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Successful morning door to door


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I had a couple of hours spare this morning so knocked on a few doors and to my amazement a local farmer and his wife were more than happy to let me use their fields. At one point during the discussion I said something which made one of them say "Oh - so they have a motor then?" at which point I thought it would be game over, but when I said "Yes" she replied "How exciting, that sounds like terrific fun". I'm really astonished - I was expecting the first 99 requests to be turned down flat.

Anyway - I guess I need to get someone experienced round to see if they're really suitable, or I could upload a photo of each field to the site? Might be better than nothing... One of the fields is narrow and lines with trees but if the wind blows along the length (which it was doing today) that might not be too much of an issue... The other currently has cows in it but they're not always out there apparently.

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

Edited by Gregwatson
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  • 3 weeks later...

Completely new to this game, but I guess the undershoot and overshoot areas together with obstacles like trees and powerlines are important.  I needed much bigger fields when I was flying Cessnas, gliders and microlights where we would make judgements from the air considering slope, season (field colours), etc.

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@Gregwatson I would beware of uploading Google pins of your newly found field. The blogs on this site are open for anyone to view. Someone could easily see your posted pin as an open invitation to use the field and then turn up with the intent of doing some low 'pylon style' flying around some trees. Before you know it, your friendly land owner will be kicking you off his land because someone else has ruined it for you. Also, beware of uploading photos taken with your phone. They will probably be geo-tagged and, therefore, pose the same risk. 

Most people on here will offer you friendly advice about the fields you have found and PM you to ask if it is ok for them to fly at the field as well (if it is near them). However, unfortunately not everyone is as sincere in my experience and friendly landowners are hard to find! 

 

PS: From the picture, looks pretty great to me. :-) 

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^^^^That field looks similar to one i fly from.

The fact that your asking is a clue that you`re not entirely happy with it (i`m not entirely happy with the filed i use, either), but if it`s the only one you have access to....

Be prepared for the wind to behave in a way that may be at odds to what you expect, two windsocks 50 yards apart may indicate completely different conditions, for example. The ideal field is a large, open one free from obstacles giving a nice, linear wind across it from any direction.

Conditions on the ground on that field could be quite different to what`s aloft -  ensure you`re not going to fly into turbulent air soon after take-off.

It looks sheltered, too. There may not be any breeze in the late evening to give you a cushion to land into so you`ll probably come in a bit quick.

It`s not ideal for a novice, but it`ll hone your flying skills quickly! Be prepared for launch failures at a site like this due to the changeable wind direction.

Only flying from there when the wind is blowing in the ideal direction could severely limit your flying opportunities.

It`s difficult to judge without actually being there, but if you only fly in benign conditions it should be ok.

Finding a suitable field can be difficult, can`t it?

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I would use one of the extra tall poles for windsock so you can get it as high up as poss. It looks reasonable width side to side, hard to tell from pic. For sure, if you take off with the wind along the length of the field you can guarantee the wind will shift 90 deg so you are landing side to side!

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Yeah  :-(

I think if the wind were in the right direction it would be fine, but of course I have to assume it's perfect when I take off, and then it swings round by 90 degrees.

Hey, this might be the perfect sport for me - where assuming the worst will always happen actually makes sense and is helpful!  :-D

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2 hours ago, Gregwatson said:

Yeah  :-(

I think if the wind were in the right direction it would be fine, but of course I have to assume it's perfect when I take off, and then it swings round by 90 degrees.

Hey, this might be the perfect sport for me - where assuming the worst will always happen actually makes sense and is helpful!  :-D

I had surgery on my elbow after I landed on a long thin (20 m wide) gravel car park, on the top of a very steep hill.  The car park is 100 m wide, but 80 m of it is on 30 deg slope! Wind was perfect for take-off....along the line of the top part of the car-park. Landing was of course then 90 deg cross-wind, which was now coming up the hill and across the car park! Did a perfect landing on my side and used an elbow as a brake.

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44 minutes ago, AndyB said:

I had surgery on my elbow after I landed on a long thin (20 m wide) gravel car park, on the top of a very steep hill.  The car park is 100 m wide, but 80 m of it is on 30 deg slope! Wind was perfect for take-off....along the line of the top part of the car-park. Landing was of course then 90 deg cross-wind, which was now coming up the hill and across the car park! Did a perfect landing on my side and used an elbow as a brake.

Ouch!!

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