So bright and early on Saturday morning, Paul at Slope Soaring Sussex met me in Crawley and I followed him down to Newhaven where we had a SSW wind blowing, so Paul, Rob, Jack and myself launched our foamies off the sea cliff there for an hour or so. David turned up with his Middle Phase but landed it in the thick brambles behind us. You do NOT want to land in that lot.
So, after this we decided to move on to Mount Caborn, a conical shaped hill with a good walk to it. This slope has good lift and the landing is soooo easy there too.
When we arrived there, there were already a couple of guys flying but, I think they must have thought that more was a crowd, and they headed off to another part of the slope to get away from this rabble who had invaded their air space, especially as we were also joined by Graham. (I think I'm getting the names right here, I apologise if I haven't).
Rob and I had a mid air with his Ninja and my Wildthing, which landed in the next field. As I got to the model I realised all wasn't well and discovered the fuz had split in half, but nothing that can't be fixed. It was no ones fault and just one of those things that happens when you get a few foamies in the air at the same time.
After an hour or more at Caborn, Paul wanted to finish off day one by showing me Mill Hill at Shoreham. This is a park and fly site and there were lots of guys flying there. One section of the slope seems to have been designated as a foamie combat zone, and the other for moudies and other models.
Height is a problem here as we were right on the flight path of the light aircraft on final approach to land at Shoreham airport, and you have to keep a close eye on them and keep well out of their way.
Paul and the boys don't normally like flying at Mill Hill but wanted me to experience the place. I am glad they did as I will now know to avoid it.
Day two and Paul picked me up from Crawley and we went to Itford Hill where we met up with Rob and Ian. This is a long, shallow slope, unlike the high, steep monsters I'm used to in Wales, where the wind was blowing WSW, but then soon changed to being off slope at SSW. Still, there was enough air for me to fly my Whisper and then use the incoming thermals to gain some great height before diving in for some screaming runs.
Rob had a Stargazer and Ian a Wildthing and Vagabond. Paul was flying his Zulu and Traceur. Paul let me fly his Traceur and I repaid his generosity by nearly taking him out when I came out of a manoeuvre a little low. I think Paul has this on video, which I shall look forward to seeing later.
By lunch time we all had to make a move home. I had a fantastic weekend, with fantastic weather and fantastic company and I shall look forward to my next week. Can I be an honorary member of Slope Soaring Sussex please guys?
Anyway, here is some video from the first day. I'm sorry there isn't more but I was having too much fun to take video. May I suggest you watch it in 720p as 1080 appears a little jumpy.
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