Flying Reports

Flying Tuesday

Tue, 6 May 2008 18:58:11 -0500

Tony Estep: Brendan, Art, Chris and I, plus a buddy of Brendan's, showed up to defy the wind prediction. We were vindicated, because the wind was quite light, much less than the 10-20 that had been forecast. But the skies were gray and lift was scarce.

The highlight of the day for me was that Chris and I continued our 25-cent contest and I got all my money back except one quarter. We were flying 6 minutes and using the winch glove for a spot. To make the time took careful scratching, since the air was mostly neutral at best, but we were making it with just a little energy to spare. So it became a landing contest, and for once he left some room around the spot for the old guy to sneak in and swipe his quarters. I overstayed my luck, however, and on the last flight I had to troop out into the adjacent field to fetch my plane after searching way, way downwind past the point of no return.

Brendan was flying his Soprano, and managed to get the highest of anyone during the time I was there. Art left his Supra at home and flew his Bubble Dancer, which was well suited to the conditions today. Chris had his yellow Supra, and I had my Supra too. It flew great, just great, and if I can get the launch sorted out I think I'll finally have the plane figured out.

It was probably a good thing to fly today, because the rest of the week doesn't look so good. See you guys at the meeting tonight. At the library!

Many of today’s flights consisted of one long descent. One occasionally caught a light bubble but generally just neutral air.

A promising first couple minutes quickly went south but the Supra managed to linger for over five minutes under 150’, never gaining much, but not losing too much either. Most of this flight was done over the adjacent wheat field, never more than a turn away from being on final for landing. - Chris

Flying Monday Report

Mon, 5 May 2008 20:39:50 -0500

Hi Flyers: I know that Sunday was a super day. Monday was also great. There were 5 of us. When I got to the field Art, Nelson and Harold were already set up. Chris and Doppler soon showed up and Allen got there at 11:00. The weather was beautiful. Sun, warmth and light winds. The Geezer group was soon skying out all the while complaining about the lift, their various illnesses and the general state of the world. I managed to get the Graphite2 into some lift and we used it to check Harold's distance vision. He had no problem seeing it at 1600 ft. Now I don't have to listen to his complaints that he can't see his plane very far.

The lift was good for a while but scattered. It slowed down after lunch and by 1:30 everyone left except Chris, Doppler and me. We flew the big planes for a while and the lift was really scattered and sink plentiful. Which, for me, made it more interesting. As usual Chris insisted on making it a mini-contest. 6 minute duration and precision landings. I didn't do too badly but was, of course, beaten by Chris the majority of the times.

Then we switched to DLG. Again we made it a contest. 3 minute flights with handcatch. Chris only beat me 9 out of every 10 throws .... and he did it easily. So I tried to set up a learning experience for me. Chris would throw first and then I would launch and try to follow him so I would be in his air as much as possible. So how did I do? Lousy. Chris outflew me almost every time. Even though we were flying in the same air. Ok, so I gave up 10-15 feet on launch. But that did not explain it, I don't think. He just flies hugely better than I do. Which is good and bad. Bad because .............well, he flies hugely better than I do. Good, because it means that, maybe, I can learn to do better. The question is, I wonder how?

Anyway we had a great time flying.... so great that at 5 pm my phone rang and my wife wondered if I was ever coming home. I went home.

Another wonderful day at the field doing what I love to do!!!

El Roberto

Sunday Flying Report

Sun, 4 May 2008 20:29:32 -0500

Tony Estep: Well, today was the ideal Topaz day. Clear blue skies, light breezes, 70 degrees. A crowd showed up at the old sod farm: Mark and Brendan, Ken Trudeau, Rich R., Mark Nankivil and Jack, Jim Crook, Glauco and Gabriel, and Ken MoelleRelloem, 3 of them with Topazes and 3 with Sopranos. Rich flew his new Topaz, winched it successfully, and thermaled it well. And lo and behold, new member Dave Quist with his Sagitta 900, which he flew beautifully from a hi-start. It was the kind of day where you launch your RES and float around all day.

But I was feeling perverse, so I left the Topaz at home and instead took my 90-ounce Stratos 6 F3B plane. And when I got there, I discovered that my true-blue buddy Glauco had done the same. He must be a contrarian too. And whaddya know, Art's famous saying is true: if the air is going up, you'll go up. I thermaled all over the place with the Stratos, and Glauco did the same, at one point climbing so fast that it looked like he was jet propelled.

Even in low-level hand-launch thermals, little wispy things that puffed up as you were in the landing pattern, the F3B planes had no trouble climbing out and staying up as long as you liked; and they had the further advantage that you could use the altitude to make hair-on-fire speed runs and do aerobatics. I did the best 4-point roll of my life. Jim Crook and I got into the same little 20-foot teaser out over the northwest field, and for a couple of minutes I hung with his Topaz at 30 feet. But finally I couldn't hang in any more, and had to land; he made one more circle and followed me in.

All in all I'd say it was just another illustration: if the air is there, planes are gonna go up, whether they're light or heavy, RES or full-house, fast or slow. And of course if it's not, not. Everybody had as much fun as they could stand, no matter what plane they were flying.
At the end I got out my 3D foamie and hand-launched it. It went 10 feet and the prop screwed itself off, and went helicoptering up to about 50 feet of altitude, then descended in an impressive controlled spiral. The plane, meanwhile, dumped itself into the drainage ditch. I put the prop back on, tight this time, and flew the pack out.

Sunshine, warm air, a green sod farm, beautiful planes, and flying buddies. How ya gonna beat that?!

Brendan Miller: Well today was a day where you could stay up for long periods of time, and all of us proved that. My dad and I got there about 11:00 glauco, mark nankavil, gene, harold, and rich were all there some were flying
a couple were putting our planes together, Jim crook showed up and along with Rich got their Topazs trimed and range checked. Glauco was flying his Espada RL, and his espada R and a Stratos 6. I put on my repaired Soprano wing which I cart wheeled into the ground a few months ago, hand tossed it and everything seemed great. I put it up on the winch and zoomed off and found lift right away, and could you believe it my first flight was 25:30, I was also working on my LSF level 2 so that took care of one 15 minute TD flight. Did I mention that all our launches were either somewhat cross wind or down wind? and we were still getting half hour flights. After a bit Ken moeler
showed up along with Ken and his Ruby 2m, after a few flights with that he got out his trusted Soprano. Tony showed up sometime in their flying his heavy stratos 6 but even that was going up. I got in a few flights with the Pike S, I got one were I actually sat down because it was up so high when my dad turned the walkie on for the vario it said 1472ft! We chuckled and I went on flying it, wow I love the plane. Glauco asked if I like it and I think I replied with a heck yea I like it. One the last flight with my soprano I found light down wind and took it up then it happened I lost all sight of my plane scared the stuffing out of me but then it reappered and I decided to get back up wind, that flight was 15:52, so I got the other 15 minute TD flight I needed. Everyone got in a few more great flights then we started to break down the equipment and planes and headed out. I am pretty sure I forgot some stuff but I'm sure other peoples reports will fill that in.

Gene Lindsay: Sunday fliers. Great morning of Sunday flying, wish I could have stayed longer. I made two fifteen minute flights today and used one for my LSF level II. That second long flight was particularly nice, I started from the high start down wind and got 100 feet, I immediately got into a strong thermal and went to 900 feet in about five minutes, following this lift down wind it continued to 1095 feet and maintained that height for the rest of the time, very nice.
Good to see Jack and Gabriel today they did well. Great picture of Mark and Jack.
Everywhere you look now you see Topaz!
Gene

May TD contest postponed

Sat, 3 May 2008 14:54:43 -0500

May TD Contest rescheduled for Saturday 5/31

It’s another weather delay for TD. When I got to the field the group was huddling by the buildings talking about all the great times everybody has had on the weekdays at the field. We finally decided to move out to where we wanted to setup the winch for a WNW wind all the way in the back of the farm. To no surprise Chris Lee was already back there with two planes assembled ready to go. We eagerly setup the winch equipment and the light rain started. Glauco did his best to try and get us up in the air but it just plain sucked out there. Between the light rain in the area and wind nobody wanted to fly. Glauco lifted his no test flight rule and Chris hit the winch for a test flight. Chris flew his Pike Superior with one downwind turn and that was for landing. He nailed a landing in the 80’s but he wasn’t excited about the condition. He told me later he had his Pike in reflex and diving constantly. After another spell of light drizzle Jim put his DP together and gave another test flight with similar results but did manage a couple of downwind turns and a little longer flight than Chris. I’m not sure of his landing but I know it was on the tape but not as good as Chris. Jim acknowledged it was very windy aloft and his landing approach was a bit bumpy. That seemed to be the nail in the coffin for the contest. Glauco called the contest off for weather and/or lack of interest to fly in the bad conditions. We’ll try again Saturday 5/31 for Unlimited and RES per our club schedule. Thanks Glauco for all your work in April and taking on May TD. Thanks t Tony who setup up his scoring system several times today anticipating a start. Last but not least thanks Mark M for bring the equipment out. Actually Mark M has the most important job. Thanks Mark.

Thanks again Glauco for helping recruit contest CDâ€™s. I have commitments to help from Brian, Mark M, and Jim. As long as Glauco is able to CD 5/31 my next concern is the RES/2-Meter contest in June.

Hand launch is next weekend Saturday 5/10. Chris isn’t going to be able to make it as of today. If anybody would like to CD they are welcome. I can do it if not but I doubt we fly Poker if I’m CD. I plan to bring my scoring computer so CDing should be a breeze if you volunteer to CD.

Jeff

---

Hi Flyers: No one mentioned the bright side of today's almost contest. We had a great turnout. I didn't count the people out there but it was a bunch. It would have been a great contest...........................................if it had been a contest. :(

El Roberto

---

That’s an excellent point. I didn't count either so please correct me if I left somebody out.

Jim

Mike
Art
Ed
Robert
Mark M
Mark N
Tony
Chris
Glauco
Brendan
Jeff

12 pilots for a crappy day is pretty good. Just think how many we could have had if it was a flyable day.
 Jeff

Windy Flying Report

Thu, 1 May 2008 00:03:24 -0500

On May 1, 2008, at 12:26 PM, Allen Priest wrote:

> I agree. It's much too windy today. I was just out there and it feels pretty rough.
>

It was indeed windy today, but not that rough. I was lured out by Allen's flying report from yesterday when winds were less than expected, but I was greeted by conditions that pretty much matched the forecast, 22mph base and gusty. Still managed to squeeze in a couple three hours today before the hi-start rubber broke (on tow, not stretched on the ground!)

Set-up a high-start because I figured it shouldn't have any trouble with a little wind-assist, even with a fully-ballasted Pike Superior. Turns out, no trouble at all, with launches over 600'. But the trick became what to do after launch because the wind made it difficult to reach any tree line for sloping. There was a limited window to work lift because although the thermals were strong, they moved downwind very quickly and large areas of sink seemed to follow close behind. Robert once told me about flying under low, dark clouds to find lift because something is holding up the cloud. Seemed to work today, and the clouds were plentiful.

I found out I need to use less rudder than usual to make efficient thermal circles in the wind and also had plenty of opportunity to work the trailing edge camber settings. Landings were challenging, especially when the wind abated suddenly and I had a lot more speed than I expected. All in all, a good practice day for what are expected to be similar conditions on Saturday. See you all then!

Chris

It just doesn’t......

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:45:47 -0500

.........get much better than this!!!!!!!

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

Tony Estep: Today was everything Robert said. There were periods of frustrating sink, and wind shifts that led to plenty of downwind launches, but the main feature of the day was great flying in great air.

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 Hand Launch Contest

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:15:28 -0500

Chris Lee: We did it! Finally, on the fourth attempt (thermal duration postponed twice and hand-launch postponed once), we got in an April flying contest.

Some rain Friday evening made the field availability questionable but I got out there early and saw that while the grass was wet, the ground was completely solid underneath. I whistled the go-ahead and contestants started pouring in. By the 9am pilot's meeting, we had... four. The usual hardcore guys, Robert, Jeff, Jim and myself. Ken Moeller also made an appearance to checkout the handlaunch format in preparation for his debut with a new Blaster 2 that he just received (very nice looking kit, makes me want to get one, oh wait...)

We needed to be hardcore early on as during the "warm-up" flights we were faced with 12mph winds and a significant wind chill. Expecting the worst, everyone put on every layer they had and any plane that was not "pre-ballasted" from the building bench got a little lead. Magically, the first round opened and the winds died off. Not only that, but we had some great lift for the first task, three 3-minute flights.

Rest of the day progressed up and down with cycles of wind and the lift actually got scarcer towards the end, which really made some of the tasks tricky. I got caught making a series of poor choices during the Last Flight Counts task, standing on the ground watching Robert sky out while the wind was blowing a gale. I figured after
the big blow, there would be lift, so I waited and then launched multiple times into heavy sink as Robert danced away with a five-minute max. My normalized score for the round was 243 (out of 1000).

Speaking of Robert, he was flying out of his mind today, Jim commented that he repeatedly called him "Chris" as in "nice flying, Chris... er, Robert" while timing for him. Robert continued a streak of excellent flights through the first four rounds and had a healthy lead while I languished in the "other" group, unable to challenge him directly. Possibly the adrenaline of constantly winning (or old age) finally caught up to him and the reason I make these contests seven rounds long became apparent, keep throwing until everyone's fingers are bloody and raw, then tack on two more rounds.

The F3K-designated drop round does make the contest more interesting, a little wildcard towards the end that could affect strategic decisions in the last task. However, as with last month, the dropped scores did not affect the final standings although the point-spread did shift a bit.

Cumulative scores after:

Round 1 (3x3min flights): Chris 1000, Robert 1000, Jim 899, Jeff 883
Round 2 (Last Flight): Robert 2000, Jeff 1883, Chris 1243, Jim 1210
Round 3 (Poker): Robert 2992, Jeff 2883, Chris 2243, Jim 1381
Round 4 (1,2,3,4min flights): Robert 3992, Jeff 3679, Chris 3243, Jim 1999
Round 5 (All Up): Robert 4397, Chris 4243, Jeff 4181, Jim 2360
Round 6 (Poker): Chris 5243, Robert 4980, Jeff 4974, Jim 3360
Round 7 (5x2min flights): Chris 6243, Jeff 5974, Robert 5732, Jim 4095

Calculating in the one dropped score:
Chris 6000
Jeff 5473
Robert 5327
Jim 3925

Immediately after the contest around 1:30pm, folks continued to fly a bit and immediately noticed the booming lift everywhere. The whole sky was going up and the problem became how to get down, not how to stay up. Was particularly funny in contrast to the final round of the contest, 15 minutes earlier when no one managed a single max of 2 minutes. Ain't that the way it always is?

A challenging morning turned into a beautiful flying day, made even better by the fact that we flew a contest!

These things will only get more fun as we get greater participation numbers. Looking forward to some great showings this summer when the weather doesn't hold people back. Even today's breezy start turned into a wonderful day.

See you all at the next one, in two weeks,
Chris

Robert Samuels: Hi Flyers: As you know from Chris' report it was a really great day for HL. Chris got there a bit before dawn to check out the field. He had worked the ball game the night before which lasted until 3 am so he didn't have to waste time sleeping before getting ready for the HL contest. When I got to the field at 8 am Chris already had the tent set up and the scoring equipment unloaded. When I say equipment I am not kidding. That man brings more equipment to an event than Madonna does to a concert. Not merely being content with a laptop he has giant batteries, inverters, cables scorecards, clipboards, multiple Palm Pilots (I'm not kidding), watches... then comes the camera equipment.... you get the picture (no pun intended..... ok..so the pun was intended). And he had been flying for about an hour before I arrived.

And Jeff was also there before me. It was a bit chilly. No, I lie. Initially it was cold. I needed a heavy jacket, gloves and Chris Lee Signature Hat. Mostly due to the chill and wind. But it warmed up very quickly when the wind dropped. So... we had a solid field, it got warm and calm and the lift was plentiful.

And I was flying waaaaay over my head. I kept accidentally stumbling into the lift and making great times. Until I stopped accidentally stumbling into lift. If we had had two throw out rounds I would have been a contender. But we didn't and I wasn't.

Chris and Jeff were the "Flying Big Dogs" of the day.... as usual. Jim was making a mighty effort but he kept complaining about his back, his knee, the wind, the lack of lift, my lousy timing, my flatulence.... etc.

So it ended up with Jim and I fighting it out for 4th place. He beat me out for the honor.

Once again Chris insisted that we fly the dreaded Poker Task. I don't really like it because if the flyer misses making a called flight he gets no credit for that throw. When I flew it we were in a sink cycle. My first call was 90 seconds. I made that easy, then I called 105 seconds. But I never could make that time. I came close, within a couple of seconds, a bunch of times. But in Poker it's "Close...but no cigar....."
That would have been my second throw out...... but there is no second throw out. Darn!

But the climax of the day came in the last round. It was a 5 best flights up to 2 minute max. On my last throw of this last round I gave my plane a mighty heave. It left my hand level at 100 mph and rocketed straight into the ground. The "only" damage was a badly shattered boom and loosened stab. DARN, DARN, DARN! and DANG!!!!!! The postmortem showed that the solder joint of negative lead from the battery had separated. I don't know if it was from the crash or caused the crash but I found no other reason for the crash. Darn!

I've been flying for a while now and even when I lose, nothing, repeat, nothing is more fun than HL. Ya should have been there!

El Roberto

Wednesday Flying Report

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:10:43 -0500

Robert Samuels: Hi Flyers: My flying day started at 6:00 am when I went to church for my weekly dose of indoor 3D. Also attending services were the usual group of guys who are relatively new and think I know something about flying, motors, batteries, etc. I love the attention.

Bob Gill, as usual, taught and helped everyone. His skill at helping new flyers is amazing to watch. He is very gentle and can get anyone flying and loving it.

I left church and got to the sod farm at about 10:30. Mark and Brendan M. already had the winch set up and Art, Nelson, Tony and Gene were getting ready to fly. It was absolutely gorgeous out today. A wonderful St. Louis spring day. Warm, sunny and moderate winds. The field and the road were bone dry. Hard to believe after the last couple of weeks but true.

We started off with the DLG planes. Tony, despite his continual griping, was actually getting some pretty decent launches with his PhotonII. Mark M. (with his XP-4.5),and Brendan and I kept him company in the air and gave him some practice flying the crowded skies that are the nature of handlaunch.

"Let's see, wind up and throw hard....WHOOPS! didn't see that other plane.... Wow! sure didn't miss it by much! Hope I remember to look next time".

Then we switched to the big planes. Gene was getting strange launches and handling with his Organic until we discovered he had massive down trim in it. Trimmed it up and suddenly it began flying right. The moderate wind was giving us some dynamite launches. Just looking at the weather one would think that lift would be booming. But it wasn't. Even Art and Nelson were scratching. I bet I had 10-12 flights with my Graphite2. I only had one instance of real lift. I had a lot of "some" lift and a lot of spots where I could make 1-2 turns before losing it. And with all the little bumps you could stay up for a decent time but it wasn't easy. Which made it really interesting. To me it seemed like the lift was a bunch of "strings" with no big bubbles. Or maybe waves. Whatever. However I will note that Brendan was skying out pretty frequently. I wonder how he does that without lift?

Art was flying his Zenith, Nelson his Daedalus, Tony his Ava (or whatever it is) and Mark and Brendan were flying a wide variety of various moldies, none of which I could identify. Brendan had a flight with one of the planes that had an interesting ending. I'll let him tell you about it. If he feels up to it. :(

After noon I pulled out the MicroFlash hotliner. I don't know if it is interesting to see fly but I sure enjoy it. And it gets my blood pumping! Amazingly I completed another flying session without damaging it. Unbelievable.

After most of the guys finished flying and left it was just Mark and Brendan and me until Mark Gauding showed up with his DLG. So I pulled mine out again and we filled the sky with those little devils. Lift was no better down low than it was up high. A lot of teasing bumps but little real lift. I skyed out a couple of times from about 782 throws. Despite the wind I could range waaaay out looking for lift. I must have been in soft stuff to be able to range so far. But mostly it was range out, circle back, land, throw. HL is great fun. But it becomes super fun when you have other HL planes in the air at the same time. Which we did.

But after 9 1/2 hours of flying (counting church) I'd had as much fun as my marriage could stand. So it was pack up and head home. Mark M., Brendan and Mark G. were still there when I left.

What a great day at the field. Just a casual Wednesday.... yes.... Wednesday.... fun fly at the sod farm. And we had 8.....count'em.......8 guys flying.

That was fun .... :)

El Roberto

Brendan Miller: Yea today was a fun day, except for the last flight and I mean last flight for the blizzard. I was coming down wind and had plenty of air speed when all of a sudden the plane rolled left and I corrected but to no avail. The plane slammed into the ground driving the nose into the ground and breaking both panels off. We don't know what happened and yes it was upsetting but maybe it was not meant to be. So we got the Pike S out and I seem to be good with it, I really need to get with Chris since the Pike can be a whole lot better. So with the end of the Blizzard the search begins for a new full house. Might look for a Pike S at a reasonable price.

Brendan

Mark Miller: What a wonderful day. I was beginning to think it may not happen after the rainy season started. Today it seemed the sun, moon and stars were all aligned. Brendan had the day off. The guys were going to the field. Bren and I had 2 planes ready for their maiden flights. I called in to work and played hooky.

I flew his Blizzard on it's first flight and it was a good thing because I had his programming messed up mostly because his Heli 9303 has launch switch going in the opposite direction from my Air version. It was just about controllable, scaring the crown and had guys running to move their cars. Luckily I got it on the ground with no more gymnastics. I flipped the switch and things seemed to be moving right so I launched again. It felt reasonable but you could tell it needed the usual trimming and radio tweaking. Bren launched it and it flew ok but had some small issues. The next to last flight he landed with the flaps down and I heard a click. I looked things over and all looked ok. Bren launched again and flew for awhile but when flying straight and level down wind it rolled to the right and kept on going finally nosing into the ground. He was correcting for the roll but it did not respond. I cannot say positively what happened. Radio glitch? Servo malfunction? Who knows. It would be repairable if the joiners were not bonded into the tip panels. They broke off but there is no way to get the old ones out. Maybe we can drill and it may be worth doing the surgery just to see if it can be done. I have some aluminum joiners from Don Richmond that might fit.

He was of course pretty upset. This and is recent few crashes got him down for a few minutes. We talked and I figured the best way to cheer him up would be to put together my beater Pike Superior and let him get back on the horse. How is that for confidence in your sons abilities? He crashes his first moldie and dad gives him his to fly. He seemed to be at one with it even though it was his first time flying it. All I need to do is look at his face when he is flying and you can tell if he is comfortable or not. With the Blizzard he was not and I hung around to offer encouragement. After 2 flights with the Pike he looked comfy so I went about my thing getting my new Zoom off the ground. It looks like Brendan is now on a mission to save his pennies and look for another good probably used Superior or something like that.

The Zoom is a moldie built in China that I got last fall. It is heavy at 95 ounces and strong in all the wrong places. The wing flexes like a woodie but did not break. While building it I saw that the wing joiner boxes were not built into the spar but lay along side of it. The spar looks like carbon caps with balsa shear webs and carbon but I cannot tell if it is a woven sock around the spar or just a piece of fabric bonded to the side for decoration. The finish is nice but as they say "Nice House...No one home". To say I am unimpressed is the truth. It was cheap so I did not have high expectations even though the shipping cost more than the plane which makes it maybe not so cheap. I will just use it for windy days or as a slope plane or to impress my friends with the wing flex.

We ended the day with DLG and it was more like fly fishing. Cast...Reel In. Cast...Reel in. I had some nibbles but nothing I'd call a keeper.

Bren and I hit our usual Sonic for a bite to eat. Sun roof was open and it was great to feel the warmth of the sun and recall what a great day it was with the best bunch of guys I know.

Mark Miller

Tony Estep: Well, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Glad you left with a positive feeling overall.

The mishap with the new plane was a real shame, but after some fiddling I think it will prove to be fixable. The idea of a Pike Superior is a good one -- they are great flyers and very reliable.

The air today was not too cooperative. I was launching at < 300 feet, not sure why, but anyway from that height it was not easy to get up and away. At least once I nearly beat the chute to the ground. I had the Topaz out for the first time this year and had to program it for my new transmitter by copying a full-house plane and then modifying the program for spoilers, no ailerons, no flaps. Needless to say I made a hash of it and didn't get it figured out until time to leave.

Notwithstanding any complaints about air, plane, dumb thumbs, inability to HL, or whatever, it was great to be out at the sod farm on green grass with 7 flying buddies in the sunshine. Beats working, beats just about anything.

Tuesday Flying Report

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:49:42 -0500

Hi Flyers: I got to the field at about 9:45 having stopped by Mark Twain to get a Spektrum Flight Log. Chris already had the winch set up and was assembling his plane. I got the Organic out for it's 476th range check. I put the 2.4 back in with the remote on a 36 inch extension and taped it outside to the far aft of the boom just ahead of the v-tail. Should work, right? Range check was good but the Flight Log told another story. I launched and flew out maybe 300 yards. 999 fades on both antennas (that's max.) 250 + frame losses and 1 hold. Not good enough. Back to the workshop.

So out came my G2. About then Art arrived and Brendan got there about 11:00. Art was flying his old plane and Brendan has a Soprano.

The winds were 12-15 and the lift was strong but very broken up. I would hit lift and go up like a rocket but if I wandered a bit I would lose it. Once I launched into lift and when I got off the line it was as if the plane was jet propelled. It went screaming up like it had a motor. Despite the lift being broken up there was so much of it that staying up was pretty easy. A couple of times I got to 1200-1400 ft. The sky seemed clear but that was about my limit of vision today. Don't know why. But it was plenty.

Later I took out my hotliner for some fun. 60 inch wingspan and weighs 35 oz. I stumbled into lift with it once that took it right up and out as if it was a feather. That's strong lift.

Brendan loaded up the Soprano with max ballast and was able to move all over the sky. Chris and I flew dry but I certainly did not go very far down wind. I think that at 15 mph on the ground the winds were probably higher up high. A little ballast might have been a good idea. Chris, on the other hand, was able to consistently do his 10 minute task practice, go downwind, etc. etc. I'm beginning to think that he may be a slightly better pilot than I am........... no, I'm wrong......... it's just luck.

We packed up at 1:30. The winds were getting stronger and I'm getting older.

Tomorrow is church. I still look forward to flying there every Wednesday.

El Roberto

Monday at Forest Park

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:21:59 -0500

Hi Flyers: On the spur of the moment I went to the Park this morning. I was able to persuade Chris to join me. It was not difficult. It was predicted cool with low winds. It was cool, some sun, but the winds were a lot higher than I wanted. There was a lot of lift but the air was really turbulent. Or, as Chris says, "rowdy".

Hand launch was fun with the strong lift and bouncy air. I got up high plenty but never went far downwind as I feared not getting back. If Brendan had been there we would have probably seen him test the penetrating ability of his DLG by flying down to the Jewel Box again. Today even Chris did not venture to far downwind with either his DLG or his big plane. Landings were occasionally scary so we decided to switch to the big planes.

Chris was flying his Supra and I had the Organic. With 4-5 hundred foot launches we could find lift easily. Once we both found a large area of sky that was all lift. The area was huge, I'd guess it was nearly 1/2 mile across. I could do loops, rolls, dives and zooms with victory rolls repeated and gain altitude with even these maneuvers. And it lasted until I got tired. I bet we were in that huge lift area for 15-20 minutes. Later I was quite far upwing and got to about 1 1/2 tree height. When, once again, my plane did a lock out. I did the run fast and hold he transmitter high thing and got the plane back under control. Darn! I'm getting tired of the Organic not wanted to work right. I had range checked it after another antenna installation and I got an "ok" range check. That is it worked at 90 feet only if the plane was held high in the air. At about 91 feet it started to lock up.

One event was really interesting. Chris had put his Supra on the ground by the winch. I was standing about 20 feet away with my back to his plane and I was holding my Organic. Chris was facing me and we were talking. Suddenly Chris takes off running past me and I find myself barely able to hold on to the Organic. Chris had seen the leaves spinning around indicating a dust devil approaching us which. The dust devil then lifted his Supra off the ground and was quickly carrying it off. By the time Chris got to his plane it was flying at least 6 feet off the ground and steadily gaining altitude. He made a leaping grab for it and got it under control. That was a real artery clearing blast of adrenaline.

Another fun day flying.

El Roberto

Brendan Miller: So I was bored today, so I went down to the basement and fixed my loose flaperon servos in the XP. Went out to our retention pond and threw it a few times and some how found some lift. I then decided to go out to a local school that has a reasonable open area for flying, so I headed out. When I go there I saw a few cars which meant the field was being used, luckily it was only one of there fields, I got the plane out and got some funny looks from people passing by. I threw the plane up a few times and did some up and down to get some hand catching practice in. Then I started with the full throws getting some good height out of it, and wouldn't you know it I found lift, and strong lift at that. On my last flight I got some nice lift, and kid with his dad were watching me fly, the kid comes over and asks what I am flying I told him a glider, he then asks how I get up so high and I say I use rising air, he said you don't use a motor? I say no and he has this very shocked look on his face. He says it looks boring, I then tell him to watch the plane, I put it into reflex and go flying down wind turn up wind then do a stall turn and take a dive suddenly the kid screams your going to crash! I told him it got it pull up and go screaming over our heads do some high bank turns to burn off speed and hand catch it. The kid says that was the coolest thing he ever saw, he left to watch his sister play some sport and I was kicked off the field by some people practicing. Over all not a bad little flight session.

Brendan