Matt Jones' 72" span Avro Vulcan seen dominating the slope at the Great Orme.

There were some minor complications to deal with on the run up to this event, but we were blessed with fine weather and strong Easterly winds which inevitably led to a huge amount of ‘high performance’ PSS flying hours and a weekend to remember for all those who attended!

Firstly, an alternative route to the Great Orme was necessary to avoid Llandudno town centre, which was staging its ‘Victorian Extravaganza’ over the long weekend.  A West coast approach via Deganwy was proposed by local flyer Tim Mackey and very well this worked too - avoiding any congestion.  Next, the prevailing Easterly winds had us flying on the less familiar ‘ski-run’ slope, so parking and the correct route to the flying site had to be confirmed for those only familiar with the usual ‘Tank Track’ rendezvous.  The PSSA website and the RCM&E forum proved invaluable in confirming these details, and my thanks go to Tim and Jonathan Demery for all their help in compiling the instructions.

I arrived at the designated parking area in convoy with Simon Cocker, Sue Lee and Dave Gilder at 09:15, having met on the A55.  Tim Mackey was already on site, and had kindly placed a large PSSA sign in the back window of his car to identify which path to take to the slope.  The active East face was a 10-15 minute walk away, across fairly challenging terrain.  We rigged what models we could carry in one journey and were on the slope by 10am.

The landing problems led us to move further down the coast, just another 200 yds along the cliff tops, to a slope lower down but benefitting from a much ‘cleaner’ landing area.  This proved the right decision, although not as high above the sea, the lift was still plentiful for PSS, and we spent the rest of the day flying from this position in winds varying between 12 and 30mph.

Folk continued to arrive with rigged models throughout the morning, peaking at 21 pilots and 35 models on the Saturday.  More models would have been seen on the slope but for the walk to and from the cars – it was too far to consider regular shuttle runs, and most of us limited what we had on the hill to what could be carried back in a single return journey.

Simon Cocker flew his 108” B-52 at length throughout the day, and when that wasn’t airborne his Victor bomber usually was.  Simons Tx was passed around alot over the weekend, and many people enjoyed the opportunity to fly these big, stable bombers.  Steve Kemp had joined us and brought with him his Spitfire, Hawk and PC-9.   Sadly the Spitfire was damaged in the early landings at the previous slope, but the Hawk and PC-9 were flown well throughout the day.  Matt Jones flew his big foam F-18, his Hawker Hunter and his fantastic Avro Vulcan, at times the Vulcan was seen in formation with the Victors of Simon Cocker and Nigel Moule, who was also flying his Mustang and T-33 Shooting Star.

The weekend has to be noted for a number of new models and maiden flights, to be expected I suppose at the start of any new season.  These were brave missions when you consider the slope we were using had no lower ledge to recover should the model fail to soar, a long glide down to the beach is the only option available to the stricken pilot.  Despite this, with the conditions perfect for PSS, we witnessed a number of successful first flights.

Saturday saw Dave Gilder successfully fly his new T-45 Goshawk, built from the Hobbyking EDF kit.  This model needed a couple of flights to achieve the correct balance point and resolve a sticking aileron servo, but showed great potential and despite its light AUW, handled the conditions very well.  In the afternoon I test flew my new Shorts Tucano, 48” span, built for  EPSS (with a folding prop) from the discontinued Overlander kit.  At 4.2lbs AUW this went well in the conditions, there was certainly no real need to use the prop this weekend!

We flew on in our element until 7:30pm – as so often happens on these coastal sites the lift improved as the day went on and from 5pm we enjoyed 30mph winds in a clear blue sky.  With the lift and lighting so perfect the flying got more and more confident, and before we finished we were flying mass formation flypasts and even mixed type formation landings were performed.  Great stuff chaps!

On Saturday evening, having found our B+Bs and put the heavily used models on charge, a group of visiting PSSA members joined Tim Mackey and his wife Rahme for a curry and a few well deserved beers just up the road in Colwyn Bay, enabling us to reflect on the days activities and bring Saturday to a close in a most relaxed, social manner.

Sundays forecast was for stronger winds from the East and this proved accurate – still under a clear blue sky.  Attendance was not quite as strong, with a few flyers leaving on Saturday night, although we had been joined by Rez Manzoori and local flyers Ron Cooper, Kev ‘Iawnski’ Davies, Paul ‘Digitup’ Vernon and Richard ‘Countdown’ Whitly.  The wind was measured at 38mph early in the morning, as the day went on this rose to 50mph on the edge.  Although this produced a phenomenal amount of slope lift (enabling you to fly as far out and as high as you would ever want to fly a slope model!) it did produce some turbulence problems with landing and launching in particular - there were a few incidents where models were damaged during these critical phases of flight.  Flying took place off the peg from 9:15 until 6pm – the lift was fantastic all day.

Kev Davies flew his big EPP Lancaster on a number of occasions, and was joined by Tim Mackey for formation flights with his EPSS Spitfire.  Matt Jones again flew his Hunter to good effect - the model looking totally realistic against the sunlit blue sky and handling the high winds very well indeed.  Rez, Tim and myself enjoyed flying formation with our trio of BAe Hawks, two of which were fitted with onboard video cameras – see the YouTube video below and enjoy this air-to-air impression of the afternoon.   Simon was airborne most of the day again with his trusty B-52, the wing mounted air-whistles giving those flying smaller, slower models a chance to clear the slope ahead of the next BUFF fast pass!

By 6pm after 2 days of solid flying we were all starting to get a little complacent, although we were still all clearly having fun - and following another mass landing of models we packed up and commenced the walk back to the cars.  No prizes were awarded as we really had just flown for fun all weekend in a relaxed manner - I think everyone who took part in the event enjoyed the weekends flying and the good company.  It was unfortunate that the slopes distance from the cars limited the range of models on show, but there is no question that those models flown were done so in textbook PSS conditions.  Hopefully next time round we will enjoy the same on the Westerly 'Tank Track' site with its superior landing zone and immediate access to the cars and their content.

With the light so good a lot of photography was done – a gallery containing a greater selection of photos from this event (taken by Sue Lee, Nigel Moule and myself) can be found HERE.

Enjoy the Air-to-Air video footage edited by Rez Manzoori. (cameras fitted to the Hawks of Rez & Phil Cooke)

The next PSSA Event on the Great Orme is planned 11^th and 12^th June 2011.  See you there.

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