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Dartmoor - Peak Hill / Cox Tor / Black Hill This is where it all started for me really and also came to an abrupt halt too. I can't remember the exact chain of events, but essentially I had a Tamiya buggy with a 2 channel Acoms set, my brothers friend Jeremy King (Gelf to his friends! - No really he has been a Gelf in Red Dwarf when he was working on the special effects for the series) got a Super Snipe, shortly after Geoff got one and so did I! We built them (what a state my bedroom was afterwards!) and used to try to fly them at Peak Hill (near Yelverton) or Cox Tor (near Tavistock). I was absolutely useless. There was no official club at the time (1983/84) - at least I don't think there was, but there were some other people that used to fly on those hills. Fred Lacey was one of them (who actually was in the same scout troop as me and Geoff) and who co-incidentally I met again at the Peterborough Winter Series a couple of years ago. After several crashes, I gave up and went to University and forgot all about model gliders, until I built the High Sierra four years ago and bought my brothers old TX from him. These pictures were taken on a very cold day in December at Black Hill on the edge of Dartmoor (near to Stan Yeos place I believe). They are of Jeremy "Gelf" King who is sporting the tea cosy and our three models. Jeremy's is the white one called a Mijet - quite aerobatic, Mine of course is the "Good Old" High Sierra (which is currently sat on Geoffs shelf awaiting a repair) and Geoff is putting the LS-3 together (later sold to me and re-named glu pot after its many crashes). |
 3 Models including LS-3  Jeremy King ~ Gelf in Red Dwarf |
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Nowadays Geoff and I tend to do a "traditional" Boxing Day slope soar sesh. Last year it was
absolutely freezing with Gale force winds. We had sat in the car waiting for the freezing winter
showers to blow through, then all of a sudden it became clearer. In my rush to get up the slope
I had forgotten my gloves. The wind was howling and I had no ballast. I got my model away, but
after a couple of minutes my hands were like ice. I had absolutely no feeling at all in my fingers
which meant that I could not control the model properly every movement was jerky. Somehow I
landed without any damage, and I was straight back down to the car....Geoff somehow seemed to
be braving the elements okay (he had is gloves on at least!) - I warmed up again, and went back
up for another go. By now the weather had calmed a little but it was not long before the showers
started coming in again....Time to go home! |
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Boxing Day 2000 - The "Dangerous Brothers" (by now) traditional Boxing Day Slope Soar Fest. Geoff and I got in our traditional Boxing Day slope soaring once again and it would have been exceptional, except that everyone else and their brother and their wife's mother decided on going to Dartmoor on Boxing Day too......The reason ? an inch of snow had fallen on the moors during the night of the 25th and everyone wanted that taste of Christmas...... The wind was ENE and so we decided to head up to Black Hill near HayTor Rock (just up the road from Stan Yeo). The pictures on my web site under Dartmoor show the general location and views (See Stan Yeos site for more instructions on finding this site). To get there we have to drive up the A38 and turn off at Bovey Tracey then head towards Haytor Rock before a sharp right along another much smaller track. The A38 was not too bad, but within a couple of miles of the edge of the moors, it started to get crazy!!! Some of the roads around that area can barely get two cars side by side, and so they were jammed up and the traffic was barely trickling along. When we finally reached the sharp right turn we ended up in another jam because this very narrow track was untreated road and 2/3rds the way up it was very icy with cars all over the place. When we reached the first set of car parks, we didn't dare try to go any further because it appeared that we may not get back! I attempted to get in one of the car parks, but gave up and pulled in off the road because I was just sliding around! The wind wasn't as strong as when we left Plymouth, but was still steady at 10-12 mph. I could have kicked myself because I didn't have a camera on me and the view was superb, everything lay white and it was dead quiet, you know the way the snow seems to deaden sounds.... I flew my Eliminator SR and Geoff his Sitar Special, absolutely superb fun, there was plenty of lift, and would you believe a thermal or two! There were definite patches were the lift was in really strong which would then be followed by strong gusts of very cold wind and very turbulent non lifty patches. I did my first 30 minute stint with no real problems, the landing was good, and I still felt reasonably warm (after the blood got pumping whilst walking up the hill). After a 15 minute break, which made a good 45 mins to an hour of standing around flying, and the cold was licking at my hands..... So there was only one thing for it, to fly another 30 mins to clock up my hour. When the flight clock read 45 mins I was really feeling the cold, but Geoff kept shouting for me to carry on and make my hour (he only had 5 mins to go for his!!) - I fought off the cold as best I could but by now my fingers were numb and so my flying wasn't as precise, there were a few moments where I overcontrolled because I moved the stick too far - Thank God that the lift was good enough so that I could park the model in the good stuff and let it go up whilst I clapped my hands and blew on them vigorously! The seconds seemed to crawl by as I waited for the timer to read one hour, and finally 59mins gave way to 1 hour and I shouted "Landing!!!". It wasn't as good a landing as before, but there was no damage because up there the plant life is thick gorse, heather and bracken, all covered in soft snow. Still Geoff and I got that happy glow when we got back to car of having braved the elements and got in an hours flying at the traditional Boxing Day Slope Fest!!! |
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