Some Old Photos

Digging through an old photo album, I found these old photos - I am pretty sure that these were taken about 1980.

This was an own designed slope soarer known on the site as the 'Dying Duck'.  This was primarily because and  despite having 3 x 8G Piano wire joiners, the wing joint used to flex like mad when anything resembling a manoeuvre was attempted - it looked like the wings were flapping..

It was a big beast - just over 12 foot span with a 12" wing chord (Clark Y wing section). Quite a small tail and short moment arm but it was a fantastic glider. The nose was also very short. Needed almost all of the lead of a church roof to get it to balance. The good news was that it never needed additional ballast in a breeze. It would out soar anything else on the slope in those days. Speccing out in slope lift was a regular hazard. Even in an apparent flat calm it would still be flyable much to the chagrin of those flying with me who all had grounded models

Flying at Blackstone Edge. A superb Slope Soaring Site just off the A58 - Littleborough to Halifax road. About 1000 feet up and all downhill to the Irish Sea - about 50 miles away - perfect for West > South West winds.

Blackstone Edge - park by the road here -  53.648779N, 2.056272W - and then walk up into the bowl

This was a Solent Sailplanes Ridge Rover (I think). Had 2 wing planforms - the inner section could be plugged in to increase the Span - about 110" if I remember correctly. I remember destroying this rolling it violently in a downwind dive. The model simply disintegrated mid-air.. Spectacularly so, the remains of a heavily ballasted fuselage missing me by just a few feet.