GoPro flight using my Great Planes UPROAR rc plane on 04-18-2014.

Click this link, or copy and paste into your browser's window to see the video of today's flight I posted onto YouTube this evening....

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u3aymdupmZE/U1HYzkkSXrI/AAAAAAAAAyc/jp-m5fBg9gY/w426-h320/GoPro+Flight+#+1+on+04-18-2014.mp4

First Fun-Fly of the 2014 Season

We had a blustery start to our first fun-fly flying of the new season. The competition was how many loops in a 30 second time limit. The strong wind at times made consecutive loops difficult to maintain.

There were five contestants (shown below) and two judges, Steve Stafford loop counter and Ken Conway timer. The results were:

Ed Vincent             9 1/4 loops First Place
Cloyce Mann         8 3/4 loops Second Place
Dennis Sporing      8 loops Third Place
Marlowe Cassetti   7 1/8 loops
Steve Anderson      4 1/4 loops

Cloyce getting started to compete
Steve and Ken judging the event

Terry next to his Paramount watching Dennis preparing his Twist
in the background left Steve and Ed troubleshoot Steve's Tiger 60
In the background right is Buzz working on his plane

The flight line with Steve's Tiger 60 on the left

Terry working on his Paramount while Buzz watches

A good time was had by all. It was great to have so many participants. There were several flyers that flew but didn't compete. Mark Sullivan and his grandson stopped by the field on their was to a baseball game. Terry Davis brought his Paramount that he won a few years ago in a club drawing. He had some difficulty with it and didn't fly. Not in the pictures are my Uproar and Big Stick 40. I flew the Uproar but switched to the Stick for the competition. As the wind was picking up many of us packed up early.

Saturday Flying April 5th

From the meeting the evening before, we scheduled a Saturday workday. I had conflict and didn't arrive until around 11:00 AM. Ed was spraying weeds and Steve Stafford was doing touch-up painting on the impound building. After spraying, Ed had some buddy box flying with both Ken and Steve. Terry and Kenny were also there but I didn't see them flying. Arlyn Robbins brought his T-28 but it was forced down with some damage. Mike Ciganek was there to lend his support for the workday.

Steve Stafford getting some "buddy box" refreshing from Ed

Terry, Kenny and Ken posing behind Ed's Funwagon

I brought my Drastik and micro Spitfire IX. The Drastik had the landing gear collapse on takeoff, so repairs are now in order. I flew several flights with the Spitfire and I think I impressed the guys with how well it flew. With a lot of help from the AS3X (Automatic Stabilization 3 Axis) technology which keeps the plane's attitude locked on. Makes it much easier to fly this very small plane (16" wingspan) especially if there is any wind.

FlyZone micro Spitfire IX after the crash
note elevator frozen in full down!

Unfortunately on the last flight the electronics malfunctioned and it came straight down. No apparent damage to the plane but the elevator servo failed in the hard down position. So far I think I will have to replace the electronics which is an all in one unit that has the receiver, AS3X built in, rudder & elevator servos, and speed controller. It costs as much as the entire BNF airplane which is now discontinued.