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6th FF AREA MEETING - Ashdown Forest - 17 Sept 06

from Gary Oulds of Crawley DMAC (full 6th Area results)

“They Killed the Dinosaur”

Another bright one, warm and sunny, everyone seem to have parked up at Friends Clump early…. obviously eager to take advantage of what looked to be nice conditions, flyers and those supporting started to prepare models for the days flying.

The rangers had obviously been quite busy, as there was a new bench overlooking the forest view and they seem to have cleared away some scrub just down the slope from Friends, this provided a reasonable running area for towing, but there were one or two partially exposed trenches, nasty pits to fall in. Dad actually fell into one of these whilst timing and was lucky to get away with just a couple of wrenched fingers.

It was an enjoyable but tricky day, wind direction wise it was a lottery. If you caught a south-westerly your model was ok sent out safely over the valley, for a fairly easy retrieve, (if there is ever such a thing as an easy retrieve at Ashdown).

Several models hit the woods today as the winds swung southerly a good bump or two sent models descending down onto tree top canopies above the stream as the day wore on. Flyers obviously hoped they might be lucky in clearing the woods.

One of Bob Taylor’s rubber model flights was safely recovered, after he trudged back up the hill model-less to recheck his line, a brief discussion with Terry Knight and John Oulds confirmed somehow he’d followed the wrong compass line and had headed out 100degrees off course which took him to the wrong field …he was all smiles again when he returned a little later this time from the right field with the model.

CD Mike Cook took a bit of a chance when he decided to risk a model that he had placed 2nd with at the previous weeks trials at Barkston Heath and I thought he might have saved it for the 2nd Trials… Ashdown always fortunes well the brave and the foolish. So naturally his reward was also trees.

He managed to free it ok eventually and I think probably wisely decided to stop then…despite the early warning signs it didn’t put too many others off, most continued to try and complete their flights…. if possible.

In Glider, both Brindley Taylor and Alex Cameron disappointingly missed the max on their last flights. Alex’s flight actually ended up hanging precariously in the trees above the pond, the main worry was recovery without it falling into the water and possibly damaging some of the onboard electronics, this was successfully achieved and despite the disappointing drop he was still top score in Glider at Ashdown.

John Oulds used up his full quota of models to get in five flights, one had a broken hook, a second model was last seen descending into trees on the day and the third reappeared for a last flight that came down safely in fields just short of 4minutes from great height.

Terry Knight’s Seja model glided well but he lost a lot of time on an early flight and eventually stopped flying after three flights having spotted a fatigue crack in the leading edge of the main wing…. He continued to help John and myself whose model seemed to be doing ok, averaging reasonable times despite its wayward looking glide pattern. We returned to Ashdown the following day with Terry on a bit of an epic recovery mission of Dad’s tree’d model which was finally recovered undamaged. It took an hour of scanning before Terry spotted it, a combination of four sets of poles put together to reach it, and over 5hrs…to bring it down…. but at least we got it.

John Richardson’s Seja also found the trees, he and Dennis Bird had a bit of a mixed day. Dennis had spoilt his score with a zero on one of his RAFA flights when he unluckily towed in becalmed after a previous hang up.

They managed to get John’s model at the end of the day with the East Grinstead poles, but it sustained a lot of tip damage.

It’s not easy when you’re faced with having to fence a model out of 60ft plus trees with long, often-unwieldy, recovery poles.

Tony Clark lost his glider in thick bracken, but was grateful to see it again when Terry returned with it after back tracking down to it with the aid of a good compass and GPS bearing.

Today was historically notable as this was probably the last time we will see anyone flying large unrestricted Open Rubber models in the skies over Ashdown or anywhere else I guess (or as Martin Stagg put it “the last op to fly a proper open model”) …at least in any national competition event.

As from next year the BMFA have implemented rule changes for 2007, which will effectively kill off the larger dinosaurs of rubber.

Not to be deterred several rubber flyers had a final Jurassic roar before the New Ice Age blows in. Terry Page flew the mini rubber class P30 …while Neil Allen, Mike Richardson, Martin Stagg and Ken Taylor, Peter Norman, and Bob Taylor took up the challenge flying Open Dinosaur…of these I believe Neil, Mike, Martin, and Ken made the Open fly-off finale, flights of which we saw passing over the woods…late in the day. They all looked to get away very nicely indeed, a fitting end to a great day and a great competition.

Of course, we were all treated to what I thought was really the surprise flying highlight of the afternoon, when “The Sally B” B17 Flying Fortress”, returning from an Air show along the coast, flew low-level right across our heads at Friends Clump…fantastic…. and not long after a DC3 Dakota flew by Camp Hill wow! You don’t see sights like that too often.

Roll on the next meeting and good luck to Mike Cook and all the area flyers going to the trials.

Long live the Dinosaur!