So gorgeous

Wow the weather was perfect today for flying.  Only around 55F when I went out, but it warmed slowly and was calm at first to slightly breezy near noon.  I got in 4 packs on the G500, 6 on the X5, and 3 on the Battlewing.  All heli flying was good, no disorientations today in the bright sun and clear sky.  Got in more inverted time and felt happy doing it.  Also did much slow flying in circles  and often trying to stay at one altitude to force better collective control.

At the end I flew my wing against Dick's Scythe.  He has propped it down and it flies just about the same speed as my Battlewing.  We finally had contact on the 3rd flight today, and I won because mine stayed up in the air while the Scythe fell to the ground with a busted prop.  I can see where his stiff prop made a gouge on the top of my wing, fore of the aileron.  I think it means I hit him coming from behind and under, but the whole thing happened quick and in all honesty by chance even though we were chasing hard.  Good fun, and I think the two different wings match up real good such that I do not need to buy a Scythe.

Bigger than Normal Funfly

IT was a fun day even though hardly anyone showed up.  We had about 6 flyers, though, counting Tad on helis, so it was good fun anyhow!  Let's see...Tad, Rudy, Mike, Ashton, me, and late arrival Joe, haha.  Spectators respectfully outnumbered pilots!  Maybe there were a dozen spectators or 15 total.

Rudy's Nuance in foreground.  Me and Bravata next.  Joe in back.

Got my Bravata up for 4 satisfying flights, each of 8 minutes.  Gasoline runs long!  Just have to love that plane for wide speed range, stability, visual impact, flap fun, and easy take off and landing.  Can't complain about it at all.  DLE-30 ran well today, and the gas tank maintenance yesterday (new internal lines) had no ill effect.

Bravata on low fly by.  Tad's helis on table.  Tad's nice pic!

Tad did well as usual, using all 7 of his packs...3 on the 700, and 4 on the 500.  I am looking forward to flying helis again tomorrow/Sunday with him.

The only other big bird there was really Mike's Super Sportster which he flew a couple times.  He also had his big Cessna but never got it up due to a temperamental engine.  Joe flew his Frankenstein combo big bird for all of 10 seconds when the wing departed the fuselage.  Body bag was needed for the zillion fuse parts out in the middle of the 80 acres.  Wing fluttered down fine.  Rudy did fine with his repaired Nuance...flies great again even with repair, which is hardly noticeable from 5'.  I guess the Nuance counts as a big bird actually, since it is a 2M plane.

The spectators seemed to enjoy the flying even though we had so few planes.

Real first day of Fall

Today is the real first day of Fall per the calendar and internet.  I flew the Goblin 500 three packs and then mowed the runway.  After that the wind was still up but I decided to fly more since at least it was not raining and our dry days are  coming to an end.  Got out the X5 for two packs.  On both helis, I stayed close and mostly slow due to the sky conditions...grey overcast, dark, ugly.  Under such conditions I see mostly silhouettes of the helis and easily lose orientation.  Staying close was good for practicing slow and small circles and turns.  Those are actually harder to fly than big fast ones.

Great first day of Fall!

Slight wind from the South, but it was great flying nonetheless.  Got in 4 packs on the X5 (two were new 30c Glaciers), 2 on the G500, 5 on the Star, and about 5 on the Battlewing.  Whew, kinda tired after all that.  On the helis, I tried to do a little longer straight line inverted forward flight at the top of loops.  Seemed more comfortable today.  Also did a little straight line backward upright flight, trying to prolong the lines.  Tad flew 3 packs on the G700 and 4 on the G500, all in usual graceful fashion.

Tad, Quang, Dan, and I had 3 Battlewing sorties.  Out of all that air time, there was only a single touch between Quang and Tad, with both safely recovering flight in the air.  Dan and Quang like to fly fast, therefore higher and farther out, so it makes it hard to make contact under those conditions.

The Star was its usual well behaved self.  With the South wind, it was fun doing landings on the heli-mat, approaching over the dirt road.  Spent a whole battery just shooting landings continuously.

Goblin 500

It was a gorgeous day morning on Friday and I flew six packs through the Goblin 500.  Did a little bit of everything, trying holding inverted longer in slow straight line flight at the top of a loop, and also flying upright backwards.  That one is unnerving to me.  So easy on the sim, but hard in real life with much investment at risk.  I will just go about those two slowly.  Didn't have anything else to fly because I did not want anything exposed in the car when I went to the optometrist before flying.

Also flew earlier in the week, maybe Tuesday, and forgot to log/blog the flights on the G500 and X5, probably a couple flights on each.

Fun in the sun with the son

Flew with Tad today and we had the field to ourselves the whole time.  I even mowed most of the field in the under 2 hours I was there.  I had four packs through the Goblin 500 and two through the X5.  Tad got four on his 500.  Flew mostly close in but ventured away a few times when it seemed I could see ok in the mostly overcast sky today.  When close in I tried to do lots of small controlled circles with little bank.  Did fly in reverse a few times up a mistake high.  Tried to hold on as long as I could before feeling discomfort and having to 180 pyro and get the nose going forward again, lol.

Tad flew great, seems more impressive each time we go out.  I would love to get to his level of confidence and performance flying backwards at times and inverted at other times.  Great stuff, ballet in the air.

Eight was Enough

Got in 8 packs on the helis today...4 on the Goblin 500 and 4 on the Gaui X5! Conditions were great weather wise with calm air, blue skies, and mild temperature.  There were workers on the field adjusting irrigation and mowing, but I stayed over the north field and they did not affect me much.  For flying today, I tried to fly slow and make many, many small controlled circles left and right, while maintaining level altitude.  Good practice.  Also tried just slow and easy reverse flight in a straight line while up pretty high.  Slight turns are up next.  Bailout move was to pyro 180 to be heading forward again.  Satiated and tired when out of packs!

Not quite mayhem yet!

Quang brought his friend Dan down, and both brought Battlewings to do air combat with Alex and me.  Great fun, but not as many hits as one might expect.  There might have been 6 hits at most in 6 sorties.  Nobody incurred significant damage.  Worst damage was done by rough landings on the north field, haha.  It's exciting and I think we got Brandon/Bruce interested, lol.  My personal highlight of the sorties was one of my hand catches.  I had to stretch as high as I could with my right hand, caught the wing, then lost my balance as I came down on the dirt road.  Almost fell flat in the dirt with xmitter in the left hand and wing in the right, but I regained my balance and footing.  Whew, lol.

Alex flew his Trex 450 DFC twice and I got in 4 packs on the Goblin 500.  I had the X5 and as many packs but did not get to fly it.  I think Battlewings tires us out!

Failure to launch

My main bird was the AW Ultimate 50cc today, but it did not want to run right, so it never got off the ground.  The DLE-55 would start, idle, then would not take almost any increase in throttle.  The engine would continue to run, but unsteadily and sort of like at about 1/2 throttle.  It never died.  I tried various high needle settings and none worked any better.  So back it went into the truck, and I flew my Goblin 500 for two packs, all I had charged for it because I anticipated flying the Ultimate.

Later in the day at home, I figured I have either a carburetor problem or a gas tank problem.  Since the gas tank is an easier job, I went that way, and removed the tank.  I found that the Tygon tubes inside the tank were all as stiff as hard plastic!  I replaced all the inside tubing, and also the line from the tank to the carb.  Other tubes seemed flexible enough.  While this might be the cause of the situation today, I am not sure.  Only trying to start the engine will tell either way.  Probably will do that tomorrow in the backyard.

Beautiful day but....

Only Rudy and I were there to fly!  Ridiculous level of inactivity in our club, lol.  It was gorgeous with very light wind, one guy working on the field that did not bother us, nice temperature.  Oh well.  I flew my Goblin four packs, and X5 two.  THe sky rapidly filled with clouds and overcast so I lost orientation a few times over the north field, same orientation each time...chopper facing west generally , me facing north, sun rising on the right/east.  That typically gives pretty good silhoutte conditions and I see the chopper profile the same for either NW or SW orientations of the nose!  Kinda scarey.  Hoping for better prescriptions for my glasses this Friday when I visit the optometrist to really fine tune to minimize the astigmatism effects...I see too many double edges on objects.

Also took my Battlewing up for 4 packs and had a ball just zipping it around.  Good practice for future battles!

Note to self:  I lowered the gain one point last night, so it is now at 42.  Seems just right now, rock solid tail, with no tail wag sounds.  That doesn't make sense, but the tail wag was not visible, it was audible.

Heli Sunday

Great time today flying with Tad, Quang, Allen.  Latter is Quang's good friend visiting from Kentucky!  The guy can fly like crazy, even better and crazier than Quang.  He flies an old Trex 450 and a Gaui X5, both old and basically beaters from years of use and likely zillions of flights.

Allen and Quang

Allen doing indescribable 3D with his Trex 450

Allen's 450 and X5

Quang and his Goblin 500 and Hobby People EDF jet...SUPER FAST!

I flew my Goblin 500 for 4 packs, Gaui X5 twice, and the Factor for six packs.  Goblin 500 needed gain lowered, so Quang dropped it a few points for me at the field using his laptop.  That helped a lot to reduce some tail chatter, and I will lower the gain one more point at home.  The increase in motor pulley from 18T to 19T is the cause of the chatter.  Excellent!  Both the 500 and the X5 flew great and I felt real comfortable, owing likely to the clear blue sky and full sun that create the best visibility for my lousy eyes.  Tad flew great with both his 500 and 700, 7 flights in all.  Really coming along good, the confidence shows in the air.

Quang flew his 500, 800, nitro 700, and the red F-16 in the photo above.  He just flies good, period.  Awesome was the jet....super fast.  And with high speed low level passes skimming the grass or dirt, wowser it is impressive.  And it only has elevons for control!  $30 he says, from Hobby People, for the airframe only.  

3rd place!

Prizes for the Challenge...winners pick what they want based on finish position.

Came in 3rd today in the KRCA Club Challenge.  Crazy as it is, Steven came in 1st, Dick 2nd by just 3 seconds over me in 3rd, durn it, haha.  Next came Mike, Bob, Rudy, Ashton, and Ron.  Good fun, and I won $35 plus my choice of planes left, and I took a large Piper Cub that I intend to sell or trade.  Tasks are shown in the pic below.

My flight times were short of the 2 minuted 14 second mark, by 25 seconds, 3, and 12, for the tasks shown.  My internal clock was to sing Lullaby and Goodnight four times, and then add 10 to 20 seconds on the end by counting, dependent on whether I thought I sang fast or slow, haha.  Needless to say, I need another method!!!  FUN nonetheless, and everyone won a prize.  Oh, I flew the Star in the event. It was followed up with a nice hot dog picnic under our awning.

The Star

Dick's Stick

Mike and Ron flew UCanDo's

Old farts having fun

4x4

Got in 4 packs on the Dragon G500, and 4 on the X5 today!  Felt good doing that albeit very tame due to a nasty cough I have had over a week.  Just not feeling too sharp but I need the flying time for relaxation.  At least I did not crash!  I tried my move once and got so off that I ended up doing a backward flip of some sort from a vertical nose up starting position, lol.  Everything went well though, and the new Gobby is a sweet machine like the Pulse edition was.