Today turned from grey and overcast with no breeze to speak of into bright, sunny and warm with a nice 8 to 10 MPH Westerly breeze, so off to Middle Hope I went with three lightweight / cheap models: My converted Bolt, 1200mm span, my foam and carbon miniVick DLG, 775mm wingspan and my newly built Z84 flying wing with 850mm wingspan and no motor.
When I got to Middle Hope, as feared the wind was coming across from West Somerset rather than Wales, so the wrong direction for my training slopes. I wasn't about to go straight home so I had a wander about over some of the slopes and thought.... s*d it! Let's fly. This meant launching into a superb bowl that looks to have loads of lift and a land (rather than mud or sea) landing at the base should the worst happen, trouble is, the base is about 80 m down.
First the Z84, after a couple of launches into long grass it was off the edge and it very quickly became apparent that loads more throw is required, I really only had marginal control with almost no authority, so before I did some real harm, I packed it away.
Next the MiniVick. This is now suffering slightly from several months hard use and after a couple of fun launches where it more or less hung where I released it, slope style rather than dlg launch, a slightly fast down wind 'landing' into long grass pulled a z link free of its carbon pushrod, so another one for the workshop.
Back to the car with the casualties and back up the hill again with the Bolt, which is still to be proven.... well it is now. Were it not for two novice /pilot error hard landings I would still be there now, but while enjoying watching it fly I forgot the first rule of sloping.... never turn towards the slope. While carving a beautiful turn I suck up elevator on and thought it will hop over the top of the slope.... erm, no it wont, what it will do is fly straight into the slope.
So, three in the workshop and a little work to do, nothing serious which means I may well be back there later this week. Plus, I have now got the HiFly, so I'll be installing the Digimac 2.4 and may be brave enough to give that one a try too.