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Lasham Airfield near Basingstoke OS Map Thumbnail. If you click on the Lasham Thumbnail you will see a full screen Detailed Map of the area, the small yellow circles mark the sites I have been lucky enough to try out. I have also got this Detailed Map. |
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Aerotowing photographs of Gliders at Lasham 2000. Click on the Thumbnails or links for a full Screen jpg - optimised for screens 800 x600 plus |
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The SSS Aerotow -2000 at Lasham Airfield. | |
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This sketch was made by Julia Hunt. She was a judge at the Lasham competition, and had a sign up
advertising her services to draw portraits for 6 quid a throw. I asked her if she would make one of
my ASH 26, and it turned into a drawing more than a sketch. The more I look at it the more I love it.
Julie is available for commissioned drawings etc. Her contact details are 01420 489758 or
07730 448252. I'm considering asking her to paint me a water colour of the same model
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The SSS Aerotow -2000 at Lasham Airfield in Hamps. Lasham aerodrome is huge! There are full size gliders going up on aerotow and winch constantly through the day, in addition the runway is so big that full size cargo jets (a DHL Tri-Star went up at one point and all flying had to stop) can take off. They have a very nice dorm with separate rooms (where I stayed for 8.50 quid) and they also have a huge cafeteria and bar. So I got there about 11:00 ish on Saturday morning and put the ASH together. I needed a fraction more lead in the nose, which I was able to jam in between the batteries and tape in place. It was secure enough. I was waiting around by the flight line trying to psyche myself up. I had successfully allowed a couple of gliders to go up before me, but then there was no one else ready to go and so I was press ganged into hooking up! Of course all fears melted away as she lifted off the ground within seconds of "All out" being called. I popped the wheel in and tracked up into the sky behind the tug. The ceiling for the tow was 500 feet so it wasn't long before I had to release. The wind was quite strong actually so she needed a few clicks of down trim to be perfectly trimmed, but it wasn't much. I sailed around the sky for a bit, Ian told me there was lift behind so I dashed downwind, Peter Weston told me to put in some thermal flap, and up I went! I didn't dive test or do any aerobatics, and soon it was time to land. This was the bit that I was most worried about, but I shouldn't have because it was a doddle. On final approach I popped up the spoilers and down she came. I popped out the wheel with 100 feet to go to the edge of the strip and then 40 feet from the patch. I popped the spoilers away again and she gently floated to the ground, touched down on the wheel, and trundled up the mown area, a touch of rudder at the end saw the model roll to a standstill right by my feet! |
 Colin Bond & the 1-3 Wilga-ZDZ-160-B Thanks to Tony Baker for the photos at Lasham |
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The wind got stronger and the cloud thickened up. I decided to go again though as the tug pilots
were happy at the time. We have had a bit of a debate as to why I had a couple of problems next,
and being no expert I can't really decide what the actual problem was but two bad launches resulted
in a couple of not very impressive ground loops :-( . Luckily there was no massive damage - Just
the canopy release wire got slightly bent and so the canopy didn't close properly, a bit of tape
solved that though. The symptom is that just after the wingman lets go, one wing just catches the ground causing enough drag to whip the model around. So, why did it happen? The three theories go like this at the moment 1) Colin Bond is a very competent tug pilot, but sometimes I am not sure that he doesn't get the power on quick enough to get the glider up to flying speed. 2) It could have been due to the blustery conditions causing turbulence at ground level, in which case it is glider pilot error not giving the opposite control input to correct the yaw. 3) The wingman held on for too long or didn't let go the wing properly i.e. gave it a bit of a roll one way or the other so that one wing caught the grass. Then something happened to the 1/3rd scale Wilga that stopped it flying, so I had to go up on a Piper Cub with a 1000 engine took over. The b*****ds didn't tell me that it was it's first ever tow! Anyway this pilot got power on straight away and up I went. The landing was not as good as the first one but okay, and I couldn't stay up as long because of the low tow ceiling and the fact that there was not a lot of lift around now. Half an hour later they decided to call it day as we could see rain showers off in the distance. |
 1st Flight with the ASH-26 |
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On Sunday we had the comp. Three sections 1) Static. 2) Std Class. 3) Master Class. I got low marks in the static section because the mould line is visible along the length of the fuz, also the picture I had in my documentation did not match the markings on my model. (Although I did have a picture of the full size ASH with D-6161 on the side of the fuz, the one in the picture has 26 in blue lettering and a German flag on the fin, mine has GW). There were a few other points they wrote down but they gave me 200 out of 300. In the standard class you had to get towed up, and you were judged when you came off the line. Two thermal turns to the left, two to the right, one aerobatic maneuver from the list (loop, roll, chandelle, stall turn, Spin or 5 secs inverted) then land with distinct square approaches, crosswind, downwind, base leg, approach and round out and land between the "runway" tapes. I was third up, and the tow was superb. The wind was not quite as strong as the Saturday, and there was stacks of sunshine and fluffy white clouds. I ran through the schedule without a hitch, the funny point was that Colin had just landed his Wilga, looked up and shouted at me to avoid the full size that was going across our heads....The words were only half out when he realised it was actually my ASH 26. I opted to do the loop for my aerobatic maneuver, and I think that I either needed a touch more elevator movement OR should have allowed a bit more speed to build up in the dive, however it was passable. |
 Prepares for the 1st Flight with the ASH-26 |
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I don't have my score sheets on me, but I didn't get very high marks for my thermal turns (despite the fact that I was going up!), and I thought my landing was superb, but the Judges didn't give me massive marks for it. They said I put the wheel down on my downwind leg... I can't remember if I did or didn't but I did (in my opinion) get the perfect glide angle in, and I landed it right between the tapes, then let it trundle to the end of the runway to a huge round of applause. As soon as I got the model back to the pits, I had a massive crowd around me all asking questions. Apparently, one old fellow had insisted to Tony Baker, whilst I still had height, that mine was a full size sailplane and that he had been flying for 50 years and he should know etc etc, His mouth dropped when he saw me land! Next, once the crowd had dispersed a bit I had to do an interview with a professional video outfit that Tony B had hired in, and they told me that they had caught the whole flight on tape, so I am looking forward to that coming out. It was much of the same really for the rest of the day. There were not enough tugs and tug pilots really and there were big delays sometimes and it was late afternoon by the time they had fixed the 1/3rd scale Wilga again (a plug had broken?) and so I was one of the last ones to fly the master class. This was marked on the tow as well, and both you and the tug pilot were marked on your landings. The schedule was to do one thermal turn and then 2 aerobatic maneuvers from the list and then land. I got a lot more speed on for the loop, and this time it went round very gracefully, I flicked in aileron to flap coupling and went for a roll as I came out of the loop, and boy did it go round quickly! I then went for a fast dive and low pass across the pits (dumping water ballast the same as the full size were doing on the other side of the aerodrome!) then turned and went for my landing. The legs were a bit better than the previous attempt, but I didn't quite round out properly so the poor old pilots bones got jarred a little, otherwise okay though. Shame there were not many tugs and pilots though because I would have loved to have been able to do some longer flights in between and during other competitors flights. Oh well. Anyway, I came home with an intact model with just a tiny bit of cosmetic damage. Superb!! Ash 26 Launch Gliding 657kb MPG file, no sound, 7 secs duration. Thanks to Nigel Wrigley for the movie file. Ash 26 Landing Watch the wings bend as it hits the deck with a gentle thump 939kb MPG file, no sound, 10 secs duration. |
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