It was a nice morning so I decided to continue my little tour. The road where I live looking east towards Worthing. This is a very unusual sight as the road is usually very busy. It's much wider than most residential roads & the only way into Ferring village.


The local railway station about 5 minutes walk down the road. In a surprisingly good state of repair which pleased me.
Quite handy in emergencies but I haven't set foot on a train for about 10 years.


Looking east towards Brighton along the main line. A far cry from the old days when the big steam express trains roared through here on their way to the West Country.


Highdown Hill taken from the railway crossing. Not very high actually but plenty of history & nice views. I'll show you around up there later.


The hill viewed from Highdown playing fields a little further up the road. I used to spend a lot of time here flying my RC thermal soarers. All flying was banned some years ago & now all you get are dog walkers, horse riders & footballers. The little white dots are seagulls.


The road up to the hill between the hedges on the right. The clump of 4 trees used have a nasty habit of jumping out & catching our models if we weren't careful. Some trees are like that.

The building is Highdown Towers, once the home of Sir Frederick & Lady Stern who also owned the field I'm standing in. They donated the field to the local council for the use of the local residents many years ago. There is a beautiful garden right in front of the house with many exotic & rare plants but this won't be open until Spring arrives. http://www.gardens-guide.com/gardenpages/_0437.htm
Highdown Towers has had a chequered history since Lady Stern died & was once a notorious night-club. It's now a pub with a restaurant & function rooms.

I couldn't believe it either. Although I live close to the railway line I never hear a train. In the few minutes I was at the station I saw 4 of the darned things. The same thing happens when you're stuck at a crossing. You can be sure if I'd been waiting to catch one it wouldn't have turned up.

Well Craig, it's a sad story. Our model club had an unwritten agreement to use the field providing they regulated members to flying gliders only. It's close to a nursery with a lot of greenhouses & the main road. Also plenty of Joe Public about. We flew there safely for many years without a single complaint. Then some locals turned up & started flying helos & powered models. When we tackled them about it they said they paid their taxes & had as much right to be there as us. Needless to say the council was flooded with complaints & promptly banned all flying. There's a moral there somewhere but I'm blessed if I can find words to describe my feelings.

PS. I test flew my very first RC glider on that field in January 1980, on my birthday.

No Fido. You don't get more silent or safe than a thermal soaring glider. My point is that the club members were competent flyers, fully insured & obeyed the rules. It was the non-members that got us banned by selfishly ignoring everything including our protests.

PS. Having experimented with it some years ago I'm not too keen on electric flight. One of our club members succssfully flew the first 4 motored model in the country, a semi-scale C-130, & won many awards with it. I acted as co-pilot on its first flight from the runway at Shoreham Airport. I know things have changed somewhat since then but electric powered models are generally heavier & still make a certain amount of noise. In fact a powerful high revving electric motor can be far more dangerous than a conventional glow motor. At least if does hit you an !/C engine will usually stop running.