Raptor at the Beach Again

...good wind & good lift

Today I returned to the beach again for the third time to slope soar the Raptor. While he wind direction and strength on the first two occasions was a little weak and misdirected, this time everything was good; 30-40kmh southwesterly coming straight onto the dunes.

In fact, walking down from one car park, the wind at the top was that brisk it had me wondering how I was actually going to get the Raptor down to the beach without it taking flight involuntarily.

Fortunately, I found another path that wandered down through the dune growth, providing a sheltered entry onto the beach. The Raptor prepped, I spun the prop up and waited a little hesitantly for a drop in the wind.

Hoisting the Raptor up, it climbed steeply before levelling it off and steering it onto the dunes. The lift was much stronger than before and, after a little trimming, got the Raptor floating motionless above the bank.

Not that it was as peaceful as it appeared; rather I was on high alert, making sure the Raptor didn’t drop a wing and get blown down. At some stages the Raptor, with flaps on, was actually drifting downwind so I was having to switch between flying clean and with flaps, and trimming the elevator up & down to suit as well.

So successful but not exactly peaceful! And then the landing; because my radio doesn’t have enough mixes to set up the ailerons as spoilers, I again had to zigzag the Raptor up and down the beach to loose height, before eventually nosing it in foe a sand-covered landing.

I really need to get another radio…