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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Flying Report Saturday Jan21

No one was expecting to fly this morning, but the high winds showed up later in the day. Mark sent out a hurriedly composed message that he was headed out to the field. When I got out there at 10:30 AM, Mark was opening the gate and it was dead calm. We were joined by Dennis, Cloyce, and Kenny.
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Mark readied his Stick 40. Earlier his OS 55AX had been plagued by poor running, but he switched to fresh fuel and that solved his problems. Mark got is some good flying. I had my e-Mini Stick and I got in many flights that morning. Cloyce flew his Twist 40 and he discovered a patch of rough air just north of the runway. When I was flying my E-Mini Stick I had some bumpy flying in the same area.
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Picture on the right is Mark and Dennis fooling around with the GSE (Ground Support Equipment). What a beautiful setting with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the background.
Now the following is a bit scary. Parental guidance is strongly advised.
DSC00157 Normally when you are landing a R/C airplane, you are looking down the runway visually tracking the plane in order to guide it in for a safe landing. On our field if the wind is blowing from the west and the plane is travel off your left shoulder (as you face the plane) as illustrated by the picture of Cloyce and his Twist 40.
Okay what happens then it if it approaches you off your right shoulder? (see next pix of Cloyce DSC00158 watching the Twist fly off to the side)
The answer is You have a major problem!
Fortunately Cloyce recovered from the wind gust pushing the Twist off course and then to buzz Dennis and Mark (the two guys fooling around with the GSE). Mark thought Cloyce was trying to fly through his trailer. Cloyce brought it around for a perfect landing.DSC00160
Kenny brought out his Edge and attempted a takeoff. Unfortunately the soft dirt on the runway tripped it over on its takeoff run and it nosed over damaging the prop. By the time to prop was changed the predicted high winds made their presence known and everyone packed up by 2:00PM. It was an exciting day and I’m glad we had an opportunity to get in a few hours of flying. After all, we are in Colorado at  5,439 feet altitude.

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