Monday 30th july..

On the monday I had to take off the morning, as ntl were coming to fit a new line for the computer. This had become a huge performance, as it meant taking up the living room carpet and a few floor boards so that the engineer could connect the new cable. Not a problem in itself but the living room is full at present of furniture and stuff. The reason bieng that we are converting the spare room into an office so that I dont keep the boss awake while im writing articles for you scruffy lot to read:-).

Anyway lets get on with it. As luck would have it the weather that day was a repeat performance of saturday with one exception. There was most definately a stronger breeze and so it could just be the perfect day I thought. In my subconscious I had secretly been planning to go up to the beacon and fly agian (such is the addiction.)

Unfortunately The Missus had other Ideas and I made the occasionally lethal move of standing my ground and insisting that I would go and further more she could come too if she wished (now why do we men just never learn?). "Of course ill come with you" she said. It is at that point I should have suspected that later in the day I would regret this move . However, we neednt go into the gory details (OUCH...). After the still exhausting climb to the top we made ourselves comfortable and I got my peg, ready to fly the conditions were almost perfect. Ali installed herself with a cool drink and a magazine on the side of the slope and I got on with the buisiness of gossiping and checking out the conditions. Apart from one other chap I had the slope to myself so theMinimoa was prepared for launch.

Flair K8

Model held high I pushed her away into the air and as usual she sailed into the strong lift. Before too long I was off across to the west and into the first of many thermals. As the model circled gracefully, rising all the time, after about 15 minutes the speck was becoming hard to see so I decided that it was time to find some sink.

The launch..

On its way up..

Shortly after this John Hackett (Hope thats right i'm awfull with names) arrived with his flair ask-8 and launched into the blue. This model is of particular interest to me as it is currently on the building board (has been for three odd years now). As you can see from the pictures it builds into a fine model. However I do feel that the method of building although by no means difficult is a little over complicated. Its a kind of building by numbers affair.

K-8 at launch

John posing for pics.

Over all J ohn reports that he is very pleased with the results of the kit and enjoys flying it a great deal. I have flown a great many kits by Flair and it would be fair to say that i've enjoyed every one. All having very good flying characteristics. He also kindly invited us at Bumpy Green to go and do a talk at the Ivinghoe club. Although public speaking is not my thing Im sorely tempted to do this as it will give us a good chance to find out more about what you would like to see on BG and maybe persuade some of the members to impart thier vast wisdom to the modeling world. WATCH THIS SPACE.

All in all I had a great day at the beacon, with all the usual good fliying characteristics of the site and although a touch overcast it was warm, dry and most of all fun.
Well time to go yet again, cant wait for the next one.

Article by Grot from Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
30th August 2001