Stories
- 13 Oct 200, Unreal day at Kevs Ridge
Authour: Andrew
It was a gamble going to Mt Mee today, but one that really paid off. I’m still grinning. The forecast was for SW turning SE in the day. Got up and there was a light and increasing SW so I took a punt and headed out early, figuring that it I might get lucky and strike good conditions at Kevs Ridge for a while before the wind dropped and changed. Got there about 8:45am and found a fresh SW blasting up the slope. Threw the Superfreak Bat out and it was so fast, it was like some Star Wars ship, zippin’ around. Man, there was heaps of lift and heaps of speed … it was like Tamborine on a big day! Played around on the front then switched the ailerons to low rates and dipped down the backside and got massive acceleration as it shot out. It was too much for me - I was pretty scared!
Got the nerves settled a bit & managed to keep on track more and was hitting speeds way beyond my ability. Decided to land & phone Sean … couldn’t land! Dropping in front of the slope or circling behind, it just kept too much speed on! Finally got it down, phoned Sean and said “It’s going off!” “Oh, no!” he replied, having decided he’d stay in. I ranted on in a manic fashion about how incredible it was … “but I’m not putting any pressure on you …” and he said he’d “think about it” which we all know means; start negotiating with wife/ partner!
The conditions were so good I didn’t even stop to put my boots on! Had to avoid standing in cowpoo in sandals. I kept working controlling the DS circuits. I am so totally impressed with the modded Bat; it’s several levels above anything else I’ve flown. It really does make DSing easier. The back slope at Kev’s is not super steep, so you have to be pretty close to the ground a lot of the time. When the wind was strong the shear layer was high, so you could carve high up, but it eased a bit so the shear layer comes down a bit and you have to get closer to the ground.
Before long I whacked into the ground hard, breaking the fin. This was the first of many fin repairs for me today – I used a lot of CA glue! Good thing I have some spare fins. But the coreflute fin mount which Sean and I use is working excellently. Carbon fin rod pushes into small coreflute plate, stuck on with double sided tape. It holds strong enough for DS, but in a big hit it generally rips off and you just stick it back on with a fresh bit of tape! Just the ticket.
Sean phoned back to say he was on his way. I got worried that it might die off, but the wind pepped up again and I had lots more good flying. I noticed as it warmed up that the wind got more turbulent, both on the front and the back. The conditions never returned to being as good as they were early in the morning and I recommend flying westerlies early to catch the smoother conditions. I got some variety by flying the modded Drongo too – it was more relaxing to DS as it didn’t go as fast. Very smooth, but harder to keep on track.
When Sean arrived about 11am the wind died! We both felt sick! But sure enough it blew again. The wind was definitely a bit flukey and at times the lift dropped, but most of the time we were able to DS really effectively. Sean got straight into it with his Bat and it makes so much more noise than mine! Which is sort of useful, because the noise helps you to “feel” the speed and the shear layer. We’re not sure where the noise comes from since they’re so similar, but it’s probably his thin, rounded wingtips whereas mine are stock. This is the 4th rebuild of his Bat and it looks like a newy and man, its seriously fast. After my hit and miss attempts it was inspiring to see Sean find a groove and hold it on track at huge speed. Can’t wait to get the radar gun.
I got some photos (which can never give the feel of it) then put my plane back up. The wind was back up again; I was waiting to take my turn and realized Sean’s plane was making so much noise it was like a jet. Without losing sight of mine on the front I looked across to see the red Bat absolutely ripping around not far off the deck at massive speeds. I couldn’t believe it, it was so fast and following the contour of the slope. I wanted to see more so I landed mine so I could watch the insane display. It was freaky fast and dangerous. From where I was standing at one end of the ridge (Sean was flying at the other end) the plane was disappearing behind bumps in the slope! A few times I was sure it was going in but it was still ripping around. I guess the closeness to the ground accentuates the speed and probably the noise too, but it was the most amazing DSing I have ever seen! But all of a sudden there was an explosive boom, the tail flew off, the plane bounced sickeningly, cartwheeled and fluttered like a leaf uphill for about 10m! I headed over; ready to console Sean for his loss but apart from some minor wrinkles, and re-sticking the fin, it was fine and flying again in 10 minutes!
The conditions were always changing and sometimes one end of the slope would work … then the other. At times a certain part of the backside would feature a rotor, just to add another dimension of excitement and we both had crashes due to being rolled over coming out of the bottom. The other cause of crashing my Bat was that I use low elevator dual rates on the Drongo but not on the Bat, and I forget to switch it back so I’d bellysmack the Bat on the bottom, due to lack of elevator. But these planes are sooooo tough!
Sean commented that he hadn’t actually landed yet … he just keeps flying till he crashes! Later on, when the cows had moved in, grazing on the backside I heard him say “I’m going to land; I’ll have to watch I don’t hit a cow (pause) OH S#!T I did!!!” But the cow and Bat were OK. He also got that slick looking Reaper out too. Said he was a bit scared to DS it, due to the turbulence on the back – but as soon as he got it into the groove he said it felt so much easier. When asked to elucidate why he said “it actually feels like a different activity”. However the Reaper didn’t seem to hit the speeds of the Bat. Could be due to lower wing loading, could be caution keeping it a bit higher off the ground. It’ll be interesting verifying it with the radar gun.
The wind never went S as forecast. If anything it went a bit more W and at times there was wind, but no lift on the front. But as long as you could get a dive in over the back, you were usually shooting around DSing, when a plane on the front was struggling!! Weird! DS is an amazing thing. I never tire of watching it – it just seems impossible. To top off the weird things for the day, it was blowing SE when I got home!