Saturday 28-05-2005

After a plethora(!) of emails and text messages were sent out by Nancy and myself (Carlo) on Friday evening, informing the multitudes out there, in the Southern Hang Gliding Club and beyond, of the great plans the Mad Farmer had for putting the Thermal Factory together over the weekend - for which he needed some volunteers, a nice little chain-gang of able-bodied (is somewhat weirdly minded!) pilots arrived on Saturday mid-morning at the Thermal Factory field in Warbleton, East Sussex. They were gladly met by Chief chain-ganger, and Thermal Factory imaginer/designer, Dave 'The Mad Farmer' Watts.

Unsure at first what they were to do (and exactly what they'd gotten themselves into!), little by little the Mad Farmer enlightened his fresh troupe of unquestioning followers as to how the whole thermal/wind generating/directing machine was to be assembled and set-up...

For all good recipes, first you need a list of ingredients. The basic ingredients you need to bake a Mad Farmer's summer Thermal Factory cake are as follows:

Two (functional) old bangers (to be 'adjusted' to suit accordingly - with chainsaws, brute-force and welding equipment!); a van-load of scaffolding, planks and wooden blocks; a flame-thrower or two (looking for more, by the way); an incredible 4.5m diameter home-made (beautiful!) very heavy wooden propeller; another, smaller but also very impressive propeller; a car-jack; a scissor car-jack; a spare tyre; a few 40 gallon metal barrels (also looking for more); lots of logs, some tarred; some welding equipment, a chainsaw, a circular saw; a huge (40m x 55m) heavy-duty polythene sheet; a multifarious selection of tools, screws, bolts, nuts, wire and nails; some rope, and dozens of heavy-duty ratchet straps; and - last but not least - huge great lorry loads of imagination and enthusiasm!

And now, to work!...

First, we had to assemble the scaffolding. It transpired that we were building some kind of ramp, for one of the old bangers to be driven up onto. Apparently, the ramp needed to be around 3m off the ground, for some reason. This of course begged the question: Who would drive the old banger up when the ramp was finished? Each one slightly anxious that it might be them, we went about assembling it anyway...

The scaffold frame was first set-up, then reinforced (but was it enough?), then the ramp was added, with poles, planks and scaffold clamps. By the time we had finished it, we realised that it was quite high - a long way to fall down!

It was time for someone to drive up. Quickly it became clear that Dave would have to show his leadership qualities and inspire his minions by an act of selfless bravery. He got in and revved up the old banger. But was the ramp too steep? Vroom... vroom... VROOOOM... THUNK!! Yes, evidently too steep with the slope of the field!

More planks added and reinforced, to make the ramp less steep. VROOOM, VROOOM, VROOOOOOOOM... and yes, this time no problems - straight to the top, with only 6 inches to go before the end! "Bugger", Dave said, and started revving the engine to make up the last 6 inches. "No, No - it's fine Dave, don't worry!" shouted Bobby, worried Dave might go off the end!

Next, the banger had to be secured, so that it wouldn't roll back off the ramp, then shunted sideways, so that one front wheel was slightly overhanging. This wheel was removed, replaced with another and then - the next part of the plan became apparent - the 4.5m propeller was bolted to the wheel (with some minor troubles)!

The old banger had now been turned into a big-old BLOWER, with a 4.5m diameter propeller attached to it's wheel, which acted as a rotating device!

After everything had been fixed into place, and the vehicle and scaffolding secured, Dave decided it was time for a DEMONSTRATION! He climbed up the scaffold, got behind the wheel of the old banger, and started the engine. We took in the somewhat unusual view of Dave sat inside an old banger, perched on top of a 3m-high scaffold, with a 4.5m propeller attached to the front near-side wheel facing towards us, and moved back to watch the spectacle unfold (or hopefully not!).

Dave gently started to press of the accelerator in 1st gear. The prop started to rotate - impressive. Then Dave slowly gave it a bit more throttle - very impressive! Then he gave it a bit more, and a bit more - still only in first gear - and then the power of the thing really started to show itself: Whoosh-Whoosh-Whoosh THWUP-THWUP-THWUP, like a helicopter blade when it starts really getting going!

Shouts of: "Bloody hell!", "Stand back!", "Don't go to the side of it" and "F**k me!" were to be heard from the group, who were suitably impressed by the sheer power of the propeller, and by just how brilliantly it worked! Especially amazing when you consider that Dave made the prop himself by hand.

Anyway, although HUGE amounts of fun were had by all who came along, it had been a long day and it was time to stop and go home. I'm sure I speak for all when I say it was really great to be able to be involved with such a great - and somewhat 'unusual' - project, even in a small way.

Dave still needs lots more help in future for all of this effort to come to fruition - so get in touch with him and get down there to the Thermal Factory field to help whenever you can (even if you can only go for a short time)!

Dave has asked me to say a great big "THANK YOU!" to all those who turned up to help on the Saturday (very sorry if I miss anyone who was there!):

Gary 'Brew' Bruggenwirth.
John Stevens.
Bobby Brown.
Simon Steel.
Carlo Borsattino.
Nancy Elliott.
Peter Campbell.
Kevin 'Kevie-Wevie' Short.
Alison Webb.
... and, last but not least...
"Mutley-Dawg"!

I think Dave was very happy with the turn-out, and very glad that the project was moved along so much in just one day.

I for one would like to thank Dave 'The Mad Farmer' Watts, for having the sheer brilliance and originality to come up with, and follow through, on such an inspired idea!

See a photo gallery by Nancy and Carlo of the Mad Farmer's Thermal Factory on Saturday.

Sunday 29-05-2005

Nancy and I could not be there on Sunday, as we had some paragliding students to teach. However, I rang up Dave and he gave me the following report:

Firstly, Dave wanted to thank the following people for turning up, and apologise for shouting at them and bossing them about generally. ;^) He also said sorry if there was someone he missed (or got their name wrong):

'Hairy Fred' Berwick.
Neil Brennan-Wright.
Mrs Brennan Wright.
Dave Smith.
Mrs Smith.
Nigel Thomas.
Frances Valdes.
Paul Watts (one son of Dave!).
Rob Beresford.
Bobby Brown.
Pete Campbell.

First, some of the problems/challenges identified on Saturday had to be solved...

The difficulties we had with fitting the propeller were solved by adding wire onto the bolts - to make them easier to pull through - and sharpening the bolts.

The trouble we had moving the vehicle sideways into the correct position was solved by using a scissor-jack to do the job effortlessly.

The propeller had proved so powerful that - despite fixing it in place securely with several lorry-type heavy-duty ratchet straps and strategically placed blocks of wood - it blew the whole car sideways across the scaffold. This resulted in the propeller clipping the scaffold, damaging it only slightly (fortunately).

Also, the propeller was creating so much power, that it was too close to where the artificial soaring ridge was going to be. Where it was, it would be creating a +30 mph wind on take-off - even in first gear!

To fix the above problems, they had to first un-hook the vehicle and drive it back down from the scaffold, so they could move the whole thing further down the hill, away from the artificial ridge. This also had the advantage that it was hidden from view from the road. Then they re-attached the vehicle to the scaffold in such a way that it would not more, even under the huge power of the propeller.

Having solved some of the problems from the day before, they moved on to putting together some of the other parts of the Thermal Factory.

They put up the artificial ridge - tying the huge (40m x 55m) polythene sheet between two trees at either end of the filed. The idea was to use the other wind generator (built in earlier experiments) to 'inflate' the ridge, by blowing onto the rear of the polythene sheet. As it happened, a small problem was found as the battery was flat for wind-generator no 1. A very light tail-wind did the job perfectly instead, inflating the artificial hill anyway. However, this was no good for soaring.

Once the artificial ridge was inflated by the light tailwind, it was possible to see that the structure needed more support in the centre, as well as the two trees at the ends. A paraglider-like designed buttress is being formed to this end...

Dave said: "As a result of all of the testing we have done and all of the things we have learnt over this last weekend (and the many months before), we have managed to continuously improve and evolve the way the Thermal Factory works and steadily move forward. Each time we are getting more successful."

"The Thermal Factory is an ongoing creation, a project still in the prototype stage of development and creation. Fortunately, I have spent many years working with farmers in the past, designing and making all kinds of mechanical creations, so I am used to this process of design, experimentation and re-design!"

"All contributions from people have helped enormously, and are GREATLY appreciated. Thanks again to everyone who could come over the weekend. There is still plenty of work to be done, so anytime anyone can lend a hand that would be fantastic!"

Nigel Thomas, who was there on Sunday added the following report:

"Still more work to be done.

The initial position of the 'fan' was too close, giving a 35mph wind near the sheet. We've moved the whole scaffold rig further away (and down the slope) and with some rough calculations, this should give about 8mph at the sheet.

The second fan (Citroen) requires a new battery - we could not start it on Sunday.

The drums need cutting and opening up - by hand this is going to be a hard job, but Dave does have a bigger (more powerful) generator so when should be able to use a grinder to open them up.

Dave is working on an inflatable tube to support the centre section of the sheet more - lots of gluing going on at the moment.

Watch this space."

See a photo gallery by Nigel and Frances of the Mad Farmer's Thermal Factory on Sunday.

Factory Location

The Mad Farmer's Thermal Factory field was situated approximately 30km to the ENE of Brighton, 20km to the North of Eastbourne, 30km to the East of Burgess Hill and 18km to the NW of Bexhill. It is located about 3km to the SE of Heathfield in East Sussex, near the small town of Warbleton. From Warbleton Church, head North up the road from Warbleton Church for about 3/4 mile, and the Thermal Factory field is on the left. Park by the side of the road, leaving as much space as possible for other vehicles to get by.

The OS Grid reference for the Thermal Factory field is: TQ 610 195. So, if you have a GPS you can direct yourself straight there!

If you have any trouble finding it, give Dave a call on his mobile: 07901 688 061.

See a photo gallery by Nancy and Carlo of the Mad Farmer's Thermal Factory on Saturday.

See a photo gallery by Nigel and Frances of the Mad Farmer's Thermal Factory on Sunday.