Thanks to the generous members of Causeway Coast MFC, NIMSA were once again able to take gliding on the road. CCMFC have a noise restriction on a Sunday morning and we ran a round of e-soaring to get us started. CD Paul Freeman called for 5 rounds (allowing a discard). 8 minute flights in a 10 minute working time, and kept things moving along a ta good pace. Conditions were good , with varied lift and some phenomenal flights. Ian Ferguson who had joined us for the day had an amazing flight with his little foamie fitted with an up n’ go system. The model flies fast and is a bit heavy, but Ian managed 7 mins+ and at one point was getting seriously concerned about the height he’d achieved. Club Chairman Bill Scott had a couple of good flights working low level lift on the north side of the field for two 6 min + flights (his other rounds weren’t quite so great). Everyone else had some good rounds and some bad for a very competitive event with less than 400 points between the top 4.
After a break for some excellent lunch provided by CCMFC, we started aerotowing. Bigger models were towed by Andrew Wallace with his Wot Extreme and smaller stuff was taken up by Craig Kane (Bangor Electric MFC and first time tug pilot) with his Carbon Cub. Most flights were uneventful, but Loudon Blairs Twin Astir got a little squirrely on the ground and only just made it over the fence. It appears that the tow line broke shortly after this and whilst attempting a turn back to the field the model tip stalled and went in quite hard, breaking the tail just ahead of the fin. Loudon says it will be repaired and fly again. Paul Freeman was getting good flights with his ParkZone Ka8 and in between tug flights Andrew Wallace was getting towed up with his 2m DG. Again thanks to CCMFC for the use of their field and Andrew Wallace for all his efforst co-ordinating the event
