Uncategorized – Solihull Model Flying Club (SMFC)

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Radian Getaway, 24th September 2017.

It’s great being a member of the SFMC, and thanks to all those Club Officers who make it work so well. However, in spite of my son Julian’s encouragement, and everyone else’s, am sure I don’t really have any native talent for model flying, unless it flies very slowly indeed. This was, I think, well proved when I took over my Radian from Julian on Sunday 24th Sept. 8^)

The video says it all, and it only remains to thank again Adrian, Colin and the other chap (whose name, alas, I have forgotten), for spending an hour recovering the plane, including dealing with many cows, and indeed a large bull who came to investigate the people he thought were interfering with his harem.

See you on the next very calm day. 8^)

Best wishes to all, Norman.

The ‘A’ Team

The club ‘A’ team met up the field on Sunday 24th September to be awarded their ‘A’ certificates by the club Safety Officer, Adrian Howley.

Anthony Cundy, Colin Watkins, Barry Twilton and Mel Jones all looked suitably pleased with their shiny new certificates, although Barry’s seems to have gone AWOL for some reason!

Congratulations to those who suffered enormous stress and pressure whilst enduring hours of practice over the months before the test, never mind the relentless micky taking!

At least now we can get back to ‘normal’ flying!

Lleyn Peninsular Sept 2017

A short summary of the clubs visit to the Lleyn Peninsular North Wales.

After a long (in time not miles) journey I arrived at the campsite on Saturday afternoon and pitched camp, Martin and Robert also travelled on the same day but they had rented a cottage for the week, and after a stormy night I meet up with them the following day, when I was invited to the cottage for a cuppa, no flying as it was still raining.

Barry and Steve arrived Sunday afternoon, just as the rain stopped and Barry and me walked down to the cliffs and flew for a short while over the beach.

As the wind direction suited this flying site we all spent the day there on Monday, weather was a bit mixed but we flew, however this area had a bad rotor so landing was challenging.

Tuesday was a bad weather day, until 3 o`clock when the rain stopped, as the wind direction was now westerly we travelled the short distance (about 1 mile) to Mynydd Cilan which over looks Porth Neigwl or Hells Mouth. We had a good 3 hours or so here and I came away thinking that I had had a good day.

Wednesday was by far the best day of the week, no rain at all we even had some sunshine, winds were still westerly so we flew from Hells Mouth and an excellent day was had.

Martin had brought with him a model which had the electronic kit needed to fly autonomously, so during Wednesday morning a route across the bay was plotted and amongst great interest and anticipation this thing was sent on it`s way, and after disappearing from sight (as expected), we all sat and waited for it to return, and we waited…..and waited, it would be nice to say that it did eventually appear but alas it was never seen again, which is a pity, but thank you Martin for giving it a try.

Martin sat with binoculars waiting for the return of his model.

Here is quite a long and maybe bit boring video of me flying my Aquila over Hells Mouth.

Donner und Blitzen..!

Wednesday 5 July was a sunny day but proved to be a downpour in the heart of the club’s leading Test Pilot. His lovely red pride and joy came tumbling out of the sky to hide itself amongst the trees of a distant field.

Even the local livestock were happy to search the long grass

All the members came to the rescue and after a lengthy search found the stricken ex-plane hiding amongst nearby trees.

Mike: I’ve been stuck on this stile for two bluddy hours.
Adrian: Thanks for warming the seat up for me…

But it was all too much for the intrepid Ace. Emotions were running high and Adrian just couldn’t contain himself no longer. The visiting cows were clearly sharing his dismay.

Return of an Old Friend

It’s a good feeling when one meets an old friend who left under difficult circumstances.

Nothing illustrates this better than the look on ‘A’ Dave’s face when he collected the Radion he thought he had lost forever the week before.

Apparently it had been dumped on Farmer Dave’s doorstep by another farmer who had spotted it in one of his fields. Farmers seem to have better eyesight than modellers, although those funny flip-up sun shades don’t help!

Mel had to point out that the Radion had suffered some minor damage, but that didn’t spoil ‘A’ Dave’s excitement!

Long Mynd Reservoir Site

Barry and me visited a new flying site on the Long Mynd, as the wind was north easterly we thought that we would try the Reservoir site.

The site is at the head of the Carding Mill valley and is quite picturesque, with a small reservoir.

It took a few attempts for us to find the correct place to fly from, initially the flying conditions were very turbulent and great concentration needed to fly for any length of time, we moved further around the valley head and found that it became a lot smoother, the wind must have moved around more south easterly so coming straight up the valley.

The flying was quite good then but still low down turbulence making the landings quite eventful, I think we both learned a lot about slope soaring during the day.