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Messages - Happy Days

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1
IAA - NOTAM - TRAs / Re: NEW IAA REGISTRATION SCHEME
« on: November 22, 2020, 13:55:38 PM »
Well I've paid my €5 and got my IAA reg number, Phew. What a drawn out process and one I didn't really understand much.

God only knows how I'll get back into my IAA account again in two years time! :(

2
Scale / Re: ASW 20
« on: April 28, 2020, 15:46:33 PM »
Just wondering if it might be best to 'borrow' a glider Andrew and see how you get on with flying fixed wing. (Perhaps with buddy box if you'd prefer.) That would enable you to asses your present flying abilities and decide what to buy for yourself.

Where abouts are you?

Keith

3
Slope Soaring / Re: Second model
« on: January 21, 2020, 13:41:55 PM »
I agree with Peter. The only downside of rubber band secured wings that I found was that not all models can easily facilitate rubber bands to hold their wings on. (they also add a tad of weight and drag.) For those models that use a screw to secure the wing I found that using nylon screws with a hole drilled through the head and just into the very top of the screws' shank helps create sufficient weakness to allow the screw to break, and the wings to separate from the fuse, in the event of an "unconventional landing" ::)

4
Slope Soaring / BBC2 tv 08.05 Sunday 22nd december
« on: December 15, 2019, 18:59:46 PM »
Just been watching the BBC program "Country File" in which there's five minutes on RC flight, both powered and slope soaring gliders. Evidently this program is repeated on BBC2 at 0805 next Sunday morning. :)

Don't often see much about RC flight on TV these days!

5
Club talk / Well, I never knew that.
« on: November 16, 2019, 08:35:31 AM »
Maynard Hill, who has died aged 85 on the 7th June 2019, made his mark on aviaon history in 2003 when one of his remote controlled model aircra became the first to fly a record-breaking 1,882 miles across the Atlanc on less than a gallon of fuel.
 Hill's TAM (Transatlantic Model) 5, with a wingspan of 6ft and weighing less than 11lbs, made it from Newfoundland to Ireland with a few drops of fuel to spare, marking a record time for the flight of 38 hours and 23 minutes.  The flight recreated the historic first transatlantic journey of the British aviation pioneers Alcock and Brown, who made the crossing in 16 hours and 27 minutes in 1919.  A retired engineer, Hill had reason to savour his moment of triumph: 24 test prototypes of his design had wobbled into the air and failed, crashed or disappeared. But he was certain he could build a model aircraft that could stay aloft for 1,875 miles, enough to fly across the Atlantic.  In August 2002, TAM 1 climbed to 1,000ft bound for Ireland before falling into the ocean. Two days later TAM 2 stalled and met the same fate. TAM 3 disappeared in a rainstorm eight hours and 479 miles out.  Having made adjustments to his computerised autopilot system, Hill returned to Newfoundland the following year, launching TAM 4 into a cloudless sky over Cape Spear at 8pm on August 8 2003. Contact was lost at 430 miles downrange. Someone joked that the Bermuda Triangle may have had a cousin over Greenland. Or perhaps the Icelandic Navy was in need of target practice.  Undaunted, at 7.45pm local time the next day, Hill again held his breath as TAM 5 climbed rapidly, turning gracefully before disappearing
out of sight on a 62-degree heading towards Ireland. By 11pm, satellite data showed the tiny aircraft still aloft at a satisfactory altitude, making approximately 43mph with no tailwind.  At 8.30 the following morning, the little plane, nicknamed The Spirit of Butts Farm, after the farm in Maryland owned by Beecher Butts where it had been tested, was roughly 560 miles out. But Hill noted some ominous data from satellites monitoring its telemetry.  The aircraft's four-stroke engine was supposed to be regulated at 3,900rpm, but the readings ranged from 3,100 to 4,100rpm. The plane's altitude was bouncing between 280 and 320 metres, suggesting a porpoising flight path from a shallow climb to a speedy dip.  "The Spirit trotted along all day Sunday," Hill reported. "Over the midocean it picked up a 5-10mph tailwind and was cruising at 5055mph. I went to bed at roughly 10pm, fearful that the cool of night would increase the viscosity of the fuel, taking the engine from lean to dead."  When he awoke at 4am, there had been no satellite data for three hours, and Hill believed the plane was lost; it was agreed to stand down the officials in Ireland who were making a special six-hour trip from Dublin to the landing site at Dooloughton, Bay Beach, Co Galway.
 But just then, data from one of the satellites confirmed that TAM 5 was not only still flying, but was now far enough east to be in warming sunshine, and had shed a lot of fuel weight. By 9am local time (12.30pm in Ireland), the Spirit was a mere 70 miles from the Irish coast.  The landing was a cliff hanger. The engine had been set to run for roughly 37 hours, and Hill worried it might stop a couple of miles short of the landing site.  At 2pm Irish time, the Spirit of Butts Farm hove into view at  Dooloughton Beach, and one of the Irish officials took manual control, banging the rudder stick hard right to kill the engine. A mobile phone link was opened to Hill as the Spirit made a dead-stick landing approximately five feet from the designated spot. At 2.08pm, hearing over the phone link the shout "It's on the ground!", Hill led a whooping cheer, buried his head in his wife's shoulder "and wept unashamedly for joy".  The plane's tank contained less than two ounces of fuel – a quarter of a cupful. "In the model airplane world, this is no different from Armstrong landing on the moon," Carl Layden, an official observer of the feat, announced.  A blacksmith's son, Maynard Luther Hill was born on February 21 1926, in the coal mining town of Lehighton, Pennsylvania. He numbered Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart among his childhood heroes but was Maynard Hill with TAM5 before its transatlanc Launch - Photo from Washington Post
PLEASE NOTE: The Text for this article was reproduced from the Daily Telegraph Monday 21st October 2019.

6
Thermal / Flat field / Re: 2m PuRES Event
« on: November 10, 2019, 18:40:18 PM »
Ah, it warms the cockles of me heart to see guys braving this weather for a spot of flying. Well done lads. :)

7
Thermal / Flat field / Re: Fresh Res glider
« on: October 20, 2019, 00:41:38 AM »
A fine looking 'skeleton'.  :)
Are those air brakes I see near the wing chord.

8
Slope Soaring / Re: Sunday on Mt Leinster
« on: October 03, 2019, 07:45:11 AM »
 :) :)

9
Slope Soaring / Re: Sunday on Mt Leinster
« on: October 02, 2019, 19:15:15 PM »
Oh! :o
I was looking at the tail fin. So how do you land the thing?

10
Slope Soaring / Re: Sunday on Mt Leinster
« on: October 01, 2019, 18:58:53 PM »
Oh no!!! With no response to my inquiry I assumed that (for reasons I couldn't imagine) the fly-in was cancelled. Too bad. Times, they are-a changing.

I can remember when, if a certain member of ISR had seen a powered glider at the slope he would have shouted, at the top of his voice (and with a French accent,) "CHEAT!....CHEAT!!"

Oh well, at least you had the power off when flying inverted, Fred. (Hope you didn't land it inverted......Did You?  ??? ??? ??????)

BTW, Nice picture of the inverted flight, Gerry ;). I trust all is well with you?

11
Slope Soaring / Re: Is there life on the Glider Ireland forum???
« on: October 01, 2019, 18:43:20 PM »
Sorry to hear you had to go back in, bit of an infection crept in by the sound of it. No doubt you'll be taking medication to give you energy, now your thyroid has gone. (Must say it seems a rather extreme way of loosing weight, having bits taken out of you.  ;D Ha!)

Get well soon Bill.

12
Slope Soaring / Re: Is there life on the Glider Ireland forum???
« on: September 29, 2019, 19:03:44 PM »
Ouch!


That looks rather sore Bill. (Actually I thought the thyroid was taken out through the top, front of the chest, silly me.) Looks like it was a hospital day case was it ? Do hope you'll be running around soon with loads of energy.

We've just returned from the Bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, and other places north of London. (We were very disappointed with Edinburgh. Hardly heard a single Scots accent while we were there, Ha!)

I didn't know there was a facebook page for glidireland, is that where they keep up to date now? Can't see any recient posts at all on the Glider Ireland FB page. Last one was Jan 2019. No opportunity to join the page either that I can see.

13
Slope Soaring / Re: Is there life on the Glider Ireland forum???
« on: September 29, 2019, 09:56:19 AM »
As I understand it :-\, today, (and I have no idea why today is much different from any other day) at 04.58am (I don't know if that is local time or zulu) there were 782 people looking at this forum. Before then I think the max at any one time was 400 odd. Quite who these people are I have no idea but at that time of the morning I doubt they were Irish ha-ha.

14
Slope Soaring / Re: Is there life on the Glider Ireland forum???
« on: September 29, 2019, 09:35:38 AM »
Hey Jim,

Yes perhaps we will become like those who enjoy renovating steam locomotives. The era of steam power is over, but there are still those who enjoy the thrill!

I was watching a chap flying a powered model couple of months ago. He flew all around the flying ground in knife edge. Up wind, cross wind, down wind didn't seem to phase him at all. After he'd landed I went over to congratulate him. Turned out the model was being flown by some software! Hey-Ho

Is there actually anyone on the Big L today? (I need to pay my club subs)

15
Slope Soaring / Is there life on the Glider Ireland forum???
« on: September 29, 2019, 07:53:34 AM »
This weekend was supposed to be the final Fly-In of the year on Mt Lienster (The "Big L"). So far (the final day) I've seen nothing posted, from anyone. :o :(

Can someone clue me in please?

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