2017 is here - and some flying reports.

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, so happy New Year to you all!

We managed to get flying in on the 31st of December, as well as the 1st of January, which seems to have become a bit of a custom for me over the past 4 or 5 years.

New Year's Eve we were at the Great Orme, in a fantastic SW blow, coming straight into the big bowl peaking at 62mph on the edge, but staying above 40 all day.  Needless to say, this gave ballistic performance for all the airframes present, in what turned out to be not so much of a cold wind.

John Hey's A4 dumping its tanks before landing

Most of the PSS aircraft were having some penetration problems, but the Me262 did what it loves to do in these conditions, and pushed out with great confidence and nary a wobble from launch even in the compression zone.  The Hawk struggled a little, but then she is only just over a pound in weight.

Flanker with wonky taileron - photo courtesy Dave Gilder

The Flanker put in the best performance of her career, and I got her properly trimmed out at long last.  I had about 20 minutes out of her before one of the tailerons became a bit too wobbly on it's horn, so I made a landing with nearly crossed-controls and thankfully no damage at all.  I've already re-secured the grub screw and cyano'ed it's threads a little to stop a re-occurrence.

Amazing views over the bay - photo courtesy Dave Gilder

We stayed overnight in one of our favourite local wild camping spots to see the new year in.  As usual we were both asleep by 11pm!  We've never been ones to care much about the date change anyway, but we watched a few firework displays out the window that woke us up.

On the 1st we flew The Cloud near Bosley, which was much colder.  I flew the Hawk again but preferred the sport stuff here as inland slopes just cannot match the smoothness or power of a coastal site. The light got gradually better through the day, but the temps dropped, I believe!

These dozen or more flights over two days were the first time I'd used the Horus, too.  I fly it with a chest rig that I got as a Christmas present (thanks Mum!) and it is very comfortable to use like this, and you can easily launch with both hands without the TX moving about, too.  Great for the bigger stuff!

Back to work now, and thankfully back in the workshop too.  Here's to more flying in 2017!