Floaty Firle

It seems we've had more airtime at Firle than at any

of the other South Downs sites this year.

The other Friday we found ourselves bunking off there again

for a delightfully floaty session.

King of the scale floaters..

...away she goes!

Dave's vintage beauty has two speeds-

very slow, and imperceptibly faster than very slow. 

but its lovely lines and airborne grace

remind us that there is a magical delight to be had

from flying, regardless of the amount of carbon fibre

you have on-board.

There's a level of uncertainty as to its origin.

Maybe with those curvy tips its great, great, great

grand-daughter was the prototype Radian.

 Beautiful torsion bracing in the tailplane.

Let's see if the pre-nineties aeromodelling

spotter's guide is able to enlighten us...

...and there she is!

Anyone know what an 'auto rudder' is?

I think one of those sounds like it could

help with my dodgy flying.

Then just when we thought that the 'Fillon's Champion' would

provide all the intrigue of the day, Dave goes and pulls

this XC machine out of the bag!

It was born from an unprotected one-night stand coupling

between a U2 spy plane and a Multi-Phase.

An ASW 28 went in for sloppy seconds that night too....hence the wing-tips!

Despite its mixed heritage, all the elements come together to form

a rather aesthetically pleasing machine.

It climbs on a gnat's fart and turns tighter

than a pair of Spanish Inquisition suspect's

testicles in a standard issue bench vice.

Its dark underside makes it stand out well on high altitude missions.

Meanwhile Adrian's plank lets off a couple of

heat seeking missiles at its master.

Despite the meagre wind speed, Mark's up at

a safe altitude with no buttock clenching evident. 

Down for a quick breather....

...and then off again into slightly better air.

and finally a spectacular ring-twitcher as the Nimbus

slides in on finals and tries its best to relaunch...

another 1 mph landing speed and she would have been

tobogganing down Firle's face.

Mr Snipz takes it all in his usual laid back stride,

and we're good to go again another day.