Heli of a day!

Good weather, good company, good helis, good fun!  Took out my three big helis today and ran 10 packs through them in the fairly frequent pattern of 4 on the Goblin 500, 2 on the X5, and 4 (for 2 flights) on the Goblin 630.  Flying was awesome today due to good lighting and little to no wind.  Tad had 8 flights too on his Goblins, the 570 and 700.  I saw Quang fly his new to him X5 for the first time today, as well has his new to him Warp 360.   Very good flying of course.  I now know what the X5 can do in competent skilled hands!  He also zipped his Goblin 700 Speed around on one amazing flight. Great time watching some of Quang's friends fly their planes and heli.  Lots of members today for a change, including Rudy, Mike, Dick, Don, Jerry, Zach, and previously mentioned Tad and Quang.  Some pics follow.

By the way, I had one flight of the G500 yesterday then decided it was too windy to fly anymore!

An Aerostar Day

10, 20, 40 from L to R

The famous designer himself...Dick Smith

10 size in front

40 size converted from glow

It was a great day for Aerostars!  Dick brought his 10 size and 40 size while I brought my 20 size which Dick sold me a couple years ago.  Pics are attached.  Dick got the 40 size from Rudy who in turn got it from a widow getting rid of her husband's old planes.  It was glow, never flown, and Dick made a beautiful conversion to electric power, taking off 8 ounces of weight in the process.  It will be a trainer for him to teach students.  Gorgeous.  He let me fly it the other day...it just floats around and is a joy to fly.  I flew 4 packs through mine today.

I also flew my Goblin 500 (4 packs), X5 (2 packs), and Goblin 630 (4 packs for 2 flights).  Not feeling too well today but no mishaps, and still had good stick time and enjoyment.  Glad I went since rain is forecast for the next couple days at least.  Also mowed today before the rain cometh.

My helis in front, my Aerostar 20 on back table.  Note Dick's 40 taking off in background!

Flight Log: 03/08/2015

Flew 8 packs on Sunday.  Took just the X5 and G500, and had 4 flights on each.  Another nice day of weather.  JB seems to have switched their weekend work from Saturdays to Sunday.  They were not here on Saturday, but very present Sunday, harvesting along Hwy 99.  Flying was excellent for me and my helis though, since I do not venture into JB sod airspace much at all.  I had the Sbach with me, but did not even assemble it when I saw JB on the field.  I wanted to do Tygon fuel line maintenance/replacement on it anyway.  Later when I got home and checked the fuel tank by removing it from the plane, I found the fuel filter clunk still able to flex and feed from whichever side of the tank I placed down.  In other words gravity was making the clunk feed from the bottom of the tank in any attitude...a desirable thing.  So I just reinstalled the tank and did not have to replace any fuel lines.

Fri-Sat replay

Flew Friday, using 10 packs for 4 flights on the G500, 2 on the X5, and 2 on the G630.  Great weather, great visibility.  Tried to mow but the left front tire was totally flat.  Got the mower back into the shed with help from Don and Jerry...it would not start to get back up the ramp, but then did start in the shed afterwards.

Flew today, using 10 packs again for the same number of flights on each heli.  Weather was not only as nice as yesterday, but today JB workers were not present to harvest sod.  Very odd!  Anyway, I got in a lot of inverted straight lines again, but dare not turn, lol.  I did do a 180 pyro now and then while hovering inverted, then flip out to upright.  Also tried getting inverted via forward flips and side flips, but those are shaky compared to entry from back flip which I have done many times now.  '

Also flew the Scythe a couple flights with Mike and Brandon.  Nobody came close to hitting, not that I could really see that well, but it is going to take a miracle to hit each other when the guys only want to buzz around up high at full throttle.

Before flying, I inflated the tire on the mower with my portable pump from the good old days.  Still works!  And the tire held its air...I will see if it still has air in it another day.

Really BAD Memory!

Geez, as I post my flight log for today, I remember that I flew on Sunday and did not post that!  Well, it is easy to do.  I flew the Bravata for three 8 minute flights of fun.  On the third as I approached to land, I heard a slight jingle to the engine.  Sure enough as I suspected, the muffler was loose.  I need to get inside the cowl and tighten it down again, maybe using red threadlock this time to keep the muffler on for good, or at least longer!  It was fun flying the behemoth, just like the Toledo Special but huge.  All landings were with full flaps and light touchdowns with slight bounces.  Hard to grease that one for some reason.  I need the perfect flare.

Today I took my three fave helis to fly in perfect weather...sunny, light breeze from the North, clear skies for perfect visibility.  No disorientations in that sky.  Used 10 packs to get 4 flights on the G500, 2 on the Gaui X5, and 2 on the G630.  Still not enough cajones to make turns inverted.  I did get inverted straight forward flight lots of time today.  Also tried some quick flips to upright instead of the more gradual half loops.  Good fun.

Mike was there with his new SIG Something Extra, and later Bob F arrived for lessons from Mike on the Aerostar.   Bob seems to be coming along well and fast since he has flown before, long ago.