Roger Broad

The sad news has reached us that Roger passed away last Thursday

His funeral will be on Monday morning at Medway Crematorium.

It has been asked (in a what must be a reflection of his upbeat manner) that should anyone wish to attend, could they please refrain from wearing black.

He will surely be missed up on the hill.

holly hill heaven

Come 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon and Holly Hill hits her prime. Gentle wind and a few thermals complimented with some sunshine.

Martin is non-plussed due to his lack of light lift equipment

Charlie's Fox pretends it's in California

a nifty knife edge maneuver for the camera

low passes too

Martin manages to skillfully hang on with the Apache

but just then, the lipo battery in the Fox spontaneously combusts....

leaving only piles of ash where once stood happy aero-modellers

Oh well, at least we end up with one of those rare blog entries where the flying shots outweigh the incidental gumpf!

spring pre-dawn

Thursday brings us the first glimmer of spring, the promise of sun and a decent wind brings a good crowd of fliers to the hill. Unfortunately the Goodwind camera is not in attendance, so here's a reconstruction of a few of the highlights

the sun

the crowd

the superb thermals

Jason enjoys the Sigma....

Deryck enjoys some low passes





Paul's been enjoying some lead fumes




We all enjoy Gary's Habicht

snippet of summer

It's all been a bit cold and miserable round here recently, so here's a reminder of what it's like to fly in a tee shirt!

I'm an inland soarer, get me out of here!

Deryck, Al, Bob and Paul hit the chilly coastal clime of Beltinge. We have intermittent drizzle and a wind that swings progressively NNE as the afternoon rolls on. You can't beat coastal lift for smoothness, but this contrasts strongly with the nasty rotor. It's working hard to claim a victim, but the only casualty today ends up being Paul's underpants following two particularly lairy landing approaches.

Deryck slips on by

the rotor lies in wait

Deryck's unphased

and continues his grooving on the lip

After all the roaring around these F3F wanna bees can take, they break out the foam and make best use of the northely blow heading off on a cross country to Reculver Towers. The cliffs have to be 'worked' a bit to get there, and by the time the elevation drops down to promenade level, both Paul and Deryck end up on the deck.

near miss with old briny

the bowl beneath the towers works well






but the light is fading





quit while you're ahead

On heading back to the cars, we bump into Janet Street Porter striking out across the cliff tops. A recent eye operation leaves her in a less than photogenic state. So despite the fact she'd love to be in close proximity to two grown men with their toy planes, she politely declines the opportunity to have a go on the sticks, or feature in the blog!

leakage

Col

nosbiG

giingggggger

asboed

sunny 2011

Big Al enjoys the big blue, the thermals are out there...

we don't call him 'Big Al' for nothing...

see, absolutely no camera trickery

Trev's been chomping the Christmas balloons again

and turfs out a deflated specimen from trap two

'right, let's get some flying in'

Trev's on test pilot duty

a couple of Rutan Vari-thingies do a fly over

narrowly avoiding the Photoshop 'sharpen' filter

76 and still got a decent launch arm on him!

Mick dusts off his Lipo sack

he's planning to spend all of next week on the hill...

'is it just me or can you smell/hear/feel something burning?'

new year gloom

They tell us the days are getting longer, but the first working day of the New Year sees many of the usual slacking suspects shrouded in dim cold clag on the brow of the Downs.

this morning's solar eclipse lasted until about 3.30pm at Thurnham

It's a day for floaters that can take a large moisture deposit on their wings and still keep scratching along. By the time we're all chilled to the core, the sun puts in a brief appearance that does little to warm our cockles, but at least it brings along a sprightlier breeze.

silhouette theme today

The patch is flat and fluid, and Deryck makes the most of the skid pan for long landing slides, model to temple impact concussion doing little to quell his fervour.

There is some thermal activity though, or is it just the dog turd bonfire behind the pub stirring things up?

I'll show you mine if you show me yours...

and then BOOM! the sun came out