Kommetjie rescues Hermanus

The wind gods blew out my candles and played tricks on us. Hermanus was short of lift, unfortunately windfinder was right again. Hermanus further caused a fair amount of destruction on the plane front. One seaplane engine gone, one aerobatic glider sans wing one banana with skin damage. Fortunately one lightning all OK.

Sunday afternoon the gods smiled, and gave us absolutely smooth lift off  Kommetjie for the really dedicated still going after 48 hours, and the lazy read your author happy to get out at last! PS I was rescued from cleaning the pool. Thanks KEV!

Here’s how good the lift was on Sunday afternoon off Kommetjie. Damian flying his IMP

Awesome photos

Sorry but the video doesn’t want to load!

We have a slope vesion, now check this out!

Found on youtube, the A10 Warthog… power version

Large and impressive indeed. RC on a large level.

Takes a wee bit of hard cash to pull this off.

The big, the bad and the pretty

Kommetjie and the slippery slope

Last weekend we were up at Kommetjie on what promised to be a crancking South Wester.
Mother nature decided otherwise and delivered a weak and hot afternoon.
Later, after a bit of cooling off, the lift was sublime, and those who left early missed the best of the day.

A few fellas tried a few flights early on, and this was one of the fetches of the day.
our Chairman ….

….threw out the Mini Dragon in somewhat ailing lift and ended up with a somewhat lengthy fetch….
at the bottom of Kommetjie hill. Notably, handing Steve the TX at the critical “well beyond saving” point of the whole flight
and really not giving the Uncle Steve a chance in hell of saving the thing.

There’s our man! fetchy!

Which brings us to another visual of just how big the fynbos bushes are on the way down the slope, and just how much
of a battle it can be getting back up again!… Our man Marc Beckenstrater doing a somewhat closer fetch
from what is the normal landing zone!

Still, all in all, the view was pretty spectacular from up here with all the going on’s and what.

Okiedokie, now that looks a bit better for Hermanus

How many candles did you burn last night Marc…. seemed to work!

Looks like it could be really good up at Hermanus for the annual slope fly in… the easterly worries me a bit, but SAWS says SE…

Love the Westerly on Sunday… Die Kelders here we come. PERF, you up for this again?

SAWS looks promosing

and Windfinder is catching up!

Yihaaa, getting some wind, add 10kms per hour for the hill and we got flight.

See you there boys and girls.

Blow wind blow

This is not good. Not sure who is the god of wind but best one lights a few candles.

Spiders

The weekend 31Oct/1Nov a few of us searched for a downed plane at Red Hill that was not fitted with a LMA after about a hour crawling in three meter high and very dense Port Jackson Bush we gave up the search.

Only three days later I showed signs of a fever which I thought was  just another cold taking a homebrew flu remedy rectified the situation I felt much better but my elbow started to get sore.I was under the impression that a boil was forming on the elbow it became very painfull and on the 10th Nov I decided to see a doctor.

After X-Rays Blood test I was admitted for surgery the same day,and had to wait my turn to go to the theater,the doctor told me that he was going to extract fluid from the elbow with a syringe  to identify the problem that caused the infection and that I wont be put under.Should the bug be identified the elbow area would be given a local opened up and washed out

My pulse on the monitor was  55 which is normal for me at rest ,when I saw the needle(match stick thikness) it immmediately went up to 75.

Fluid was extracted but no  identification of the cause of the infection,by this time it was nearly 1700,it was then decided that the elbow would be opened up the next day.Back at the ward I was placed on a 500ml antibiotic drip that was given four times daily for my whole stay nine days.

The worst of all  my veins only tolerated at the most 5 x 500ml then a new spot had to be found I was poked full of holes to find suitable spots and that only on the right arm

On the 11th I was third in line for the table,once on the table they paint you with some brown stuff cover you with green cloth only the arm stick out the doctor asked me when I was admitted I had no recollection if I answered him or not.

The rest of the days 11th to 18th the 500ml as mentioned before plus I lost count how many pills.

Will still be going every Monday for blood test for according to the doc for next six weeks,plus  pills for Africa to take daily at different times.

Hermanus at that stage was 50/50 after talking nicely it was agreed the blood can be taken on the Teusday after Hermanus.

Went to all the local Chemist today for anti spider spray the best they could recommend is a spray for Tics.

Any ideas on special clothing for our slopes for protection.

So the next time you recover your plane dont worry about Tics or Snakes lookout for Spiders.

The final crunch came no booze of any kind until futher notice will I survive Hermanus.

British Electric Lighting sloper?

Wonder how the Lightning would slope. Not a bad scale subject but will require some adaptations me thinks, otherwise may glide like a brick….2m meter subject at least.

Also attached is a pic of the Lightning from last years ADD Airshow at Ysterplaat.

Serious goose bumps!

Lightnings at AAD 2008

3 view of the Lightning, who's going tp do a scale version?

Last flight of the OPUS

Be careful of digital servos they draw more current than equivalent analogue servos and if your battery is not fully charged they may cause a voltage drop so that the servos don’t move. Result catastrophic!

Last flight ain’t she a beauty

Boy that’s a tough fuzz. That’s buried up to the wing joint!!

The blue paint is where the wing took on a rock.

New way to clear out alien vegetation fly an opus at it at 160km plus

Unfortunately the wing lost the bush cutting exercise. I think it was the rock.

And the other side

I think I am sticking to my old analogue servos thanks.

R.I.P David Stock

David Stock passed away on Saturday while flying the British Electric Lightning
at the AFB Overberg Airshow.
For reasons only speculated about at the moment, he suffered major mechanical failure
and was unable to eject from the ailing Lightning.
According to all reports he was a remarkable, respected, and humble person who’s
untimely demise will be a great loss to the aviation industry,
and to all of us who are passionate about aviation.
For all of us that have seen these magnificent men fly their beast of an aircraft
over the years at Ysterplaat and Bredasdorp airshows, the loss is heartfelt.
Our condolences and wishes go out to his two sons, and all those who were close to him.
R.I.P David Stock
…from all at Two Oceans Slope Soarers.

Warthog Maiden

Saturday we scratched around for lift all afternoon at Kommetjie only for most to bail the slope at 16h30. The die hards hung around till 18h00 and were rewarded with awesome combat at the death. Kevin laughing so much he couldn’t stand anymore and saying “I told you to wait for the slope to cool”. Kevin and Steve’s wings decided to mate which led to Steve taking a long walk down the slope.

Sunday arrived perfect for flying and the Toss team was seriously reduced!

If you did not get out and fly on Sunday it was your loss. Virtually perfect conditions lift everywhere and as smooth as silk. Damian was flying rolling circles with my  29 year old balsa plane with the solarfilm peeling off.

Those of us who didn’t overdo it on Saturday night managed to get up to the slopes on Sunday and watch a warthog fly. Who said pigs can’t fly

Pull Up Pull Up

And these were the sober pilots

Coming in for a straffing run