Splendid Saturday

Saturday, and finally we're in business!

'I love you so much babe......'

'......let's have a special cuddle.'

and what starts with a discrete fondle, quickly moves on to.... 

a rear entry thrust-a-thon.....

the climatic beat-off is so frantic, his knob

comes off in his hand (just as mum had always warned)!

oh well, let's do some flying instead,

and with a superb sky and a lovely scalie.... does it get much better?

delicate release and pointy finger

to show the way to the lift!

whoosh!!

the grin of a man who didn't bin it!

D -list celebrity Professor Gordon Hillman

turns up for a quick dunk in the clubhouse hot tub

Minimoa gets away nicely!

and it has a jolly decent cruise around

good sky and good wind!

anybody seen my plane?

it's behind you!

cyborg face man ready to launch

whoosh!

what have we here then?

Lear we go....

launch stance shows promise.....

gowaaaaaaahn!

a bit too light and bit too breezy means

it's soon doing a tree slalom

let's just pause and admire the sky.....

stragglers from the jubilee flypast

how about that then!

a serene soarer deep from the bowels of Avicraft

ohh that sky!

good, solid british (white) calf muscle!

nice sky!!

that sky though!

shorts are on!

Minimoa moments before its commune with barbed wire 

full size Nimbus chases Mark down the hill

hmmmmmm, lovely bit of aspect ratio right there!

first landing pass is majestic!

unfortunately she falls short of the fence line

we send up the youngest and fittest

(which isn't setting much of a standard tbh)

split hinge is the only damage

it nestles happily, but the crew are on it

with a successful retrieve!

 half man, half plane

it's a breeze!

It's not often that a sea breeze works in a Kentish soarer's favour. With the mainland swathed in Sunday southerlies, Warden Bay and its easterly cliffs seems like an unlikely location to get some flying in. But as any die-hard slope addict knows, it's always worth packing the Alula when out on a family jaunt.

And so it was yesterday, with the Isle cooking nicely in late spring sun, the cool sea air got pulled onto, and straight up the muddy inclines.

Initially blessed with smooth lift for a good twenty minutes or so, the sun went in and soon after the wind suddenly turned through 90 degrees revealing its true heading and killing any prospect of further fun!

quality control

Tower Pro's new infinitely adjustable

output shaft....

 

seems like this groundbreaking concept

hasn't yet made it through to the servo arms

a blip on the horizon

 Saturday- zero slope lift but nice juicy thermals....

and what's that off in the distance?

let's take a closer look shall we?

It's been a while!

It's been a while, but we're very pleased to announce

that we're back at it!

Grass, glass and a gaseous medium to fly through

what more could you want!

Dave's lovely tailless Lidl conversion

handles the conditions very nicely!

David's picked up a lovely looking, yet to be flown Centi-Phase

we're not too sure about the wing graphics though!

the canopy is in A1 condition

Alan keeps reminding David to remove the wing bags

it's away with no fuss or bother

the net curtain wings breaking new

ground in aerofoil turbulation development

Foss' lines never fail to please the eye

Mark tucks into a sandwich whilst Eric tucks into his brain

lovely Lentus

Prost !

sunny sunday

Sunday dawns bright and sunny but with light a variable winds... however there is the promise

of light and steady south westerlies as the morning progresses.

Alan owns the sky with his DLG

Simon's misplaced pessimism leads him to

launch with a fan at the ready...

Eric's misplaced optimism leads him to get the

deckchair out of the car...

three hours later he's still trying to unpack it

so Alan gives up waiting and has his afternoon

snooze vertically with the aid of locked knees

walk of shame

 

Perranporth

Whistle stop 1/2 day tour of Cornwall rounded

up with a quick visit to Perranporth.

Light to nil wind blowing across the slope...

the natural habitat of the Alula.

poor man's Buzz Lightyear

 

a quick preflight assessment reveals that...

as demonstrated by the locals; landing out is not an option!

best stay in close...

soar the slight twitching of the grass...

and dream about summer!

floaty firle

Well it looks as if Boris has spared us all from another lockdown, but

that in itself may not be enough to save his skin.... that's politics

dealt with, now onto religion and that most scared of  faiths; the soaring of the slopes!

The eve of the last lockdown (Nov 2020?) saw an average of 3mph wafting

up the face of Firle Beacon. Floaters were dusted off and the congregation

congregated optimistically!

the camera batteries died, so we improvised with a

pin hole in an off-cut of Solarfilm

this looks like it's at the cutting edge of extreme floatiness....

it's so black and floaty, it generates its own thermal allowing

for over unity soaring

luckily Dave found his near invisible, nano tube wing joiner

after a long search in the grass 

Eric has brought along his venerable Four Thirds

Eric's happy to play the role of footstool

 

elevator linkage was a bit non-cooperative IIRC

it spontaneously tries to ascend vertically again, but Dave keeps a firm hold

and with the 4mph gale, it's at the top end of its performance bracket

and then all of a sudden, we're falling like flies....

and then it's on the hill again, just so the parachaps can have a

good chuckle at the retrieval crew!

the more sensible among us don't get involved in the walk of shame!