Practice day for WOK

Practiced with Tad for our duet demo on Saturday.  Flew my Intruder twice but came in deadstick on the 2nd flight.  Checking at the field, it looked like either a sticky lifter or a broken valve spring in the OS 91 Surpass II.  At home with a flashlight, I confirmed the latter.  Too bad I don't have extra springs, but I do have extra engines, haha.  I practiced the duet with my RV-8 after the Intruder came up lame.  We did ok, but not great.  Hopefully the spectators will still be entertained by the flight.  I think I got about 5 flights in with the RV-8.  Tad's Kaos Two ran and flew well.

Breezy but Doable

Made just one flight with the RV-8 today.  Was attempting another but the  brisk N crosswind tipped the tail up on the runway, so I just parked it the rest of the day and instead had 5 flights or so with the SNAFU.  That plane loves the wind, and I played with it on the N/S runway, and over that West end of the field.  When windy, the SNAFU is the best plane in my air force to fly.

Unperfect Day!

It started nicely enough with winds under 5mph when I got to the field, so I put the Star up right away and it flew well.  Next I put the Yak 54 up as the wind started to build.  Got her down fine.  Started to think it might be time to quit since Bob and Al already had, and Ron decided not to bring his plane out of the truck.  Harvey showed up and used his wind meter...7mph min with 14mph gusts, haha.  I flew the Yak once more and had a landing where the wind was really trying to flip the wing tips!  Got her down safe and sound and called it a day, haha.  Glad to escape any damage.

Perfect Day

It was just a perfecto day for flying today with light winds mostly from the West and North, mild temps in the 60's, and partly cloudy skies.  Got in 3 flights each on the Star and the Yak 54.  Both flew well, all is well.  Saw Dean fly his Corby Starlet after difficulty getting it started, but then it ran and flew really nicely.  Ashton was there early but left quickly due to a damaged fin.  Ken came later with his foam Cub and little electric Sportster...he flew the latter surprisingly well, good for him!  Enjoyed the time at the field from about 9 till noon.

Sunny Skies

What a nice day with mostly sunny skies, light winds from the North, and cool temps at first, then very mild warmth.  I flew my RV-8 and Tad flew his Kaos in prep for doing a duet at the WOK in two weeks.  We intend to just make a lot of passes together, and do some mild aerobatics on  the downwind leg that is a hundred yards out, such as slow rolls and loops.  It should be entertaining enough for the spectators.  Both planes flew well, the engines ran perfect and started easy, and we incurred no damage today.  Lots of fun.  I took my Blade 400 and Tad and Quang tried to get it trimmed and tuned in, with various fixes, but in the end the engine decided to die and we all gave up on it.  I think it might be ready for the boneyard, and if so I will just pull out the new servos I installed just yesterday!  Bummers.  Quang and Anthony flew their Goblins very well.  Roberto trained Teo via buddy cord.  Ashton flew his Uproar.  Al flew his Twist and Escapade.  Mike came to socialize and did not even bring a plane out of his van.  Joe came late and flew his new used Stinger 60 and BalsaNova, a pair of good looking acquistions!

For the first time since last Fall, I flew my Apache for a handful of launches but found dead air only.  It did catch one huge thermal while it was turned off and laying under a flight table!  The thermal picked it up, rattled it over the RV-8 and dumped it back on the ground 10 feet away near the grass taxiway.  Luckily no damages were incurred by either plane, except a very small tear in the covering on the wing of the Apache.  Whew!  :)

Aw rats!

Jer and I took the Extra 300 Soucy and my Giles 202 out today for practice in prep for the Wings Over Keizer event in two weeks.  We are supposed to fly duet in the noon demo flights.  Alas, Jer could not find a sweet needle valve setting for the Extra,  and ended up doing a very lean run that overheated the engine.  From then on he could get decent power out of the engine after a cool off period, but once it warmed up again in the air, it would lose power.  He is ready to give up on this plane and sell it at Tammies.  I think it's time to let it go too since it has run well at times but not consistently all the time.  Knock on wood, my Giles has the same engine and seems to still be healthy.  Anyway it is disappointing he won't be able to fly the duet with me.  It now looks like I will team with Tad by switching to the RV-8 that will match up decently with his Kaos Two.  We might just fly lots of low passes rather than a set pattern sequence that Jer and I intended to fly.  I am going to run it by the club prez first.  If he is not amenable to the change, I don't mind not flying the demo at all.  Anyhoo, I got in 3 decent flights with the Giles today, but wow the North wind was creating lots of turbulence South of the big trees that are on final approach.  Sure had to stay on the sticks really closely to  make the runway.  Hope it's better tomorrow!

5th of July

I flew my Toledo Special today after mowing the field.  The weather was great, with light winds mostly from the NE.  I got in 3 flights.  The Saito 82a was running sweet so the TS grooved around the sky very nicely.  Anthony and Quang got in some early chopper flying with the Goblins.  The only other person there was Ashton who flew his Uproar successfully.  Harvey showed up when I was about to leave.