WMC07

Preston Capes - nationals
After another brief flight in the chaser on Friday night I set off for Preston Capes near Daventry for the last round of the British Nationals before the Worlds. Conditions were far from ideal and blustery conditions meant for a long flight there. I had been warned about the runway and its gradient but upon arrival it was worse than feared

This meant for the worse possible conditions for landing - trying to land as the ground falls away from you ! I managed to get it down first go and was relieved to have achieved this in what for me was only its third flight. We had a briefing for the task and it was a circular nav task with predicted groundspeed which was difficult to work out in such extreme conditions. The task went well although at time of writing the scores are not known. Another difficult landing ensured this time the engine stopped just before touching down. With a broken front brake as well this did not inspire confidence. After a bite for lunch we then planned for the second task - a sequential nav task with markers, photos and ground-speed so very high work load. With the chaser now fixed - new brake and engine running a little faster I set off. Again task went well, only managed 4 out of the 10 photos which again is disappointing and something that I now need to focus on. Trying to land back at Preston Capes was now made more difficult by the tick-over being too high this meant that it was even more difficult to get it down onto the deck ! After several attempts I decided to go to Shotteswell for the spot landings which were taking place at a slightly friendlier airfield.

The spots were interesting and proved that I have a lot to learn in understanding the different charicteristics of the chaser in comparison to my old machine. I messed up one significantly and ended up landing a long way from the box! I scored on two others - 250 and 150 this was promising after my earlier efforts.

The next morning I had to leave to get back home and missed the final task, taking off from Preston capes was a close shave and with full fuel, and luggage I took off a little earlier than I should have and ended up not having sufficient control authority. Fortunately the gradient was the saviour for once and I managed to climb out unscathed.

So where now ? The chaser is a great machine and a delight to fly - in these conditions I would have struggled in my old machine and it was a bit of a baptism of fire. I now have two weeks to iron out a few problems -I need to be able to sit in it comfortably and have full control authority, I need to make a new map board, I need to fit a new starter pulley to enable in flight restart and most importantly I need to become confident and familiar in the new machine. Practice makes perfect ! - It will be tight but the advantages of the chaser over the Q out way the difficulties I had in tricky (again ) conditions . Fuel economy is the key advantage and all weekend it sipped fuel - this gives me parity with the opposition so unlike last year I am not starting with a disadvantage. Spots and accuracy are now the skills to practice.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.