A Day Out Power Flying
As
you may be aware there are a number of T.V.S.F. Members who enjoy the odd
spot of aerotowing and general power flying. This seems to be rubbing of on
certain people and there is a small but slowly swelling contingent of us flying
at White Horse Club, and so it was this fine Sunday morning.
We arrived at 08-30 a.m. looking forward to a good laugh with
some flying thrown in for good measure ( some fun was required after the previous
weeks pylon comp.) The day did not get of to a great start, Tony Morgan after
forgetting his transmitter at the pylon race was looking forward to some aerotowing,
it was not to be. When he removed one of the wing panels for his LS3 from
its protective bag he caught the aileron linkage and snapped it off, so back
in the car for the LS3.
We carried all of our models and equipment out to the pit area and proceeded
to assemble and fuel them.
Ian Lancaster was first to fly. He got 3/4 around his first circuit and flew across the sun. Picture on the left shows the remains of his Wot 4.
After my engine problems on our previous outing ( which turned out to be a naff carburettor) the Cap232 was again fired up, the engine now running 'sweet as a nut' but the radio is going into fail-safe now. There must be metal to metal noise being generated, so back in the car with it. The cars are filling up and it is only 09-30 am.
Terry Antell fires up his Super Dalotel aerobatic model and
actually manages a good flight, bent undercarriage on landing but it is made
out of weak material !!!!!
Meanwhile another W.H.M.C. Member goes vertical into the deck and his model
now looks remarkably like Ian's.
By now I am starting to get worried, but the !/4 Scale Cub must fly, so we
fire up the Zenoah 62cc and away she fly's. No problembo!! I land the Cub
and taxi back to the pits to be met by Terry and his Zagi, hang about, a Zagi
on a power field ? I've got a great idea says Terry (I've heard this before
and did not like it then I thought) if we put Velcro on the Zagi and on the
end of the line you could aerotow me, then to release I just need to roll
inverted, stick in full down and the Velcro will let go and the Zagi will
be airborne. Oh dear !!!!!! minutes later the Cub's engine is running and
the Zagi is hooked up, 'full out' and of we go the Zagi cavorting all over
the place Terry claiming he has no control, looked like he was having normal
flight to us. The Zagi was obviously not going to let go of its Velcro so
I had to release him at he tug end and the Zagi flew with 75 metres of towline.
Terry then tells us that his new Zagi is not trimmed yet.
Attempt No.2 Hand launch. Ian holds the Zagi and is supposed to run with the
tug to flying speed, 'full out' the tug takes off and the Zagi is still in
Ians hands.
Attempt No.3 Terry is convinced he has sorted the amount of Velcro needed
so 'full out' and the Zagi is following the tug quite nicely, trouble is the
Terrys release method is not working and I want to go high, when he says he
can not see the model any more(but not with a very polite manner) I release
him. The Velcro release still needs some thought.
So in our normal manner with half the fleet expired, we head off to the nearest
watering hole, looking forward to the next pylon race!!!!!
Moral of this story 'Once a Silent flyer, stay a silent flyer'