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4 wings into wind.
There were four of us flying powered wings
today. Alan Mortimer on a Mosquito powered Solar Wings Rumour,
Steve Nortje on a Wasp powered Avian Rio and Graeme Blakemore
flying a Booster powered Discovery. I was flying my Wasp/K4.
It was looking like a very light easterly
so we planned to fly out from a field behind Mt Caburn and
on to Beachy Head and Eastbourne before turning inland and
back to the field.
We soon discovered that there was a brisk
S.Easterly wind blowing above 500 ft. This meant that our
progress was really slow. Alan and I pushed on ahead having
the faster wings but even with the bar in and about 90% power
on we were making slow progress. This is exactly what I said
I wouldn't do again. Flying into wind is just a waste of time
and fuel. You go nowhere and burn lots of fuel quickly.
I got to the end of the Firle ridge at Alfriston
and gave up on it. I'd had enough of making slow progress
and left Alan to it. On the way back I passed Graeme who was
stuggling to make any progress on his 195 Discovery. He looked
like he was on a mission and was determined to keep on going.
My groundspeed was increased to over 50 mph now and I was
looking around for Steve on his Wasp. I saw him about 3 miles
back heading for the landing field. I thought I'd catch him
and get him to go crosswind to Newhaven. I soon realised that
he had other plans though and he was setting up an approach
to land. When he'd got himself into the field I flew around
for another 10 mins or so just enjoying the view and then
went in to land.
When I got down I realised that Steve was
not a happy man. His Wasp had packed up after being really
lumpy for the whole flight and to top it all, he had broken
his front crown-tooth on the mouth throttle on the climb out.
This was not a good introduction to powered flying for Steve.
He had only just taken delivery of the Wasp and had just done
his training on it after having had some initial engine problems
which had previously set him back a couple of weeks. This
was not going to inspire confidence in the unit. I'm sure
Chris Taylor at Wasp Systems will want to sort this one out
once and for all since there is no use in having a unit out
there that is constantly breaking down. Particularly since
the Mosquito and Booster flew without any problem. My Wasp
has flown perfectly since Chris ironed out the few minor problems
that I had with it and I'm now very happy with it. I'm sure
he'll do his utmost to get Steve's problems sorted out.
Thanks to Alan, Steve and Graeme for joining
me on this flight. I look forward to doing some more, next
time downwind.
Gliders Flown:
K4, Rumour, Rio, Discovery
Power Units:
Wasp, Mosquito, Booster
Miles flown:
5 - into wind, 5 miles downwind
Fuel Used:
2.5 litres
Lesson Learned:
Do not fly into wind
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| Alan Mortimer |
Graeme Blakemore |
Steve Nortje |
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| Booster |
South Downs |
Steve over Mt Caburn |
As usual click the pics to enlarge to 450
px.
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