Erwin in Australia

[Vonza]

Hello again. Yesterday we went for day of Dynamic Soaring and the wind did not come good! We expected 25 knots but it was 5 - 15. However there was one nice thing.


About midday some people appeared with a fancy looking plane. My friend Sean straight away recognized it as an Erwin. The flier is a multiple World F3D champion (powered pylon racing). The plane is the heavier stronger DSS version.



It's a really impressive plane. This was only his second flight with it, but he's an experienced DS'er. He popped it straight over the backside and we got a very brilliant display of extremely talented flying. He was DSing with the wingtip so close to the grass, so close to the trees at the bottom. The wind was really light and he was doing 80 – 83mph. He was often cranking really small circles. The plane looked so light but it’s 2kg empty. It looked like he had snapflap on, it was so tight at the top turn, but it didn’t.




All in all, very very interesting to watch. So I thought I'd send you some photos of a very European plane in some very Australian scenery (where it's hot!).





http://members.optuszoo.com.au/vonberkykids/Misc/Erwin%20top%20sml.JPG






http://members.optuszoo.com.au/vonberkykids/Misc/Erwin%20bottom%20sml.JPG






http://members.optuszoo.com.au/vonberkykids/Misc/Erwin%20DSing%204%20sml.JPG






http://members.optuszoo.com.au/vonberkykids/Misc/Erwin%20DSing%201.JPG






http://members.optuszoo.com.au/vonberkykids/Misc/Erwin%20DSing%202%20sml.JPG

[Artur Blömker]

Hi Andrew!

Oh yes, that is also a nice sloperacer! Thank you for your very nice photos!

Some information you can find here:

http://www.dynamic-soaring.de/erwin.htm

and here:

http://www.pcm.at/2m/index7.html

a short vid:

http://www.aufwind-magazin.de/download/504_Erwin_PCM.WMV

more vids:

http://www.pcm.at/downloads/download-videos.htm

Yes, it is a nice model, practically is the two parts wing! Very good for slopesoaring, and also for light ds.

If you may go up to 200 mph - I don´t know, I have seen the lighter Erwin 5, that is not so strong to go that fast.

May be, a good alternative to the 2-m-Blade?

CU Artur

[Jaro_U]

Hey Andrew,

very nice pics!!! Thank you! :)
Where ist that spot? Is it near Brisbane - where you come from...!?

Jaro

[Vonza]

Thanks guys. Yes that is one of our local slopes, close to where we live. I live at Redcliffe which is on the beach next to Brisbane. That slope is on a mountain called Bald Knob which is used by the club that I'm a member of. It's close to a town called Maleny, which is a beautiful area, in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. The ridge he's DSing on - we call that the "Camel Hump" ... it extends from Bald Knob.

We have a locally based website for sloping - it has lots of stories and photos from our area! http://www.windsock.net.au/

and you can link to the forum, which also has lots of stories and photos too.

This is a photo of me flying on a different part of Bald Knob, with one of my daughters.


http://members.optuszoo.com.au/vonberkykids/Misc/Lisa%20Bald%20Knob14Dec07sml.JPG

[Artur Blömker]

Hi Andrew!

Thanks for the photos - it is a very nice slope! Wow!

And your daughter seems to be interested! :) Lucky father ... :p


in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast.

"Hinterland" .... it is a german word, is it a usual word in Australia?

CU Artur

[Vonza]

Artur, yes, Hinterland is a commonly used word and it means the same thing as in Germany. When we have German visitors they always ask that question!

Yes we have some beautiful places here, but we don't have the big mountains like you guys have in Europe. Your scenery is incredible. Our hills are smaller, mostly covered in trees, and we are finding it hard to find DS sites that work well in our most common wind directions. Our friend Eric (Ezza) who lives in Byron Bay has much better combination of hills and wind direction. But this summer we are having too much calm weather!!! It's driving us nuts!!

By the way, my choice of 2M DS plane is most likely to be the new Firebird from X-models (in carbon). But maybe the Pace DSE if it sounds good and the price is OK. I haven't chosen yet!

EDIT: oh, and by the way, I don't think my young daughter was interested in the flying! In the photo she is probably thinking "Dad, when can we go home!". Her sister certainly was. None of us flying guys over here have any female family members or partners who show the slightest interest.

[Artur Blömker]

EDIT: oh, and by the way, I don't think my young daughter was interested in the flying! In the photo she is probably thinking "Dad, when can we go home!". Her sister certainly was. None of us flying guys over here have any female family members or partners who show the slightest interest.

Hahaha .... the same with me, my daughter don´t like it, but my 18 years old son! ;)

Ciao Artur