

2011-04-24T19:57:00.006+02:00

Ryan takes a picture of Umhlanga Primary school building

and the moon.......

and Fern Road in Prestondale

And a video from his screaming electric-fox.....

Two Oceans PSS festival 2011

2011-04-11T11:17:00.005+02:00

Go to the Toss web site for info on the second year of this classic event: http://www.toss.co.za/

Springfield in the Autumn

2011-04-11T10:51:00.006+02:00

Saturday afternoon saw a rare visit to Springfield to trim up Russ's ASW26 for Sungazer, being pleasantly surprised to have Andre, Michel, Rheino, Russ, Morne and Dave all enjoying some pleasant light weather flying! The winter nip (in Durban terms) was in the air despite the magic sunny weather and seemed to prove our theory that the February unpleasant and turbulent North East winds were simply a result of the "overheated" hot and sweaty time of the year. Definitely a lot more enjoyable that a month or two ago.....

RC e-Heli flyer Morne Van Der Ryst had recently joined the Umhlanga Saturday morning e-plane mob and had his ear bent about the pleasure of slope flying. Yours truly dusted off the much flown and enjoyed OD flying wing that Fed Wittstock had invented and passed on. This little plane is pretty much viceless and Morne took to it and slope soaring instantly, after binding his Dx6i to the receiver. It was an easy decision to pass on this little gem to Morne to enjoy although we were a little at a loss at suggesting a nice locally available crunchy model kit for him to build at the same time. Russ's suggestion of the Sig Ninja seems the most practical so far....

Fred had christened the little wing "Klunk" after bouncing it on the first few flights, I prefer the re-christened "Little Dolly" but never did get around to putting on the appropriate sticker, below ;-) The only changes being the replacement of Fred's original parallel chord elevons with the tapered versions, along with a well deserved re-cover.

Attention to good advice

2011-04-01T09:23:00.004+02:00

The last few years of e-power and 2.4G have been most enjoyable, with zero issues from the Dx6i or newer DX8, except where there was finger trouble by yours truly.

Some of us parkie folk had opted to dabble in some novice aerobatics, with enjoyable success from the parkie, like the Mini Showtime, only tempered by any real hint of a breeze!

A visit to Mark Savage of Radio Active to look at other low cost options had brought forward the Eflite Diamante as a recommendation. Yours truly was not enchanted with the colour scheme and thus took too long to follow up on this craft - and even more time to complete the actual simple assembly......

The only mod Mark had recommended was some form of support for the two part undercarriage, which otherwise was prone to levering the fuselage apart on a robust landing. An old slot car controller pc board was sacrificed for the simple and light support bracket, as shown in the second picture. Otherwise the model was a pleasure to assemble with even the elevator lining up perfectly with the wing and no massaging required - same story for the fin which slotted in, spot on 90 degrees.

The model only saw the light of day well more than a year after the original recommendation, powered by a Dualsky 900 watt motor on a four cell lipo. This cheapie option was a slight irritation to fit (in hindsight) as the motor mount is a perfect fit for the Eflite power 25 and 32 options. I failed yet again (my fault) to massage a spinner to fit in balanced form and gave up on that.

A quick call to the mob to witness the maiden turned in to a total damp squib as the new larney DX8 receiver was stone dead on arrival at the field, despite functioning fine during set up. Of course the assumption was that it must have been something else that fritzed the fancy 8000 receiver! It was with some trepidation that a replacement cheapie orange receiver and satellite were fitted instead and the fateful moment of first flight delayed for a few days.

The short story is the craft and receiver combo performed flawlessly in the fairly stiff breeze at sunset yesterday - what a pleasure to fly an e-craft that simply cuts through the turbulent air that would otherwise scupper normal e-flight. The plane was rock solid and vice less, with the control throws dramatically reduced from the manual specifications, thanks again to some more good advice from Radio Active's Mark and some useful reading on RC Groups.

After a false start to the novice aerobatics, I now look forward to trying out the Sportsmans pattern before revisiting those enjoyable Neil Allen pattern league events.

Friday waflle

2011-03-25T08:59:00.005+02:00

After tracking and ordering the Lowrider 30 plan and magazine, the postal system has completely failed..... So looked at something assembly quick with the SD 8020 for the slope aerobat play, as the Kzn conditions are so mild and pleasant at the moment, plus hoping to combine a wing order with Mark as the courier cost is as much as the sheeted cores! First up was the old Ridge Runner fuselage tucked away and then scratching around for the tip chord, not quite there yet - although estimating 240/180mm at the mo. [Indebted to ole Dave Hooker for confirming this dead wrong: tip chord 160mm. Centre chord 265mm sanded flat to 255mm to suit fuselage mounting. Ailerons 40mm. LE only swept]. Then an old file pic of the Greco Hurricane caught the eye. At least I have the root and tip chords and the fuse is ultra similar to a bog stock Ghostbuster fuse so the plane a dead simple build with a pre made SD8020 instead of SD8000 wing. The blurb says the wing is straight single taper but one maybe gets the impression there is slight sweep back to the trailing edge – or is it an optical illusion? Parameters: Root chord 190mm Tip chord 100mm Each panel length 750mm

Help!

2011-02-23T16:17:00.012+02:00

My appreciation goes to ex Durbanite Vic Schroeder, the Jart man, for doggedly tracking down this long sought little beastie for me, more power to chat groups and blogs. This really made my morning!

Back in the early eighties as a struggling audit clerk, I picked up an American magazine in the CNA, which yours truly could not afford to buy at the time. The model plan was a small 30 inch 020 powered craft that had apparently been scaled down from a larger model. Drooled over the stunning little red plane till closing time then tried remember the issue number etc as I was determined to blow up this sleek little model for other use but, alas now decades later trolling through Google and plans list has not brought forward an old listed plan or even a model or full size version that even approximates that natty little plane.

Thus I am hoping to describe the model using parts of other familiar craft. The features are a composite of:

1. The red and white Corsair colour scheme with the same bent wing (what is the opposite of gull wing?) but even more pronounced wing bend, almost Stuka like, with the shrouded wheels exiting the wing bend somewhat like the less pronounced bent wing (also red and white) of the Comet. 2. The cockpit was sleekly set way to the rear ala a very slim version of the pale blue Magician in the middle pic.

3. The very slim fuselage not unlike the little red and yellow craft in but obviously rather coupled with the afore-mentioned Corsair / Stuka bent wing and a canopy top straight lining to the rear like the Magician.

Not having a shred of artistic ability has frustrated this image stuck in the mind and I would be verrrrrrry relieved if some kind soul with a long memory could point me in the right direction to find something on this elusive little gem.

More foamy buzz for your buck

2011-02-14T08:09:00.006+02:00

One gets some damn fine tips off RC Groups. The foamie Fastcat in the pic was a cheapie off the net that was "ok" on the Velocity 2700kv brushless motor, but did not set my world alight like the Velocity itself.

Then I read about this gem motor on RC Groups, where some speed freak had his Fastcat taking off vertically like a rocket on four cells:

Turnigy 2836 Brushless 450-Size Heli Motor 3700kv
Dimension: 28mm x 38mm, 53mm(with shaft)
Weight: 70g
Max performance;
Voltage: 3-4S
Current : 30A
Power: 700W
For 450 size Helicopter
$17.57

A quick Google will no doubt identify the motor source.

I must caution that I did build in a main spar for the Fastcat, up front, nevertheless deciding to proceed on the side of caution and try the motor first with three cells instead of four, using my trusty Hyperion 1800mah pack. A 4.5x4.5 prop was the smallest I had but would have preferred closer to 4x4.

The first test was literally at sunset in no wind. I must say the first test rev woke up the butterflies in the tummy and I decided to launch asap before I chickened out. I have never had a small model head for the heavens from the hand launch so fast, like this one did, in fact almost disappearing in to the gloom before I could react to close the throttle. The first flight was magic but the pilot probably a bit too tense and throttling in short bursts, just in case anything started to overheat. The combo was only just gently warm after landing, whew.

Another sunset launch last night offered some enjoyable jet style flight and, whilst it does not make the howl noise of the Velocity, it is obviously going fast, verrry fast, for a foamy. I suspect four cells may just be too silly fast for yours truly.....

Thus the onset of the grin which just won't go away....... ;-)

For those contemplating this R200 plane and R200 motor, a couple of minor points:

1. The roll rate with the common sub micro servos is scary. It does not look a helluva of physical movement on 100% rate but you will still get twinkle rolls without frightening yourself on 70% roll rate, be warned.

2. The elevator is huge and the quoted movement same but do not be tempted to reduce the gross elevator throws as the craft is magically pitch smooth and badly needs the control movement on landing approach, or you will run out elevator. Maybe the quoted CG is too forward but the plane flies fine inverted so I will leave be.

Otherwise this has to be the best buzz bang for buck el'cheapo combo that I have enjoyed so far.

Mid Phase Video on Inanda Hill - NE Wind Slope

2011-02-06T21:19:00.007+02:00

This video was shot on the NE slope of Inanda Hill. After a fair walk with all the kit we sent the Mid Phase off. This video shows an approach over the houses with a stripped starboard servo (discovered after the flight). The plane also overshot the hill and landed nose first into the mud on the lee side of the slope - luckily not into the valley below to be retrieved by some lucky local....

2011-02-06T21:10:00.006+02:00

This video was shot on the SW slope of Inanda Hill. It was quite rainy as can be seen by the droplets on the wing. Also note the the wings occasional vibration.....

RC glider tow

2011-02-06T21:04:00.005+02:00

This video was inspired by Simon Nelson. The Turnigy mini camera was mounted, rotated by 90 degrees clockwise on the wing top of the tow plane (hence the strange orientation). The glider was towed some 20 m back. Unfortunately the tow line took flight preventing other tows being done.

Two Oceans Slope Soarers 2011 aerobatics

2011-02-02T14:23:00.013+02:00

Whew, Toss managed to offer up scary perfect weather for the third year in succession, probably nigh impossible for sloping anyhwere else in South Africa.
The 55kmh awesome wind for the Friday practice at Smitswinkle was only topped by the perfect aerobatics blow for Saturday at Red Hill.

The new generation moldies were so impressive up front that we thought slam dunk but the good pilots came through with a variety of of craft. Mark Wolfe got back to winning form with his seventies Primeus, big Louis even surprised himself with an excellent second with the Toucan (yes, bog stock Anton Benning Models Toucan), Steve Meusel third with the OD two week quick build 8020 using a Bobby Purnell fuse and Kev Farr was top moldie in fourth with the Vector.

A useful spread on results, glorious weather and the normal TOSS warm hospitality made for another magic weekend.

Back to El'cheapo foamies

2011-01-22T11:41:00.006+02:00

This Saturday morning dawned idyllic for parkie flying (if only your scribe had been awake earlier ;-)

Paul had neatly fitted ailerons and elevator to the little R75 throw glider, now intended for slope soaring. A few adjustments and hand launches off the bank and this attractive little aerie looks a treat for the slope.

Dave had resurrected the Wipeout and replaced the 1800kv Suppo Witblitz motor with the 2600kv version of the same Suppo motor, along with a heavier 1100mah Hyperion lipo. The previously useful UHU hinging had completely broken down so was stripped off and redone, albeit with additional UHU rubbed in to the surrounding surfaces to give more "bite". If unsuccessful in the long run, some other method will be used but just a little heads up for those using the similar method.

Simon did the launching honours and the little model took off as rock steady as always and was obviously more perky, although the zero wind conditions made anything look good...... Possibly a little under propped with the smaller prop but pulled fine through large loops and extra long motor run compensated. The larger battery had moved the CG forward a touch and the dreaded flat spin could not be induced, no matter how hard we tried. Definitely a fun improvement to an already proven combo and thanks to Sy for the quick pic.

Springfield Chickens at Ziggi-nanda

2011-01-18T14:18:00.012+02:00

It has taken a while to pick up on wind forecasting ala the Toss team with Windguru but an early Friday work departure was planned last weekend, based on new found respect for same. It was short and sharp as the Dion's Dive east area of the newly Russ-christened "Ziggi-nanda" delivered some awesome conditions for the test of Russ's rebuilt Shongiloma, before the unexpected approaching hail storm sent us scuttling for cover. The test proved fine, with the best vertical eights your's truly has seen, un-ballasted! The storm had moved on and cleared by the time we gathered at Russ and Mandy's home for a most pleasant braai.

Ryan admiring Le Coqy, wus magic in the conditions.

The wind, as Winguru predicted, switched to a useful SW for Saturday and Dave arrived late to find the mob having had a ball in the smooooth and powerful air. Mark was now fired to take on Toss aerobatics, with some help from Russ, and Dave managed to get in a useful flight each with the Le Cocy and Toksix, before the area completely clouded in (see the group pic completely backed by cloud). Simon gave some good advice on the Toksix settings and Ryan was quite taken with the Le Coqy, which had come back to life with the reinstated 150 grams ballast, which should never have been removed.

Would have sworn the Natal coast was impossible to wind predict but Windguru proving excellent so far:

http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=4865

Here is a panarama video view and the cloud closing in on Dave taking the last flight with Toksix:

Dion's dive north east slope adjacent to Inanda

2011-01-11T12:25:00.010+02:00

With the last Saturday wind looking useful but "beastly easterly" and off the right corner of Springfield, it was eventually decided by the Springfield Chickens to meet fearless leader Russ at Sasol garage and convoy up to the north east slope mountain, first Google earth discovered and explored by Dion Thompson and Ziggy way back. Dave made a complete klutchkop of himself by contending this was indeed not the same slope but fortunately Russ stuck to his guns and tested the short but possibly treacherous access road before phoning us to proceed.

The slope offers a vista from NE right through SE (quite handy on our coast) and looked gorgeous and unblemished on our arrival. We of course had to learn all over again that the Kzn NE slopes are overly thermic on very hot days and extremely treacherous in the sink cycles between the booming thermals. Lots went walkies and one of the walkie visits to the far left bowl by Mark and Dave for the encouraging Dyna-mite sloper prompted the realisation that we were in fact flying from the wrong spot for that wind direction! A revisit to the left hand bowl is looked forward to, especially as the access is less problematic for vehicles and folk.

Russ's Zagi refused to co-operate whilst the Nelson clan were quickly in the air with the srtreamer trailing Griffin and Zagi racer. Dave maidened the newly winged Toksix and Mark and Paul tried the camera mounted Middle Phase. Kobus was till charging. Then it all started to go wrong for a while with the aforementioned patches of sink and then a huge crunch as Russ comprehensively mid-aired his Toss 2011 destined Shongi, which put a real damper on things (but now fortunately almost repair complete). Lasses Kelly Conradt and Claire Phillips kept us all well behaved and the view in to the valley was really quite magic.

After various fetchings, it was obvious that Kobus was now having a ball with his OD PSS Mustang, which now had the slope to itself and was pretty impressive. When the noises were made to start heading home, yours truly started to twig that it was not all Mustang and the conditions were in fact getting more pleasant - and consistent. Fortunately Kobus and (new;-) Pete agreed to stay a while, which turned out quite a while! Pete had his first Gentle Lady slope fly since Springfield 18 years ago (including take off and landing) and Dave got to grips with the four servo winged Toksix. It is interesting that the moderate wind was smooth enough for the gas bag but also more than enough for the Toko winged Toksix.

Yes, a Switchblade it is probably not but certainly a useful scenic alternative for those Springfield days when the wind is good but not straight on. Probably wise to travel as a mob ala Switchblade, though (whereas the SW Inanda Ziggy site is completely void of spectators). More importantly, later in the afternoon on steamy days (only mad slopers and English men go out in the mid day sun ;-)

Mark's Missus, Claire Phillips, with the newly four servo winged Toksix, which flew a treat. Thanks to Russ for the hard work in getting it all together.

Spektrum DX8 radio personal review

2011-01-07T16:03:00.003+02:00

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0ByxPEkmTgjQ1MzNiZjE3Y2EtMDk4My00M2QyLWExZDMtYjA0NGRiMGFlM2Q1&hl=en&authkey=CLilvuMN

The list of features on this radio are available from numerous web sites so below is a just mini review from this die hard Dx6i fan, now upgraded to this magic e-flight radio.

2010-12-11T19:37:00.002+02:00

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!!!!

2010-12-11T19:34:00.001+02:00

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

2010-12-11T19:32:00.000+02:00

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

2010-12-11T19:27:00.002+02:00

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

2010-12-03T12:44:00.011+02:00

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 ;-)

2010-11-03T23:07:00.003+02:00

2010-11-03T22:48:00.001+02:00

SkyLark flown from this field - Sedgefield, near Knysna

Sharkie says black and white is right!

2010-10-30T10:17:00.007+02:00

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

2010-10-15T13:08:00.001+02:00

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

2010-08-30T10:36:00.005+02:00

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

2010-08-24T10:17:00.003+02:00

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

2010-08-24T09:47:00.004+02:00

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

2010-08-16T09:41:00.008+02:00

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!

Slope visit to Ziggy Slopemust mountain

2010-08-10T16:12:00.009+02:00

Ziggy (Stardust, gettit...? ok not to worry ;-) found this gem slope site quite while back through Google but only got to fly it in ultra light conditions. The Women's day forecast from Johan Moelich was for a SW bluster so Russ fired us up for visit to this awesome site for sheer experience or even as future potential "seeerious" slope contest work.

We blindly followed Russ up from Ziggy's directions but the return trip revealed pure simplicity - just follow all signs to the Imbeka High School!!!

The Dion Thompson Wasp was the first flight guinea pig - the upward blast bringing forth much whooping from the pilots.
Then it was Johan's teeny Limit Ex - like I have never seen a Limit Ex go at warp factor 3. Johan's Toko also just never stopped shrieking......

The best was saved toward the end and, after flying our aerobats, was Russ's four metre Scale Ash 26 that really spread its wings in the smooth but powerful air.

For the Cape folk, combine the smoothness of Smitswinkle with the power of Red Hill and you get the idea. For the locals, combine the Switchblade smooth NE air with the grunt of Switchblade SW side and times two......

Thanks to Johan for the co-ords:
29° 38' 39" S, 30° 50' 29" E

It took some getting used to feeling so little wind on the top because the cliff nature of the slope meant the wind was shooting right over the humans. When the bluster arrived in earnest, it meant really patient landing time but little or no damage to the eight craft flown.

An ideal slope contest spot with another NE option only a couple of kays away.

Mount Frere slope soaring bowl

2010-08-10T14:35:00.008+02:00

Some years ago, whilst travelling through the Transkei, we stopped off at this amazing slope bowl site at the south exit of Mount Frere and, whilst standing with gentle breeze blowing on our faces, I determined to return one day armed with RC slope foamy glider to experience this amazing slope. That trip was made this past weekend but alas the wind it was from the Berg and all that could be done was to take the pics - placing the pics end to end would some idea of the awesome slope amphitheater this would be.

The teeny black spots in the third pic from top are cattle......!

The Mount Frere main street was made all the more distinctive by the vertical sign - click on the bottom pic (for the contradiction in terms.......?)

Prestondale, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2010-08-01T20:13:00.002+02:00

Mike Smiths Mini Stick

2010-08-01T20:08:00.002+02:00

Mike Smiths Mini Stick

2010-08-01T19:21:00.001+02:00

Mike Smiths Mini Stick takes centre stage (well er more like centre sky). Takes from the SkyLarks video camera

Fern Road, Prestondale, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2010-08-01T19:19:00.000+02:00