A FLIGHT!!!! FINALLY!!!!

I managed to take a break at lunchtime and head down to Southerndown with my trusty Wasabi in tow. I'm really quite fond of this plane and should probably spend some time on giving it a refurbish as it is looking a little tiny bit tatty.
When I got to Southerndown, the 12-15mph SW wind (which would have been absolutely perfect) had morphed itself into a 5 mph SSW wind which was butt-clenchingly light!
I must have either taken my 'brave' pills or was just desperate to fly, because I launched into wind that seagulls were flapping in ........ and flew!
I had a couple of moments where I needed to decide quickly to land and managed to do so successfully!
In hindsight, I probably should have turned right at the top of my road instead of left and headed to the Back of the Wrecker for more lift and to catch up with the guys getting ready for the SWSA Woolybacks F3F tomorrow. It would have been great to catch up. Maybe I can escape for an hour or so today to say G'day.

Anyway, I managed to get some video today. Enjoy!

Great Video from Chris Studley

I can't believe I haven't put this video on my blog before now!
It is probably my favourite sloping video of all time (so far) and it isn't just because I am in it with my Skorp. It represents one of the best days I have ever had on the slope, hanging with my mates in beautiful scenery with silky-smooth lift and gorgeopus sunshine. AND it's all 20 minutes drive from home!
How did I think I would ever be able to stop slope soaring????

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays / Seasons Greetings

Enjoy the Christmas period everyone!!!
Be Safe and enjoy yourselves.
Hopefully you will get out on a hill somewhere too!!

Soaring at Southerndown today? Hopefully!

Hi. My name is Clayton, and it has been 4 months and thirteen days since I last had a tipple at the fountain of slope-soaring.

I nearly failed in my abstinence about a month ago and was rewarded by tripping and nearly removing my foot at the ankle. Still can't walk properly, but am going to attempt to go soaring tomorrow at Southerndown. The forecast isn't inspiring, but I'm hoping the rain will stay away long enough for me to get some flights and video done.

On a family note, our new son, Adam was born on the 11/12/2011 at 0340hrs weighing in at 3.27kg. Clare and Adam are doing very very well. Here's a quick photo from his birthday:

Light wind relaxation on Rhossili

I decided to make the most of my last free day of my annual leave this past Friday and took the Wasabi and Gentle Lady to Rhossili for a nice session with Andy and Roger.

Was a nice relaxing morning that got very crowded with 30 paragliders showing up to make the most of a really nice day. Most of the paragliders were really pleasant and gave us some space after we moved to an area of the slope requested by the club Secretary. As so often happens, there were two paragliders that disregarded their own safety and decided to fly directly through the tiny area of sky we had been allocated to use, without giving us any warning. I nearly accidentally hit them both on separate occasions, and my polite requests for some space were ignored with a smirk. Kind of put a dampener on my day and caused me to get a bit grumpy.

To add further to my frustrations, I misjudged where my plane was and managed to have a mid-air with Roger's Ocelot. No damage to the Wasabi and creased the leading edge on the Ocelot, Sorry Rog.

I didn't get any videos and only took a couple of Photos

Can't quit totally!

I managed to keep hold of my planes and will be using them now and then. I won't be committing to racing any more though as it was my competitive nature that was keeping me from my family, and I was wasting a LOT of time on forums, so will continue to refrain from posting on them.

I will be getting out for a sports fly when everything lines up and will continue to try to get videos and photos to share with you when I do.

Should have an opportunity to go flying at Rhossili on Friday. Roger should be maidening his Stingray!! And Andy should be maidening his Ascot!! Very exciting and even if I haven't fixed the Wasabi and Skorp by then, I will go along just to hang out.

Anyway, it feels good to have revised my 'knee-jerk' reaction.

More after Friday!

Thanks for reading.

Thank you to all the people that have taken an interest in reading the drivel that I write about my slope-soaring adventures.

Unfortunately, there will be no further slope-soaring adventures from me to write about and share with you from now on.

I had a revelation on Sunday while I was driving home after spending my Daughter's 3rd birthday fighting Mother Nature to try to complete an F3F event.

I am not giving my family the time, effort and attention that they need, want and Deserve.


Hopefully, when time and money permit, I will be able to get back out onto the slopes and enjoy the fantastic company, scenery and flying experiences again in the future.

Thanks again

Kind Regards

Clayton Landells

North of England Open F3F

Congrats to the top three placegetters in what was reported to be a very challenging two-day event with a total of 5 rounds being flown.


1 Dieter Perlick 3782.20
2 Espen Torp 3472.96
3 Joel West 3458.36


Hopefully there will be some detailed reports and photos somewhere soon.

North of England Open

Good luck to all the competitors taking part in the North of England Open this weekend at the Hole of Horcum.

Hope you have a great time, Looking forward to hearing about the action!!!

New perspective for a slopesoaring Vid

Scott Ravenscroft was having a play with his FPV copter at the Leek and Moorland club and uploaded this footage to youtube.

I really like it and think the potential for some awesome footage with different viewpoints of sloping is huge.

Enjoy!




Some info about the equipment used and the man behind the footage can be found here:
http://www.modelgliders.co.uk

BMFA F3F Nationals 2011: the result

Sorry it has taken me a while to get around to writing about my experiences at the 2011 BMFA F3F Nationals, been a bit busy.

Saturday didn’t really ‘dawn’ at all. Thirty competitors arrived at the Bwlch greeted by fog and rain. We didn’t see the sun all day and sat around in the clouds getting wet and frustrated. At 4ish, a desperate convoy of glider pilots made our way to Southerndown cliffs to try to at least fly something. It was almost promising when we arrived with the breeze a little bit off the slope but flyable. After about 15-20 minutes the clouds managed to drop low enough that our planes were disappearing at about 100 feet up, so we called it a day.

Met up with a few blokes for a curry Saturday night and had a very enjoyable meal in great company.

The forecast for Sunday was quite promising with a warm and sunny day on the cards with a decent breeze on the Back of the Wrecker. Those who got out of bed early were greeted at the Wrecker car park by thick clouds. I arrived just as the fog had dropped below the car park delivering a spectacular view. “Wow, what a view” I thought, “better get a photo”. Searched for my camera and realized that I had left both my stills and video cameras at home. Bugger!

Fortunately some other guys had remembered their cameras and have been kind enough to let me display some photos here for you.

These spectacular views were captured by Tom Foreman.

For me, Sunday’s racing was some of the best I have been to. The organization was slick and the flying was excellent. We managed to complete 8 rounds with 29 pilots in conditions that started out quite varied and became more consistent as the day progressed. The range of models on display was impressive to say the least. We had everything from Alliaj’s to Xenon’s, Fosa’s, Freestylers and Acacia II’s, Cyril’s, Ceres’ and Ascot’s.

Tom flying his Xenon (Photo by Simon Thornton)

From my point of view, the Acacia II had a fantastic Swan-song (I have sold it now) enabling me to finish in eleventh place with 918 points. I have really enjoyed the ownership experience of the Acacia II and am fairly sure that I will eventually buy another one …………. Not before I have flown the paint off my Skorpions!!

                                        Simon Thornton also took this photo of me about to launch.

Tom Foreman captured some video on Sunday as well and has kindly let me show it to you here too.

The results for the 2011 BMFA F3F Nationals are:

1              Simon Thornton               6541.57      1000.00

2              Mark Redsell                   6502.31      993.99

3              Kev Newton                    6479.83      990.56

4              Martin Newnham             6334.70      968.37

5              Peter Gunning                  6292.70      961.95

6              Joel West                         6284.91     960.76

7              Adam Richardson             6223.19     951.32

8              Mike Evans                      6164.88     942.41

9              Greg Dakin                       6152.25    940.48

10           Keith Woods                     6111.02    934.18

11           Clayton Landells                6017.09    919.82

12           Frank Hulton                     5939.95    908.03

13           Andrzej Tabero                 5873.03    897.80

14           Rich Bago                          5809.14   888.03

15           Mick Walsh                       5802.42   887.00

16           Paul Middleton                   5770.05   882.05

17           Scott Ravenscroft               5744.77   878.19

18           Mark Abbotts                    5720.39   874.46

19           Dave Rumble                     5717.33   873.99

20           Jon Edison                         5491.28   839.44

21           Ian Mason                         5386.61   823.44

22           Paul Upton                         5383.18   822.91

23           Tom Foreman                    5319.04   813.11

24           Paul Stubley                       5264.55   804.78

25           Tony Robertson                 5198.63   794.70

26           Peter Burgess                    5176.49   791.32

27           Jason Bioletti                     4964.13   758.85

28           Mark Treble                      4800.78   733.88

29           John Treble                        4782.38   731.07

Fastest time of the day was a 37.89 by Pete Gunning with his Cyril

Simon Thornton (Fosa), Mark Redsell (Freestyler) and Kev Newton (Ceres) were separated by a miniscule 9.45 normalised points for the first three positions! Close stuff!!






Photos of the Winners taken by Tom Foreman

BMFA F3F Nationals 2011

The 2011 BMFA F3F nationals are taking place at the Bwlch this weekend (both Saturday and Sunday).

Really looking forward to a great, action-packed weekend. Unfortunately I will only be flying the Acacia II as I haven't been able to fix either Skorp. Bit bummed, but the Acacia II is a fantastic plane, especially in good conditions.

KPT vids

I have uploaded a selection of single-run videos from the KPT to my Vimeo account. Check them out via the link on the right.

I was intending to create a clip with music and effects'n'stuff but haven't and probably won't.

Here are a couple of photos.

Round 2 of the KPT F3F

Nine blokes arrived at the meeting point greeted by overcast skies and a reasonable breeze. Actually there were ten arrivals, but Andrzej has had a massive time at work lately so he just popped up to deliver the course equipment and then went home to recuperate ready for another smashing week at work. So the nutty nine competitors made our way up to the West slope of Mickeys and got the course set up in double-quick time (thanks for that!) and we were off and running.
John Treble was first cab off the rank and he had an absolute blast of a day bettering his PB twice along the way with his best time of the day being a 43.46. His Extreme was screaming and he kept raving about how good it was all day.
Bob Runyeard deserves a special mention as this was his first ever F3F event and he was competing with a Typhoon 2m model. He managed to set his PB at 43.26 getting second place in that round only beaten by Martin Newnham. We were all extremely impressed and are sure that he is now well and truly hooked and will be back for more!
Phil Taylor also needs a special mention for being the only person I have ever witnessed doing a 72 second run in 35 second air! After cutting twice, he decided to display his flair and creativity with an aerobatic influenced F3F run. I also believe he was the only person on the day to fly three models with the wizard being the fastest for him, but ‘Fletcher’ definitely being the most eye-catching.
Adrian Bedford and I (Clayton Landells, just in case you didn’t know) had a really close race today. For the first round it was Skorp F3B verses Skorp DSL. In round two I had a brain fart that resulted in my Skorpion clipping the ground and cartwheeling ¾ of the length of the course bringing out the Acacia II for the remainder of the day. I was gradually extending my lead over Ade most of the day and in the last three rounds Ade made huge gains on me and was as close as damn is to swearing to beating me to fourth place overall leaving him in fifth.
Stu Brookes flew really consistently all day to finish in sixth place followed by John Treble, BobbyR and Phil Taylor.
The top three positions were filled by the usual suspects of Joel West, Martin Newnham and Simon Thornton.
Simon was hot straight out of the blocks, first flying his Alliaj HM and then giving his Fosa a good thrashing for the rest of the day. After taking eight of the first nine rounds he was looking untouchable and did not relinquish the lead at all, eventually winning ten of the fourteen rounds flown. Outstanding display by a masterful pilot!
Martin and Joel had more of a battle for the two lower podium places and were both very keen to get the fourteenth round in to get the second discard and give themselves the best chance of second place. In the end there was only a few points in it with Martin just pipping Joel for second place.
Round winners other than Simon (WITH TEN!!!!!!!!!!!) were Martin with two rounds and Joel and myself with one each. Martin also flew the fastest time of the day with a blistering 33.08! The finishing positions are below and the spreadsheet is available under the 'files' tab on the F3F yahoo group  for your perusal and enjoyment.
Thanks to Simon for helping me with the CD duties and everyone else for helping to keep the day running smoothly and helping where required. I really enjoyed the day today and am looking forward to the next one already.
I will add some photos and video later in the week.


1  S Thornton          12811.47   1000.00
2  M Newnham       12219.55    953.79
3  J West                12199.25    952.21
4  C Landells          11311.14    882.89
5  A Bedford          11284.06    880.77
6  S Brookes          10893.21    850.27
7  J Treble              10553.34    823.74
8  B Runyeard        10242.69    799.49
9  P Taylor             10003.29    780.80

Had my first free Thursday for a while this week and booked myself a therapy session on Rhossili Down.
I had planned to get down to Rhossili early to get some 'no slope' racing practice on the 30 foot dunes at the base of Rhossili and arrived at 8.30 to find that the wind wasn't strong enough to warrant walking down to the dunes and decided to yomp it to the top instead.

I took my Acacia II, the Skorpion and the Wasabi and all three had a workout during the day. The Wasabi is a revelation for me with the type of flying it drags out being SO MUCH FUN! Hopefully soon I will have some more tricks to fill my videos with. Just got a little repair to do before I fly it again.

Had a great time flying with Roger and Andy in the sometimes quite crowded, but pleasant company of Hangliders and Paragliders.




Here is a short video from the day.

Wasabi on the Wrecker

Fixed my Wasabi and made it to the Bwlch for a quick session on the wrecker.
This 60 inch plane is an absolute blast to fly! I can see that it will become my weapon of choice for larking about on the slopes. I'm quite excited about finally having a plane that I can throw around to stretch my aerobatic capabilities. Hopefully it will help me to make some more interesting videos too.
Speaking of videos, I took my tripod and video camera along for the re-maiden and cobbled together a quick clip to the sounds of Wolfmother. I should have set up the headcamera a bit for some more variety of shots, but only had an hour.
When I was making the video, I cut heaps of slack out, sorted clips into appropriate sections that fit with the music, pressed 'save' and ........... crash. Nothing. So the version I have uploaded is unfortunately a bit of a mishmash, with the clip I wanted to use for the final fying shot placed at about 2 min instead of at the end, and also a bit too much view with no plane.

I first put the clip on Youtube as it was too big for the free version of Vimeo and I wasn't inclined to splash out for Vimeo PLUS membership.
Youtube likes to restrict lots of vids from being watched in Germany, where there are an incredible amount of people who love gliding, so I have joined vimeo plus and uploaded it there.
Now I just need to make sure I get my 'monies worth'

Hope you enjoy the vid

Uni work is done and dusted!

Time to crack on with some repairs and finish a couple of builds. Just a pity I missed a few weeks of fantastic sloping weather while I was sitting at the computer pulling all my hair out!

First up, I'll finish (to flying, not showroom standard) the Wasabi, then I'll repair the Skorp and fit out the new fuselage for the Skorp DSL wings. Should keep me busy for a while and I'll see what bits I have left to recycle into other planes when I'm done.

Hopefully get out for a squirt with the Wasabi tomorrow, weather permitting.

little vid from BMFA round 3 Hole of Horcum

Vid from Joel West

Here is a quick video taken and edited by Joel West.
It shows a run at the Hole of Horcum from John Thornton, Mike Shellim and Mark Redsell. Screen fills up with my ugly mug at the end

Round 3 BMFA F3F 22 May 2011

Mike Evans finally had some good air when he was delayed and flew in someone else's slot










Up before the crack of dawn had even contemplated warming up (3am) and headed off towards the North York Moors for round 3 of the 2011 BMFA F3F league. The forecast hinted at some showers and predicted that it might be a little bit blowy! Well the 30-odd competitors that braved the conditions weren't quite expecting the wind to be that strong. During the day I noticed quite a few people asking for the wind strength to be checked (I think they were scared, hehe) but I'm not aware that the wind exceeded the limit during the comp.

The wind was slightly crossed for the first few rounds with the occasional thermic influence squaring the wind a little giving hints at teh speeds to come later in the day. Martin Newnham blew us all away in round 1 flying a staggering 32 second run, setting the standard for the rest of the day.

Landing safely was a bit of an issue! The strength of the wind made finding a smooth area behind the slope difficult to say the least and quite a few competitors were caught out (myself included). I managed to get forced into the ground fairly convincingly resulting in a snapped fuselage and broken V-tail half. Easily repairable so should have her up and running for the next event.











As I mentioned earlier, some of the times were absolutely ballistic!
Mark Redsell in particular had some amazing flights with 30.90 being his fastest for the day.
There were 40 times under 40 seconds for the day! The conditions were pretty impressive, as was the flying!

I finally managed to beat my PB (previously set with the Acacia II at 39.89) with the Skorp by flying a 38.19 just as the conditions really started to pick up. I then managed to break the fuselage so thought my day was pretty much done.

Not true though!!! The old faithful Acacia II decided that it was not to be outdone and gave me two more sub40 times, the first a 39.xx and the second took the fastest time of the final round with a 36.19!!!! So my new PB is still with the Acacia II. She lapped up the conditions in the afternoon and I am sure she would have gone faster as I made a few mistakes (only little ones though). Things happen pretty quickly at those sorts of times!
I was pretty knackered when I finally arrived back home at 11.30pm! Well worth the effort though.

The top 3 for the event were Mark Redsell, Joel West and Peter Gunning. Mark was definitely a cut above the rest with a substantial lead by the end of the day.

I managed to finish in 7th place and am really pleased with myself.
The finishing positions and scores from the day are at bottom.

I didn't get any pics of Mark flying his Freestyler (except for the one at the top (he is CDing for Mike). Joel (left) flew his Freestyler like a clinician and Pete (right) thrashed Cyril to within an inch of its life.

I took a few clips of video and will try to put them together with some photos and music later in the week.

Thanks to Adam Richardson for keeping me awake while I was driving.
Thanks also to the NYMSRC for hosting a fantastic day.

RESULTS

1 Mark Redsell Freestyler                          4941.27   1000
2 Joel West Freestyler                               4551.82    921
3 Peter Gunning Cyril                                 4504.14    912
4 Martin Newnham Freestyler                    4487.32    908
5 Paul Middleton Vikos                             4390.11    888
6 Keith Wood Freestyler                           4300.33    870
7 ME Skorp / Acacia II                             4281.42    866
8 Richard Bago Alliaj                                 4268.41    864
9 Mark Abbotts Extreme                           4038.47    817
10 Mike Evans Cyril                                  4023.94    814
11 Mick Walsh Ceres                                4018.54    813
12 Simon Thornton Extreme                       4015.92    813
13 John Thornton Skorp                            3980.38    806
14 Frank Hulton Extreme                           3964.74    802
15 Mike Shellim Skorp                              3956.77    801
16 Adam Richardson Needle100/Extreme  3907.21    791
17 Jon Edison Sting                                    3885.81    786
18 Mike McCracken Extreme                    3763.13    762
19 Dave Watson Race M                           3713.36    751
20 Ronnie Lamp Sting                                3696.64    748
21 Paul Upton Acacia II                             3640.93    737
22 George Young Vikos / Skorp                3546.51    718
23 Tom Foreman Zenon / Artist                  3523.65    713
24 Egon Lewin Acacia II                            3367.89    682
25 Tony Robertson Ceres                           3246.54    657
26 Phil Smillie Acacia II                              3242.22    656
27 Mark Treble W. Compact                     3137.50    635
28 Jonathan Wells Estrella                          2745.49    556
29 Kev Knewton Fosa                               2268.74    459
30 Steve Kenyon Strega                            1494.35     302

managed to put together a small clip from Yesterday's racing

It's on youtube as well if you prefer that, just follow the link to my youtube vids page

KPT results from Round 1

Well today was a very interesting day!

8 competitors were greeted on the Westerly slope of Mickeys by a fairly chilly breeze and overcast sky. We completed 6 rounds before lunch with some absolutely blistering times being set before the rain decided to slow our party down a bit. There were many times in the mid 30's with John Phillips taking the fastest time of the day with a 35.15.

After lunch the conditions seemed slightly less variable, with less thermal activity. The times were still pretty fast with low 40's taking each of the last six rounds.

Joel, Martin and Simon all flew extremely well to take the top three spots for the day. It was very, very close at the top!

John Treble  deserves a mention as flying his new Extreme he was off to a stonking start of the day, setting a new PB and pulverizing me in each of the first six rounds. Well Done John! 

I had an absolute shocker! I had the slowest time of 4 out of the first 6 rounds and left myself a mountain of work to catch John Treble. Don't know where my head was at, but it seems like a bit of a recurring theme for me at the moment. 

Second half of the competition went much better for me after it was pointed out that my climb-outs were pretty ineffective (I am sure I have been told this before!). I removed some ballast, adjusted the snapflap (not to help the climb-out!) and the Skorp was a different beast for the rest of the day.

Thanks to the guys for supporting the KPT by coming along, competing and helping the day to flow smoothly.

I took some video today while I was CDing and unfortunately you can only see the planes while they are below the horizon so the footage isn't worth working with. I took some photos though and a few are attached below

Here are the finishing positions and scores:

1  Joel West 10434.66 2  Martin Newnham 10406.79 3  Simon Thornton 10289.88 4  John Phillips 10054.10 5  Greg Dakin 9927.57 6  Andrzej Tabero 9550.74 7  Clayton Landells 9048.00 8  John Treble 8398.98

Ken Philips Trophy 2011, round 1

Tomorrow is the first round of the 2011 SWSA F3F Summer League. Forecast looks to be putting us on the Westerly slope of Mickeys. Hopefully the weather plays nice and the possibility of low cloud spoiling our day doesn't materialise. We've definitely got enough wind coming our way, the forecasts can't make up their mind about direction though, so we will just have to 'suck it and see'.
Should be a blast though. I'll let you know how I get on and hopefully get some photos or video (harder to achieve at the local events as I generally help out with the running of the day).

Round 2 at Tinkers

Round 2 of the BMFA F3F league has been run and won.

Massive congratulations to Joel West for finally taking his first win in the BMFA and also setting a new hill record of 36.25 seconds on Tinkers in challenging and very changeable conditions.




The results are:

1  Joel West          Freestyler          7417.08
2  Mark Redsell       Alliaj/Freestyler   7259.00
3  Richard Bago       Alliaj/Martinet     7187.46
4  Simon Thornton     Extreme             7150.49
5  Martin Newnham     Freestyler          7013.28
6  Peter Gunning      Alliaj/Cyril        6853.76
7  Adam Richardson    Vampire             6627.46
8  Mark Abbotts       Extreme             6545.65
9  Paul Upton         Acacia II/W.Compact 6524.24
10 David Elam         Strega/Sting        6466.77
11 Frank Hulton       Extreme             6361.84
12 Kieth Wood         Freestyler/Sting    6349.24
13 Jon Edison         Extreme             6263.87
14 John Thornton      Skorpion            6256.60
15 Clayton Landells   Skorpion/Acacia II  6173.05
16 Ronnie Lampe       Sting/Strega        6158.47
17 Mick Walsh         Ceres               6087.90
18 Paul Townsend      Skorpion/Strega     5957.56
19 Tim Shaw           Vikos/Acacia II     5902.39
20 Mark Treble        W.Compact           5644.56
21 Phil Smillie       Acacia II           5339.58
22 Egon Lewin         Acacia II           5256.32
23 Mike Evans         Freestyler          4581.60
24 Tom Foreman        Artist              1915.62

For me, it was a reasonably frustrating day as I struggled to keep the Skorp away 

from the edge in the very blustery conditions. 

I was also experimenting with different lines, settings and styles for the first 2/3 of the day.

The conditions eased off for the last few rounds and I found that I was able to put the Skorp where I wanted. 

I was feeling much better about my flying after crossing the line in round 8.

I was then caught out by the change in conditions on my approach to landing. 

In previous rounds, there was very little rotor as the hill was almost blown out. 

On my landing for this second-last round, I put the crows out to find that the Skorp was 

accelerating at my head. I took evasive action with the plane and managed to 

de-laminate one of the wings at the trailing edge. 

Bummer!

It could have been a whole lot worse and I am pretty lucky to still have her in one piece.

I flew the last round with my trusty AcaciaII and was happy to be finished for the day.

A quick bit of an accolade.

Paul Upton flew amazingly well and finished in the top 10 in his first ever F3F event. 

He predominantly flew his AcaciaII! 

I wish I could fly mine like he flew his!

I managed to leave the video in my car, so no vids.

I only got the camera out for a short while and below are the results of the shutter fluttering.

Below is Tom launching Paul's AcaciaII

Joel willing Simon's Extreme on (or is that willing it slower)