Flight log: 08/23/2018

Flew yesterday and today.  Yesterday I got the Toledo Special up three times.  Today it was the Dirty Birdy twice.  Tomorrow is declared big bird day and I am prepping the good old Bravata for three flights...it is my biggest bird.  Yesterday and today I tried something slightly different but new for me...medium speed roll to the right to inverted then immediately reversing to left roll to upright.  Not that easy yet but it will come!  OF course it was easier to do it today with the DB than with the Toledo Special yesterday due to the pattern plane being what it is...very neutral with little coupling.  Good fun, I need to up my game.  I feel like the Dallas guys are trying to expand their aerobatics as they watch me go for it all the time.  Been there over a year and really like the gang and the field.

Flight log: 08/19/2018

Had a good morning of flying today.  Four flights of the Goblin 700 followed by two of the Shoestring.   Conditions were great...mostly calm, sunny with light haze, cool but not cold.  Got some decent inverted turns going with the G700...left turns so both sticks towards the center.  Only did it a couple times...cajones are hard to grow!  I am liking the G700 for this due to the big size for visibility, and the lighter disc loading that doesn’t feel like the heli is zooming around too fast.

The Shoestring flew great, perhaps best ever.  Many, many full throttle, low passes/circuits over the field were made.  That is exhilarating and entertaining!

Two only

I went to the keizer field early to just get in six heli flights.  My plans were foiled.  I arrived to find two dozen JB workers starting to lay the netting over the new seed.  While they were at the south end I could tell they would move pretty fast northwards.  And on the north field where cauliflower is growing, there were an equal amount of workers doing their weeding!  I put in two quick flights on the G500, and called it quits.  I was going to fly the G700 four times, but it requires much more airspace, which I did not want to consume with the workers only getting closer.

Ah the life!

Yes life continues to be good, thank you Jesus!  Few aches and pains are nothing to complain too much about, they are meant to help me keep in touch with God.

Today I flew yet again.  This time the RV-8 had the privilege of gracing the skies, and risking its life, lol.  It started up well and flew better than I recall it ever did.  Why is that!  Dunno.  Just appreciating it more maybe.  I did add a click of down trim to keep her from climbing much at all at WOT straight and level.  The Saito FA-82a started with just a finger back flip, not needing the starter at all.  It was actually too easy on the second flight.  I was just moving the prop to the position I like for commencing the back flip.  The prop just fell in the direction for the back flip, and started up immediately.  One of the guys saw me yank my hand away, startled.  I have a healthy respect, a fear, for these props and engines.  All was good, the engine ran well, the plane flew on rails for the two flights I made with her.  Oh landings were nice with flaps nearly fully deployed.  They are sure effective for slowing the plane on final as I power her to the strip, and then to gently level for touchdown.  Score!!!

Bill and his Ugly Stick.  Three of them in this pic!

and a big 35cc Ugly Stick in this one!

Must've been Ugly Stick day!  Ken and Bill had their glow 40 size sticks out,  Pat had his smaller electric version, and Mike had his 35cc big boy out.  Don flew his venerable Pulse with Saito 115 in it...dang I love the combo he made.   The 115 is super powerful and mated perfectly to that airframe.

Dirty Birdy

I felt the need...the need for speed!  So I flew the Dirty Birdy with the Dallas gang.  It ran well, flew great.  Did some crazy low flybys, what exhilarating fun!  Just took two flights...lotsa time there is spent sitting with the guys and joking, plus commentating on whoever is flying, lol.  The regulars were there...Don with the Pulse, Bill with big stick, Ken with Chipmunk, Dougie with Carbon Cub, and Gary with the giant Sportster.  Walt brought his cute dogs Bear and Lily.  Went to snack at the Dallas McD with Don, Ken, and Bill.  I had a senior coke and a sausage burrito for a whopping $1.80!  Fun talking to the guys.  Was home by 11:30.

YESTERDAY, Tad and I flew at Dallas too.  It was his first time to try it out...he flew his G570 twice nicely and impressed Don.  Tad says he likes the field, so it looks like he will join too at some point.  I flew my Ultimate three times.  I think I will change props to try get a little more speed out of the plane.

Pau MAD

Hahaha, the title is just a salute to pidgin spoken in Hawaii!  It is the day after MAD, so all pau MAD!  Flew again at Keizer today.  Got the helis in action again...2 flights each on the G500 and X5.  Also put up three flights on the Stinger II plane.  The YS63 ran sweet and made the plane whistle by. Great fun doing high speed low flybys over the flat dirt plain which is the sod farm with no sod on it at this time.  It has been seeded but not netted or irrigated yet so absolutely no grass is on it. More guys came out today with the much lighter winds than yesterday.

NATIONAL MAD!

Today is National Model Aviation Day!  But we had no special event at the Keizer field.  I flew my Aerostar 76” twice and my SNAFU three or four times in the wind of over 10mph per Don’s wind meter.  It was mostly out of the south, so that made it fun to do very short landings from the north onto our so called north-south runway.

Don flew a few times, Jerry once, Dan none, later Mike came and flew once.  Too windy for most of them.  Will try again tomorrow.

Also sold my Mini Aerostar to Jerry for $100!  This week I sold that plane and the Factor 3D to make a little room in the garage...I hardly ever flew those so why keep em.  Say goodbye forever:

Gotta Bravata!

Went to Dallas and flew with the usual suspects of Don, Doug, Ken, Bill, and Gary.  Lotsa the typical banter and  fun!  Flew my Bravata twice, loving it all the way.  It sure feels good when the DLE-30 props over and coughs quick, then starts up right away with choke off. I did notice a little miss in the high end today so I might have to tweak the needles if it worsens.

Flight log: 08/08/2018

Main news today is I sold the Factor 3D to Eric at the Keizer field this morning.  It was a good plane but not my fave so I let it go to make space in the garage.  Just $65 for the airframe in great shape plus the motor and ESC.  I had scavenged servos out of it for other plane repairs.  Eric and I were both happy.

I flew the G500 twice, then the G700 four times, and the Osiris twice.  All flew well.  Notable is I flew the Osiris on the usual 6s 4000 pack for four minutes, then with my sole 6s 5000 pack for perhaps just under five minutes.  Both checked out at about 3.84v per cell after flying.  The plane seemed to handle the extra weight without issue.  Landing was same as normal.  The 5000 pack was one of a pair from Tad when he sold me the G7000.  One cell in one pack did not hold a charge well, so I disabled and chucked the pack, thus just one 5000 pack remains.

Fun flying with Eric and Dave today, funny guys.  Too bad Dave lost signal to his electric Funtana, and it augered into terra firma with finality.  I hand launched a new plane for Eric today...some small foam racer style plane with no LG.  Gawd that thing lept out of my hands and proceeded to fly about 100 yards at 6’ while Eric wrestled with the sensitive ailerons.  Finally he got enough control to climb to safe altitude and then blew our minds with the sheer balls to the wall speed!  It carved up the sky and quickly became tiny at the end of each pass!  Eric managed a perfectly flat touch down in the middle of the runway, whew.  Wish i had pics but my dumb iPhone was out of memory.

Flight log 08/04/2018 and 08/06/2018

I flew Saturday at Keizer with Dave, Ted, and Dan.  Got in 2 flights on the G500, 2 on the G700, and 4 on the Aerostar 40F.  All flew well, no probs.  Got lower on inverted stuff, just trying to wiggle the tail more, stabilize, and do it again until I can turn while holding altitude and not dive or climb.  Tendency now is to climb for fear of diving all the way to the ground!

Today four of us from the Dallas club went to the McMinnville field to fly there.  Three of us are actually members...doug, Doug, and myself.  We had fun there....no locals showed up to fly...weird on a gorgeous day that was not too hot.  It was weird flying with a very closed in or confined feeling although it is not really that tight.  The brain just takes over.  Nobody crashed, we hit the runway on landings, and we hopefully did not overfly the owners fence around his home.  I flew the Toledo Special and Kaos twice each.  Nice to have the Kaos stay upright through complete landing rollouts, lol.   No pics..I had my iPhone but as per usual the darn thing said storage full fool!

Here is one pic I snapped at home...my new hat for $20 plus ID badge for $5.  Badge is nice 3D printed one that costs almost nothing to print, lol.

Lots of flying and no blogging!

I have flown lots since last reported two weeks ago.  Can’t remember the days nor exactly what I flew, lol, and I am getting tired of this blogging. Attempting to sum it up, I have flown the helis (7HV, G700, G630, G500, X5 all at least a few flights each), plus a host of my planes including the Intruder, Dirty Birdy, Yak 54, and the  Bravata.  Yesterday the Bravata was just sublime for three glorious flights at Dallas.  What fun...it  started nice, ran well, flew brilliant.  That is indeed my favorite plane at this time.  It may not do great aileron rolls or inverted flying, but it is just a sweetheart plane that does its share of aerobatics gracefully in slow motion.  Playing with the flaps is so satisfying.  

Today I flew helis at keizer.  I have hit the wall on improvement.  Just cannot get the balls to do turns in forward inverted flight.  I got inverted many times today with the 500 and 700, did 180 or 360 pyros, then rolled or flipped out.  I tried to just yaw the tail each way and hold altitude and location, but doing a full circle inverted at one altitude is super hard for me.  The good news is I did not get disoriented and did not crash.