3rd weekend of September is the traditional Falaise Aerotow meeting, and every year, I will not miss this event for anything in the world!
I am not going to write a long report, best thing to do, is to come to the meeting and see it yourself 🙂
As usual, I brought a car full of gliders, but mainly flew with my 6.5m ASH25. God I love this machine! First time with the winglets. Glider is on rails in thermals, but, aileron’s authority as expected goes a tiny bit down. Not a big deal to be honest, but noticeable nonetheless! 🙂 And for once, I have photos of the machine!! 🙂
Anyway! Now, photos!!
First thing first, the tow planes! Without them, these events would be.. well, slope events! 🙂 Always amaze me how all that world works like clockwork! These purpose built tugs are real workhorses!
We also have a bunch of vintage gliders. Clifton, Alias Philippe, made the first tow of his André Thomas glider. A sight to see, and with performance beyond anything we could have imagined seeing the thick profile! Thermaling with the full plastic gliders, and it did not looked ridiculous at all, outperforming a few machines in the game of “who will stay in the air the longer”!. Another “odd” one was the FW Ente from JM “Nhalyn” Yvé (also known as “Captain Guinness” 🙂 ). That thing looks like it it flying backwards! 🙂 The T21 was also a fantastic build with great performance, and of course, the now well known Meise Olympia.
Now.. Place to the rest of the fleet! A mix of high performance gliders (or very high performance gliders with Chris’ ASH25! Always a pleasure to see!), and a bunch of Ka8b, Eric’s big Fox and a lot more! Brendan came here for the first time, and did his very first tow, with a first flight (just to add difficulties! 🙂 ) with his new to him S.1-32. He managed pretty well, and got better at it as he went alone. And yes, on the photos somewhere, I try to guide him… Holding a beer.. Early in the morning! Breakfast! Ralph, still for team Ireland, did the first flight of the 1/3 scale KA8b. All went well 🙂 No surprises here. John flew his beautiful Foka4, and I believe, was also the first tow of this machine. Not a problem! Anyway, photos now, that will show you, hopefully, a bit more of the long week end!
John also sent me a bunch of very nice photos! So here they are. Thanks John and Roisin! 🙂
