Friday 24 July 2015

Some more A10 work

So, to make the rear most nose section former a bit stiffer, I added a large 1/4" ply plate, then tried again. Nope, the front-most former on the rear fuselage started to deform then. Great. So I added more 1/4" ply, then added another turnbuckle to keep it together. Problem solved :
20150722_123837.jpg


I also swapped out my dual-battery switch to a "green" servo power distribution board, that has two battery inputs. The FRSky RX mounts on top of this, and each servo output is now tripled on the board.

I added a bit of detail to the top of the nose (refuelling plate thingy) and have done some overall weathering, as well as this week added drawn-on panel lines.
img_1579.jpg
A few more tweaks and re-painting of parts, then she will be coming to Lleyn with me as long as the forecast is favourable.

Tuesday 14 July 2015

A great day's flying!

Well, that was fun!

A good (11-18mph) westerly wind provided some excellent lift on the Westbury White Horse on  Saturday - enough for some great (fully ballasted) Mini Blade aerobatics, and some PSS flying with the Me262.  Here are some pictures courtesy of the wife.






Thursday 9 July 2015

The weekend's flying

I'm off down south to see the parents this weekend, so heading to the lovely steep slopes of the Westbury White Horse - where I pretty much did all of my early slope soaring (well, between there and the Roundway in Devizes).

What to take though?  PRobably the Pike, the Mini Blade, and something interesting and PSS - I think the Me262 and / or Mig29.  So all that plus two humans, two dogs, luggage etc. in a Kia Soul!

Might be a squeeze :)

Friday 3 July 2015

A10 remedial works

Yes, it's not even flown yet and already I have found areas to improve the big A10. The first was this - the bulkhead where I split the fuselage for transport.

This should have been at least 1/8th inch birch ply, but I failed to realise the moment load of nose weight.
A gap was clearly evident as the liteply former deformed under load, so I cut a slot in, let in a full depth / full width 1/4 inch birch ply plate. 

This was then attached to the bending former with 1" hard triangular stock balsa.

Testing to come this weekend!

Wednesday 1 July 2015

Flying at Beacon Hill, near Newbury

The walk to the top will get your heart pumping, and I wouldn't want to try it with anything bigger than my quarter scalies.

Parking at the bottom is easy - alongside the A34 essentially, or slightly around the bend there is a bigger (and quieter) parking bay.

At the top then, there is a lovely W to SW bowl, which seems quite powerful. Very thermic when I flew so would be nice on those nearly windless days too. Landing out isn't a problem, though requires a hike off to the left then back again if dumping it on the centre face of the bowl.

For N to NE winds there is a very steep, very well shaped bowl, where you fly over some farm buildings right at the bottom. I am definitely coming back for this one - it looks like a lot of fun.

Landing-wise, getting onto the top where it is flatter seems to work well, though I did find a nice little patch on left when looking out on the SW bowl that sufficed as at that point I was standing on the lower path.

I'd give it a 6/10 for the SW bowl - it could be bigger, and the walk will leave you breathless. Would fly again, and looking forward to trying that NE bowl :)