Sunday 15th January 2006

Spent Saturday afternoon testing the rig again looking forwards to a days flying on Sunday.

Sunday dawned dull, overcast and chilly but with a good breeze inland. A group of us had agreed to meet up at Camber, on the Sussex coast, to get in some flying. High tide was at about 11:30 am, so the afternoon was looking good. When I got down to Camber, the tide had just turned. There were a couple of the guys already there. Wind was a brisk 10-15 mph onshore, so conditions wre pretty ideal.

Took a stroll along the beach to inspect some of the washed up flotsam. Loads of rubbish indicate there had been sever storms in teh channel in the not too distant past. Got in some flying on a Psycho, before deciding to bite the bullet and set up for the maiden voyage. In these conditions, a small kite was called for, so I decided to try a small HQ rokkaku. This needed to be re-trimmed as I usually use it for fighting, so spent a while tweaking the bridle until it was giving more stable flight. There was plenty of lift, so once airborn and steady the rig was attached. Turned on the receiver, took the transmitter out of my box and disaster. Like a pillock, I had left the transmitter on from my testing the previous night. Result, no juice!

Oh well, to prove a point the rig got its maiden flight and was pertty stable given the conditions, but I didn't leave it up too long.