RC- Manilla slopefest

Some pics from a slope soaring festival we have at a place called Mt Borah, near Tamworth, NSW Aust. It's more famous as a paragliding hill but makes a great slope soaring hill, especially when we had a solid 57 knots one day!

Looking west on the main slope

This is an excellent series on the sport!

I never would have guessed that. Is it in a dive?

Cheers photosguy!

There is a wiki link in the word "dynamic soaring" above the flying wing photo, which doesn't really stand out in the light blue text. It is flown in a circuit that varys in diameter with the hill/speed/conditions but what really makes it hard is those speeds need upwards of 80mph to achieve and you do the circuit sometimes only 10-15 ft above the ground. The sound as it goes through the shear layer at speed is incredible. 498mph powered only by the wind.

Basically as the wind comes up a hill it creates a lull behind the hill with no wind this is where the plane is flown but it "pops" into the frontside wind blasting up the hill. Each time it does so it gets a hit of speed. The limit so far is structural design and simply measuring it. It's all done as ground speed as the point of measurement is in the lull with zero wind speed. Pitos measuring airspeed will be the way forward no doubt as it takes big kahoonas to stand near these things pointing a radar gun at them.......even at 200 mph, I start to get uneasy being close to them. Also these guns are having to be modded by the manufacturers to read these kinds of speeds. And no, it aint a cheap sport when you start trying to get above the 300mph mark. These models are worth thousands just for the airframes and when they hit which is VERY often, they simply turn to confetti. A hell of a lot aren't even found if they fold a wing and shoot up and out into the distance.

This isn't the WR video, (max speed was 425mph) but it is very cool to show people. Just listen to the sound. You have to have sound on to appreciate this video and the forces in this type of flying.

http://www.youtube.com …wRJA&index=5&fe​ature=plcp

I took this shot of a mate DS'ing at our local spot to show the usual flying pattern. btw, this photo was used in a German aviation museum display when the WR was around the 300mph mark only a couple of years ago. http://www.deutsches-museum.de/ I must say I was pretty chuffed about having one of my pictures in such a place!

VERY VERY NICE. Really like the night photo. Unfortunately we don't have any slope soaring in my part of the world.
Great help on understanding it too thanks to your photo & the explanation.

Thanks for the links & the info. I'm still trying to get my head around how that works, even with the Wiki link!

Great set. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers

Boggy

Excellent series. Looks like it would be pretty difficult to get good shots.

Yes photosguy it is hard to get your head around for sure, even harder to do.

Cheers Boggy, glad you enjoyed them

Crimzon, yes it is really hard when the wind is blowing super strong. On the Friday it was blowing 50+ knots, holding the 100-400 still enough is a challenge in that wind, and most of the time in those winds the planes fly fast, some of the faster moulded ones will cruise around all day at 100mph (like in pic 5) and are able to do Tron 180* style turns and almost gain speed on exit. One second you think you have tracked one and you get the shot lined up and instantly it's out of the viewfinder either from turbulance or yourself being buffeted. And being so nimble and relatively small they get big and tiny in the viewfinder very quickly. I find it a fun challenge to get decent shots of them......when I'm not flying myself that is.

The rest of the set can be found here on my flickr page

http://www.flickr.com …r/sets/72157635​823029014/

pixelbasher wrote in post #16344659
The rest of the set can be found here on my flickr page

http://www.flickr.com …r/sets/72157635​823029014/

Good shots there, too! Too bad about the Zero. You guys should put $5 in the pot. The "winner" would be the guy that carried his bird home in the most pieces? ; )

The zero actually only popped the wing off and broke a control arm. That guy actually comes out from the US each year to do this event. He usually brings a mate or two along as well. He is actually a kit maker of some very nice and famous (within the slope community) EPP foam planes.

I found this: Most Epic RC mid air collision ever captured at SCCMAS

And these guys have way too much time on their hands! North Texas Battle Group

That video of the Zero / heli was shown on our National morning news program a while back. Most of the local clubs have specific areas for heli's away from the normal flight line or alternate what can be flown but there have been a couple of events where both shared the flight line making the spotters job much more important.