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Report and photos from Gary Oulds of Crawley DMAC

1st FF AREA MEETING - Ashdown Forest - 6 March 05

(results)

We were just about the first to arrive at the usual Bushy Willows car-park, north- easterly end of the Forest, closely followed by C.D Neil Allen (East Grinstead) and Crawley flyers Peter Norman and Tony Clark. There was plenty of compacted ice and snow laying all over the Forest, generally approx six inches, three feet or more in some deep in places, (I fell in one of these trenches later in the day). Some broken sunshine greeted the flyers early on, which helped to make it feel a bit warmer in the morning.

The forecast was for a northerly wind direction which sent some models up towards Camp Hill and beyond later in the day. John Oulds recovered well after a couple of poor flights early on, watched both of his gliders disappear over the top, in two big thermals over Camp Hill,  run out of models on the day. Both models were  recovered next day, one from the roof of a cottage near the stables and the other was Bio tracked down a half mile further on in the top of a small copse of trees.

Early flights where generally OK, some models where definitely more time-keeper friendly than others, as it was quite hard to keep track of models below the horizon. I noted two or three normally very prominent white & day-glow gliders almost totally vanish against the snowy backdrop...I think Trevor's vivid blue and shockingly pink F1G was relatively safe (although I'm not sure if we should be really encouraging a pink model movement...), Ken Taylor's glider appeared to be saved by silver mylar flashing occasionally, as it turned, (my own glider was white ..... and useless in the conditions... perfectly camouflaged. I only found it when I'd almost walked on it, following a tracker signal).

Most flights wandered around the Valley (of Doom), Ken Taylor attempted to fly vintage glider, but soon switched to F1A after his Lulu winged in sharply...then continued on to fly probably the most consistent glider of the day, aided by frozen son helper Brindley, who had chosen not to risk flying his new bunter this time. Tony Clark and Robin Willes both flew vintage rubber, the Bazookas scoring vital RAFA points for Crawley. Peter Cameron and myself backed up glider with one and two flights respectively. Crawley were under full strength though, minus Glider man Terry Knight and also Alex Cameron, unable to attend, still recovering from a cooking  incident earlier in week, that had left him nursing a very nasty looking scalding on his foot.

Not much stops Trevor Grey, Maidstone's only entry on the day, flying F1G Coupe, especially once he's on auto-pilot. But even he returned from one particular early  flight puffing, reporting it was pretty tough going... Footing was really treacherous in places and glider flyers wisely chose to tow across a short heather patch rather than risk it over on the fire-breaks.

Unphased by the conditions Neil Allen flew steadily on in vintage rubber picking off the maxes to make yet another well deserved fly-off (how does he make it all look so seemingly easy) We returned from Camp Hill at the end of the day just in time to catch Neil preparing for the Fly-off, which Ken timed making a creditable 4minute plus flight. I think most had departed by this time - well done Neil. We packed up quickly and drove round while it was still light to have a quick shot at searching for Dad's lost second before heading home.....and our adventure was to continue the following day.

I hope everyone who attended really enjoyed the day, and for those that didn't make it this time, this report gives a short account of what happened. Hope to see you all next meeting...........   Ashdown is God!