It just doesn’t......
Hi Flyers:
What a day! Tuesday at the field was absolutely beautiful. I, Art, Tony, Chris, Brendan, Allen and Mark G. took advantage of the lovely weather. Light winds and alternating sun and cloud cover. The lift was everywhere. And so were the planes.
We had a winch out for a while until they wanted to cut the grass. It's like they think they own the place. Well, in fact, they do. So the winch was rolled up and two high starts were put in different areas.
One of the high starts was used for a Tony/Chris challenge match. 2 minute duration and precision landings. I believe the stakes were 25 cents a landing. I don't know who won but I think I heard Chris saying something to Tony about sending him, Chris, a check
But I was having so much fun with the handlaunch planes that I never got the Soprano to the high start. I had had several Soprano flights off the winch and the plane is a pleasure to fly. Of course every plane flies great in lift. 
Chris, Mark G. and I were touring the sky with our little planes for hours. It was glorious. Art, Tony, Brendan and, at times, Chris were touring the sky with their big planes. It was all up, don't come down until you get tired.
After a while I got the nerve to pull out my new TabooGt. 8 oz. But it took 1/2 oz of nose weight. Oh, well. Maybe it was the day but it flew better than any other HL I've every flown. Up, up, up..... That's all it would do. Pull it into a moderate stall and it lost .. ZERO.. altitude. The lightest puff and it shot up. I'm sure it will disappoint me somehow, but not today. It was a pure delight.
Chris did a magic trick with his TabooGT that I've never seen before. He launched it hard with the radio off. He said that when it left his hand and he noticed the switch plug still in the plane he knew that there was going to be a control problem. It left his hand level at about 100 mph and in the blink of an eye it plowed into the ground about 50 ft. away. But amazingly, no damage!!!! The grass was long and the ground relatively soft. When I do that I usually crunch either the boom, the wing ... or..... both!!!! Not the charmed Mr. Lee. Just pick it up, pull the plug to turn it on.... and fly!!!
I had gotten to the field a little after 9 am. At 3 pm everyone had enough and packed up. I spent a wonderful 6 hours at the field flying constantly and I was reluctant to leave. But I did, and here I am. Happy. Can't ask for more than that.
El Roberto
Chris and I had a landing contest that left me a dollar poorer; just as my luck was changing my hi-start rubber broke, so I didn't have a chance to show my real stuff. The winch got kicked off the east field, so Brendan and Art snuck away to the west field and set out Art's winch. For a little while they were launching into the wind, but soon a 180 shift meant low and squirrely launches. Nonetheless, they were skying out all over the place, and Art did some fancy inverted thermaling with his Supra.
I joined them and made a few flights in deadly sink with my Perfect, but then I switched to the Topaz just as the air was turning into a mass of lift. I rarely like to stay up more than a few minutes, but this time I flew for a half-hour, just enjoying the wonderful thermal handling and sweet flying of the Topaz. What a plane!
Perhaps the secret to my day's flying was that I left the canopy hatch at home and had to replace it with taped-on cardboard cut from the side of a 7-Up carton. Chris was kind enough to photograph this screw-up so that I couldn't deny it later.
April 29, 2008