|
Arran off the West coast of Scotland OS Map Thumbnail. If you click on the Arran 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. |
|
On to Arran. 1997 I was staying with friends on Arran for only a few days before heading on to join my parents and brother Geoff in Ballahulish. I hadn't had a serious look at potential sites on Arran yet, relying rather on two sources of information. The first was a telephone conversation with a model shop owner (more sage advice from the wise ones in Stranraer. He told me that he mainly sold electric models, but assured me that I would have a smashing time because Arran was just one huge collection of hills in the sea! This I actually did already know, but I didn't like to say...he was so enthusiastic!. The other source was one of my brothers old University lecturers who flies on Baildon Moor in Leeds. He said that he had been to Arran a number of times before, and knew that the Landlord of the Hotel in Lochranza went 'sloping' on Arran. So with a bit of Tennants 60 shilling, and a few drams of Scottish courage inside me, I approached the barman in the Lochranza hotel bar. 'Nay Laddie...' he said, as far as he knew, '…the Landlord didne play wi model planes', and so he threw the question out to the audience ' Hey who flees wee planes roon here ?' ! They all agreed that Mr Broon the guy who lived three doors doon flew wee planes off the hills. ....I have to say I was a bit discouraged at this and decided not to pursue the lead any further.......I wanted to be flying of course ! not chasing around the island knocking on peoples doors etc etc! |
The southern coast of Arran. Shame this didn't scan in very well, as The Ailsa Craig looks great in the actual picture. |
|
I decided to use an O/S map and spotted a possibilty on the south coast of the island. I am sure that it would have been excellent with a moderate South or South Westerly. The slope was not quite as steep on the Southeast but was flyable and I got some short floats on the light South-easterly that was blowing that day. The other bonus was a superb view of the Ailsa Craig (That funny round island that the BBC show when the British Open championship golf is held at Troon) that I had never seen before. i.e. looking at its N and N/W cliffs rather than East facing ones you see from the mainland. Unfortunately the sea mist surrounding it in the photo meant that it didn't scan very well. From Blackwaterfoot on the south west of the island, take the A841 (Its almost impossible to take any other road than this!) follow the road anti-clockwise (go south !) towards Kilpatrick. I was heading for a hill with a Triangulation Point on the top of it not too far out of Blackwaterfoot. It was perhaps a mile or two along this road that you notice the drop off to the sea below, and the hill on your left. I found a parking area here which was actually an entrance to a forestry commission road/track. Just to the right of it was a small stile and a track that followed the edge of the line of conifers. At the top, I struck away from the tree line towards the now visible trig point. I had to really heft the model into the air to get any sort of a decent launch, and it was all I could do to track up and down the slope a few times before whipping in a down-breeze turn and throwing in a greasy fast landing. I occasionally caught some weak thermals that were coming through, more by luck than judgement, but flight times were typically only 10 minutes or so. Perhaps I'll go there again someday, I was however very pleased with myself at my first effort of finding a 'new site', and little did I know then, that in subsequent years, this business of finding new sites would become part of the challenge for me and Geoff. |
| Home | | | Competition | | | Aerotowing | | | Fly Sites | | | Models | | | About GAW |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contact Details :- |
Get Netscape |
|
e-mail Webmaster with any comments on this site. |