PSSA Fly for Fun Meeting

We had wind! Yep, really, good eh!

The Saturday began with the Bwlch covered in clag and with regular rain showers but, the forecast was for this band of weather to clear by about 10AM, and sure enough, by 10:15 I felt confident enough to open the forestry gate which leads to the south westerly slope called Mickeys, and the vehicle procession headed on up the rough gravel track.

There was a good wind blowing and before long, the local guys were showing the way by launching first but, it wasn't long before the others had rigged up their models and were flying also.

At about 12:30, rain stopped play for about 30 minutes, giving everyone a chance to partake in some refreshment, but play resumed soon enough and the wind increased to about 30 mph in the compression zone.

There were some new models, and a lot of familiar models, and also a mid air collision between Mike Grey's Avro Vulcan and John Trebles Avro 707, with quite a bit of foam raining down to earth.

By about 6pm, most of us had had enough fun and felt the need to leave the slope in order to have a wash and brush up before dinner that evening.

Sunday saw a completely different day, with a light south easterly blowing, so that saw us on Back of Wrecker, a slope which we haven't flown on before at a PSSA event.

The first day saw about 20 participants, however, this had dwindled to about half of that figure for the Sunday, due to the local guys having had their fill on the Saturday.

Back of Wrecker can be a funny slope! It can be smooth or turbulent. On this day it began smooth but as the wind picked up to about 22 mph, the air became a bit thermic and lumpy, so not the best of conditions. But the guys made the most of the conditions we had, and I think most had an enjoyable day.

Phil Cook flew his FMS micro Alpha Jet, and I was amazed that something so small and light would fair so well in a 20 mph wind.

And this was Andy Meade's Vulcan bomber complete with Blue Steel missile

For your info, both videos were shot on my iPhone 6 and edited on the slope using the GoPro Quik app.