Gobbled up Goblin 500

Shitcanned the Goblin 500 on Thursday I think.  Did not want to write about it, still have not looked at the junk pile on the garage floor, exactly where I left it after coming home that day.  First flight was great.  On second flight, shortly after lift off and going to IU1, I was turning towards the North field.  All of a sudden I heard a ping or crack sound, and I think I saw something small fly off to the NE.  The heli began to rotate one direction.  This is maybe 10' above the dirt road.  I panicked, hit throttle off like in a plane.  DUH, that is full negative pitch, and the heli instantly responded with a deafening crunch on the hard pack of the muddy dirt road.  No cushioning there.  It was ugly, couldn't even find many parts.  Dunno what flew off or if the heli was able to land but I did not give it a chance....too ingrained on airplane emergencies and I haven't been flying the helis frequently due to the Winter.  Oh well.  I got out the Goblin 630 and flew it for three flights, lol.

Now what day was that?

Tad reminded me to update my blog for a day that I went flying last week.  I can't remember the day, but earlier in the week, perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday, I took the X5 and the G500 to the field.  Got in four packs on the Goblin, but only two on the X5.  I had two more new batteries for the X5 however I forgot to stick velcro on them for firm attaching to the heli frame.  For all six flights, I stayed close and low due to pretty bad fog.  It was safe close in.  No flips or long passes.

Storm Approaching

This one was a struggle to get the sky done.  Originally I had very black clouds on the right side of the painting.  I finished the painting that way.  Then San came home and I asked her to look at it like always.   She really hated the black clouds, heck!  So I took another hour to scrape off the right side of the sky and replace it several times till I came up with what is in the pic.  It involved painting the left half in places to darken the blue evenly with the right, and to add more clouds to match the right side.  Anyway, it is done and my pal critic says it works okay now, lol.  Lucky the wave and beach went on easy today, and I feel good about my comfort level with doing those features.

I'd say this is my last painting for 2014, 94th in my career, haha.

Lakeside Chateau

Here is the painting I did for Andy yesterday.  This was per her request for one like J's (see #85 in right margin) but with a cabin in it, and still with a lake.  I feel good about this one as the mountains came out nice, so did the many layers of trees with misty spaces between them.  The cabin came together easy, and the grass and bushy area from the cabin to the shore turned out the best I've done yet.  The feel for meadowy hills is coming slowly, but surely?

Private Privy!

Why in the world Sue wants an outhouse in a painting, but I fulfilled the request today.  She wanted a painting like J's but horizontal, and she wanted an outhouse in it.  Andy already asked for a cabin in hers, so I guess she did not want to be a copycat.  Anyway, the whole painting came out pretty nice.  In fact San says it is my best ever, but I dunno about that personally.  It was fun though, and indeed a good one, just not my personal favorite.

My 92nd painting using Bob Ross'es wet on wet method and paints.

Goblin up the good weather!

IT was a surprisingly nicer day than anticipated.  While I charged up all my 10 packs last night and this morning in prep for flying, I didn't think it would be so good.  Wow was it nice, dead calm when I got there, but the wind indeed gradually increased with every passing minute.  By the time I left a couple hours later, the wind was between 5 and 10mph.

I got in 4 packs on the Goblin 500 first, followed by 6 packs for 3 flights on the Goblin 630.  I feel like I made a major breakthrough on inverted flight.  The breakthrough is being able to get inverted easily, settle down to a stop or slow steady forward flight, then execute a half turn to the left.  I then would pull back to upright with either a half roll or half loop.  I also did a few half cuban 8's via doing a little more than half a loop, then rolling out on the downward inverted path from the top of the loop.  Not saying any of this looks great, but I can do it consistently without panic and disorientation.  Now I can work on smoothness and placement, and making a full inverted circle!  It is awesome to make progress.

Brrrrrrr

43F was the high when I was at the field today, brrrrrrrr!  Good thing it was calm so there was no wind chill factor.  Sky was hazy with high overcast and thankfully no fog.  I got in 10 flights on various aircraft today....4 on the G500, 2 on the X5, 2 on the G630, and 2 on the Star.  Not another soul was there unless you count two brutish dogs that wandered through.  One was large German Shepard, the other a Boxer.  I stayed in the car when they came near, but they seemed wary and moved away when I yelled at them to get out of there.

Flying was good.  I did way more inverted than usual, and in fact tried a few half circles with both Goblins.  Not very good, but good for first attempts.  Did not crash so there is the silver lining!  I wandered far and got disoriented though, but always recovered and came back to try again.  Part of the problem is flying high to be safe, but therefore not being able to see the heli attitude and speed well.  It's ok, I will build stick time, gain confidence gradually, and get lower, then better with time.  I only used the Goblins for the inverted flying since the X5 is hard to see in comparison.

Was only able to get two packs charged for the Star, but it was old reliable as usual.  :)