The frozen North

Hello All,

its been a while.....in fact we are in a whole new decade. Just as we were all getting to grips with the noughties, they turn into a stroppy teenager (well in a couple of years anyway)

The New Year has brought with it the longest 'proper' winter in 30 years - so open cockpit flying isn't on many people's agenda. It warmed up today to around -4 on the ground so I thought I should go out for a spin and leave the work to another day.

Some amazing pictures attached of Lough Neagh frozen over to a couple of miles out from the shoreline. Thanks to Jim Davison and Pete Durrans for the extra ballast ;-)



Cheers, Victor
www.flyni.co.uk

Autumn Sunshine

Hello All,

Isn't Autumn a fabulous season? Just when the Irish Summer seems to have killed all the flying off for the year, along comes September and October.

So far, some fabulous days have been had with lightish winds and crisp-clear days. The trees are starting to lose their leaves with a whole spectrum of colours being displayed before they give up the ghost and drop them before winter.

We had a recent visitor from Australia who brought (probably) the best day of the year with him. Bill Runciman is a semi-retired Accident & Emergency Professor who travels round the world attending conferences on A&E procedures. In his spare time he flies a Flylight Dragonfly and an Airborne Outback 912 with a Cruze wing in Adelaide. On his travels he hooks up with any trike fliers that he can for the day for a spin.



So off we went, across to Slieve Croob, Newcastle, Tyrella Beach, St John's Point lighthouse, Ards Peninsula and finally to Newtownards Airfield. Smooth air - Stunning views and a day to remember (even for me who has seen it all before)
I took some pics from the back seat, but I dont think they give the day justice at all. It's also great to speak with guys from other parts of the world that share your hobby. Where we have our problems with the weather and cows breaking out onto the runway (occasionally - not often!) Bill says that Kangaroos running on runways is a hazard for them!!

Thanks Bill for a great day - an absolute pleasure.

Cheers, Victor
www.flyni.co.uk

Airborne SST

Airborne have been busy getting a strutted wing flying with their XT base.
Flies hands off at 70knots with great handling apparently, some photos below



The flying wires have been replaced by solid uprights and no kingpost at the top of the wing.

Cheers, Victor
www.flyni.co.uk

Trial Flight Pictures

We are currently trying to get an easy way to get trial flight pictures up on the web for first-timers to view after the event. Work in Progress, but it looks like we will use Picasa in some way and drop the code onto an area on the Flyni site.

For the geeks amonst you, pictures are taken with a Nikon D90 with a 10.5mm fisheye lens (to get the wide angle) Here's some pics below from a couple of the good days in September.