Southport Sunday 6th

[flyingdoc]

Hi All,

As I couldn't get to tomorrows flight I tried to get some air time today instead. Got up at 7.00am and headed off to Southport. Arrived to find no one there and probably no one coming. I planted the windsock and watched it for a while whilst checking my weather reports.

The wind sock looked interesting and fairly consistent. I pulled out the wing to give it a bit of a kite. It certainly went up fairly well and didn't move about too much. So I thought a reverse might be in order.

Set everything else up feeling just a touch lonely on my own but determined to get some airtime in.The clouds covered the sky and were fairly high up but I knew rain was likely at some point.

All kitted up I now had my vario and my iPhone strapped to my leg. ( Still worried about it dropping off. The phone not the leg..) Two or three reverse attempts really not going anywhere. Wait for a bit more wind consistency and then go again. This one lifted well but slightly off to the left. Held it a while and walked back under it. Tried to turn but caught my riser on my mike boom. Turned further round and still getting jostled a bit. I think the boom thing lost it for me as it all went ape s**t and I ended up flat on my back and remembered to kill the motor one microsecond after it had already stopped, planted straight into the grass.

A lot more cursing as I tried to quickly unstrap and get out of the motor. I am not sure whether it was embarrassment or the desire to get the motor upright quick as I had visions of fuel coming out of the air valve on the tank. Miraculously when I got the motor upright everything appeared to be intact. I had to search around a bit for the mike cover but everything else was fine.

A very thorough and complete going over revealed that the prop was still perfectly intact...... God was on my side today.

Now that would have been a good place to stop and call it a day. But determination is strong in one who hasn't been airborne enough recently. So set everything up again and try once more. Still ropey wind not making a reverse very easy and it now seems to have backed off quite a bit. Maybe forwards???

Unclipped and re-clipped then check the wind sock. Still more gusty than I would like but worth a go.

As I started the run I got a very strong pull on the wing as it went up. Put a little power on to get me moving more and started to surge forwards with the wing. One step, two, three and then clear...phew. A little ropey wind at circa 200ft climbing full away. Got some gyroscopic so backed off the power and allowed it to stop and then smooth power again. Above 400ft climbing away dropped into full reflex as I was hoping to smooth out the bumps a little.

Once properly airborne starting to feel great and deciding where to go. Quick think on how much fuel I put in and decided a full round Southport cross country was doable even with the strong headwind. Made the first leg the upwind leg and checked my GPS saying I was just making 10mph over ground. This might take a while.

The flight out towards Woodvale was slow and boring but gave me a chance just to soak up the sky and enjoy. As I was approaching Woodvale I was fiddling with the vario and watching the GPS but still fortunately managed to noticed a Cherokee or something similar line up for finals. Stayed appropriately clear of the Woodvale airspace and crossed over to the coast at Royal Birkdale. Turned back North up the beach and now I achieved 54mph over ground on the GPS.

A quick wave at the people on the end of the pier and then head up past the bird sanctuary and back inland. Throughout the flight there had been the usual bumps but coming back over land from the beach this got pretty unruly and I did glance at the wing once or twice just to be sure all was well.

Flight back to the field was as planned and the final landing was not elegant but I was down in one piece.

All told the weather had held off nicely and I had got a chance to check out the GPS on the iPhone Motion X. Still concerned about having it fall off my leg. So this evening I have remounted the reserve and set the vario and iphone mounts in the top. That means I have to use the reserve next time......

So a good day. A good 1 hour flight chalked up in the log book and still plenty of time to get home and spend some time with the family.

Definitely one for the memory banks.

If you have access to google maps you can check out the track on. http://bit.ly/oNP18

Hope you guys have as much fun tomorrow.

[ArcusFlyer]

Nice one doc.

Was going to go hill flying today (waiting for repair on motor). But after spending 30 mins on about 10 different weather sites I couldn't find a site the had more than a 10% chance of being flyable so jacked the idea in.

Catch up soon.

[flyingdoc]

Sounds like a good one to me. Not sure which days would be better.

Maybe Wednesday????

[ArcusFlyer]

Hee hee,

Yes you know how it is with the great old weather over here. But I had no choice cos the engine off my motor was in Spain being fixed under warrranty (very strange problem - will explain you over a pint) so it was hill or nowt.

Anyway my engine came back fixed this morning (didnt expect it till thurs) so I rebuilt the old bird by this evening and went for a nice fly.

She was running very nice. Wish I'd organised to meet Slapper on the coast but never expected to be back in action so soon.

This was my first motorised flight on the the new mistral. very fast compared to the arcus. didn't even get round to letting the trimmers out at all.

Anyway - Im back after having stripped the motor to the bare piston so good news!

PS Yes - weather looking good am up for some Cheshire flying.