lost and found

misplaced something Mr Hornby?

To hell with it! (let the devil take it!)

micro sloper

in preparation for Purbeck

The Isle

a day out at Warden, as spotted on Google Maps....

white planes, black sky, equal rights for all

Simon suggests a Monday afternoon scalie fest, and

what a damn splendid time we had!

 we dodged the rain...6 metres, 7 metres and a 4 metre tiddler bringing up the rear

Mark's head starts to slide off its neck mounting

as his nerves build for the second flight of his ASG 

He needn't have worried about the flight! He should though, have

been more concerned about Simon's 7 metre beast on a

low pass (see wing tip lower right). Photograph captures the moment half a second

before it poleaxed him, removing both legs just below the kneecap.

she's a winner....

down safely...

and time to remove a church roof's worth of lead from the nose

fin's not square...(we didn't break it to him gently)

...but Mark (or Mike as he's know to his closest friends, and those who long for the soft caress

of facial hair against naked inner thigh) isn't phased in the slightest by his skewed back end. 

Suddenly Simon's 7 metre beast comes cartwheeling in, dashing

wings and tailplane to the four winds. The fuselage tumbles

across the landing strip before finally coming to rest a scant few

metres from the camera man.

Ha! fooled you, Simon's just packing it up because he's had enough for the day! 

Eric bringing the Valenta Storm in on finals

Storm landing on the Downs to the backdrop of a storm landing on the Downs

(see what I did there?)

Isn't Spring a glory to behold!

peeping again

the day starts with some full size action

followed by the mighty Fox

'spot the full size' competition

winner gets a freeze dried spring thermal

it's all scale today...

apart from the Germans

sloper's posture universally recognised across all borders

'the tree reached up and grabbed it'

Fox down

warming up for the Southern Cup

exactly how much crap is on the Goodwind lens?

Eric, sea and real life sloping

Eric, phone and sloping sim

it's the future

Gary left ballast at home, so opts for clipped wing mode

just prior to launch, the wind drops and it's on with the full span

hmmm, nice!

seems that scale is where it's at right now

but here comes a 1:1 scale squall....

so it's time to pack up the glidermobile

Paul hunkers down in there somewhere

Meanwhile there's been a lovers tiff in the front. Simon wants his 'Top 10 mouldie whistles' CD

on repeat all the way home, whereas Eric is adamant we should be calming down with 'sub 10mph wind noise' by The Edge. The Fox's fin goes up like the Berlin Wall.

peace offering, and we all manage to agree on

the audio book edition of 'Fifty Shades of Grey'

The short- Good Friday

A rather sedate video in memory of the late Mr Hoskins....

full size glider lands in full size tree

expanding audience, shrinking brain

That Bastion of all things middle class, the mighty 'The Daily Mail' is ready to fight our corner! With its finger on the pulse of all that is important, it briefly diverts from house price speculation and adulterous celebrities to offer moral support to the down trodden aeromodeller....

"For more than 20 years, members of the Plaster Down Flying Association have been playing with their model aircraft on Dartmoor.

Now they’ve been banned after complaints  from ramblers, who fear being strafed by the planes. I can think of no better use for model aeroplanes than strafing ramblers, who think they own the countryside.

Perhaps this is part of a wider crackdown. The owner of a remote-control plane in Cumbria has been fined £4,340 after breaching a no-fly zone near the submarine factory at Barrow-in-Furness.

Admittedly, the skies are becoming crowded these days, what with Amazon planning drone deliveries and the police scrambling helicopters every five minutes.

In the latest incident, the Met sent up Whirlybird One to tackle a reported ‘gunman’ on Parliament Hill Fields in North London. Turned out he was just practising Tai Chi.

I look forward to dog-fights between model aircraft and police helicopters in the no-fly zone over Hampstead Heath.

Ramblers at six o’clock, Sarge!"

So next time one of our slope sites is at risk, bypass the BMFA and get straight onto Richard Littlejohn (unless you enjoy both rambling and aeromodelling, that is).