Midsummer flight’s dream

[Jolly Roger]

Sometimes the best flights are those that happen on the spur of the moment and so it was for me this evening when, having finished my work an hour early, a gentle Westerly beckoned me up onto the cliff above our house.
It was hot as I climbed the 600ft hill, up the twisty wooded path to the top, and I sweated freely in the late afternoon heat. But emerging from the wood and onto the edge of the cliff, a gentle breeze cooled me down as I assembled my 30 year old Pat Teakle ASW20.
The delight of these older kits is that they generally came out significantly lighter than modern offerings, with lower wing-loadings making launching easier when the wind is marginal, as it was today. A step forward, a firm push, and this 12lbs of polystyrene, wood, glasscloth and electronics was away, rock steady and rising already.

[Jolly Roger]

Although the breeze was gentle, a brief foray over to the cliff on my left and she was rocketing upwards in a powerful thermal, the rock having spent all afternoon basking in strong sunshine, and only too happy to push out vast bubbles of warm air. In less than a minute she was at 600ft and gazing down on a shrinking miniature countryside. A full size K21 drifted past, disinterested, and soon headed back to the Yorkshire Gliding Club for tea.

[Jolly Roger]

At a height that was stretching my eyesight, the model had a fine view of the main features around our home; the Yorkshire Gliding Club to the South, the glistening cool waters of Lake Gormire, and the sandy limestone of the Whitestonecliffe, with me perched on its edge.

[Jolly Roger]

After three quarters of an hour of lofty sightseeing, I lifted the trailing edge a couple of mm and she nodded her nose, trading all that gravitational energy for kinetic in one long satisfying swoop, whistling low over the edge of the cliff and then even lower, out across the treetops below, wings flashing in the sunlight then flexing into a towering climb back to cliff top height.

Then it was time for some rock-polishing, daring myself to scribe a line along the limestone with my wingtips.

[Jolly Roger]

And then you get to that point when you just know you will run out of luck and it will all end horribly. As I get older, I'm better at recognising this key moment, so after half an hour of sweeping along the hillside contours, I brought her round for a gentle landing on the pasture behind the cliff.

It was such a therapeutic evening I can't even remember the walk home. Happy days.

[sp250]

Excellent JR

John M

[Peter Balcombe]

Very nice Roger
My PT ASW20 went to Wales where I hope it is still flying nicely.
Peter