The 200th post

Well, here is the 200th post.  What to say?  Probably nothing, other than thanks for reading, and hopefully continuing to do so.  Here are some pictures instead!

PSSA at the Great Orme - September 2016

We arrived on the rock late Friday night, and stayed over on the top in the camper van in very blustery conditions, with a fair amount of rain too.  By about 2.30a.m. the wind and rain had stopped, so we slept soundly until day break.

There was a 6mph WSW at 7am when walking the dogs, so I thought we were in for a good days' flying with such a reasonable start.  Unfortunately, the wind dropped further, and moved around to WNW, but by lunch time had come up to 10mph or so.  Easy pickings for my Pike WR, which was specking out in the slope and thermal lift coming off the sea.  This soon got boring though, so some long dog walks ensued.

As usual though, the Orme has the last laugh and by 6pm a decent 16mph SW was coming straight into the main bowl.  Result!  This allowed some fantastic PSS'ing to take place over the sea with the sunset producing a lovely golden light to illuminate our models.  I had a great session then with the Hawk, Horten, and the big Vulcan - photos to follow for that bit!

The next day, the wind was right up early in the morning but around the WSW mark again.  Some people scratched around a bit in the SW bowl, but Pete Garsden and I set off over to the bigger WSW slope and bowl, about an 8 minute hike from the main car park.  We couldn't believe our luck, as the wind here was 22mph gusting 30, with near limitless, smooth lift.  The Hawk needed a fair amount of down trim in to stay in sight, and PEte had a blast with his Vulcan and new A4.

Soon, we were joined by a flock of fliers as they could see the huge vertical pumps we were managing, and the skies filled with all sorts of gliders, but mainly A4's getting their maidens.

I even managed to get the Flanker away quite well, although she needs a bit of the noseweight removing I think, as she didn't really get "in the groove" and a dive test soon resulted in her soaring up for the clouds!  

So what else..ah yes - the A10 :D  Her 4th flight and probably the longest as well, as she was launched from the SW bowl and I walked up to the WSW whilst flying her.  Yes, cross-country with a 38lb A10 - lovely :)

Great fun!  She even survived a mid-air with a little EPP Vulcan, which she brushed aside whilst the poor Avro spun in, in bits, to terra firma.  Oops!  Sorry Tom.  My landing was less then stellar, probably ranking 3rd out of all 4 I have done.  Minor damage but annoying nonetheless as I deployed the brakes a bit too soon on finals.

The SHM Vulcan continues to perform very well, and always gets admirers due to her faithful shape reproduction and sheer size.

4 lovely landings with this one - she just greases in gently.  All in all a great weekend with lots of A4's on the slope, with not too much carnage.  I didn't get around to flying mine properly, though I may just strip the servos from her and hang it form the ceiling in the workshop.

We'll have to see how October goes, I'm not 100% we will be going due to other commitments, but that was great weather and great aircraft flown with a load of great guys!

Vulcan progress - done!

I managed it.  3 resprays on the wings, last minute lacquer, and programming on the hill, but she made it!

She didn't get to fly unfortunately as the wind didn't play ball, but there you go - such is slope soaring!  I'll keep the Vulc on "Ready 1", and make a special maiden trip up to the Big Rock when the conditions come good before the Lleyn hopefully.

So that's 3 meets this year with 3 new aircraft.  Can I keep it up? What do you think!  With 2 months to go until the Lleyn, I have plenty (!) of time to finish off the Seahawk and secret project number 1.  Easy :)

Vulcan progress - paint disaster! & PSS forecast

Well it was all going so well, until this :

In my haste to get her finished, I used the cheapo masking tape to back up the blue vinyl tape.  I thought that the cheap stuff would need some extra persuasion to stick, so used a seam roller to flatten it all down before paint.  Now, this is a method I have used before  on masking, but not with acrylic paint - usually when using 2K or enamels, which bond a LOT better than the water based stuff.

So, not only did the cheap stuff fetch the paint off, the vinyl did too - right down to the Oracover.  Balls.  So you can see I have started re-applying blue vinyl on the green now, and I will pick up some more Frog tape "yellow" tonight.  I have to go into town anyway to get the satin varnish, but it's something I'd rather not have to do.  Live and learn!

So the weather, then.  At the beginning of the week, it looked good enough to fly everything in the fleet this weekend.  Now - it's turned crap.  No wind, plenty of rain.  Balls.  Rhossili is looking fine with a handy SW  / W that should be good enough to get the Vulcan away, so I will leave it until Thursday night then decide where to go.

Vulcan progress - nose and intakes, plus PSSA

Just a quick snap from lunchtime showing the decals on the nose and canopy, plus the intakes are now painted black.  She really is getting there.  Today my order of blue vinyl masking tape arrived, so I should be able to finish the wings tonight, after another masking marathon.

This weekend's PSSA meet on the big rock looks like it should be good - some strong SW and W wind coming through, with Sunday looking the better day for the big stuff, which will make the CSA guys happy I'm sure.

Also, Monday looks brilliant (again) - luckily I have booked it off (again)! 3 days of sloping on the rock - can't be beaten.

Vulcan progress - decals and tailpipes

I ordered these as a custom job from a chap on eBay - all for £9!  I have the nose-art ones too which I'll post tomorrow.  Looks great!

My worries about the tailpipe manufacture and fitment are over too, I think.  Empty dry yeast containers to the rescue :

A perfect fit!  I'll cut these down and prime them ready for some silver spray tonight.  That was easy :)

Vulcan progress - the paint goes on

XL360 is now getting her colour.  The underside has been done in the lovely light RAF grey that I colour matched to the real XL360 in Coventry, and that has been masked off.

A Vulcan in grey primer

All masked up underneath

Then it was on to the top surfaces.

The light grey is what has been sprayed.  This is the general pattern that I then masked off, ready for the green.

Then the green gets sprayed on.

Then we pray that the masking did its job..it did!  There were a couple of blemishes from the blue vinyl tape, where it lifted not only the grey but the primer too.  Oops!  This was easily remedied with a small brush, however.

Getting close...

I've run out of blue vinyl tape (already ordered and on it's way), so on to the bottom of the wings with some controls system sorting.

All done.  4 metal geared, high speed mini servos (Coronas - my favourite), and some M2 linkage hardware makes this part complete.  I need to spray the hatch covers the correct colour at some point too, of course.

Nearly there!

Vulcan progress - covering & cockpit

The big (72") Vulcan is coming along well at the moment, with a bit of a push underway for her to make the June PSSA meet at the Great Orme.  This weekend I dabbled a little with the covering, finishing off the fuselage as I had sorted the wings and flying surface already.

So, onto the cockpit then, as I never managed to get hold of an original from the supplier unfortunately.  Out with the pink foam, and using the 1/72nd scale model as well as the plan, I knocked one up.  Here it is on the Vulcan, freshly stuck down :

I peeled the Oracover away under the foam to expose the balsa first of course.  Next stage is to glass this with light cloth and WBPU :

Getting there!   It looks messy at this stage, but the cloth will be cut back shortly.  I have filled the weave with a WBPU / talcum powder mix to thicken it all up.  This should be set tonight ready for a light sand and final coat.  Then its on with the P38 body filler and she will be ready for priming.

SHM Vulcan for PSS

It's the first time I've covered with Oracover, and it was quite a nice experience.  Outer wing panels now complete on the Vulcan - just a wee bit of filling and fettling left on the fuselage section before that gets covered too.  The top surface will be camo as per XL360 in Coventry.