Balloon Festival

Our club participated in the Canon City Balloon Classic that was held Memorial Weekend. We had a booth that was operational almost all the daylight hours. Plus we gave R/C flying demonstrations Saturday and Sunday mornings. See photos below:

Terry watching while Ed flies his Cub
Looking West this was our runway, we flew to the North

View looking East
Steve Stafford is in the background to right

Looking north shows the plowed field where we confined our flying
I caught a piece of Ed's Cub's tail in the picture

Mark Sullivan gave demonstrations of his quad-chopper including a forced landing in the plowed field. It reminds one that with electrics you have to be mindful of draining the battery.

Now that we have experience with this event we can put on a better show next year, assuming they invite us back.

From The President:

The first annual Canon City Balloon Classic had a few minor mishaps. First was rain during a weekend that seldom if ever brings us rain. Second was the fact that the club voted to participate in the event yet just Ed Vincent, Ken Conway, Steve Safford, Mark Sullivan, Marlowe Cassetti, showed up to talk with the public and support the event. Third was a bit too much breeze for the balloons to launch. 

There was a good crowed early for the potential launch’s there were 6 balloons. I would estimate about 600 to 800 people. Most left by 8 to 8:30 then about 9:30 there was a second run of spectators meandering through. We gave away gliders from Estes to kids. Then Sat. about 11 we packed our stuff away and Ken, Steve and I left for the field to fly.
 
Sunday was about the same except there was more mud than on Sat. The early crowd may have been a little lighter but not much. We then packed up about 10, Steve stayed at the event a bit longer and Ken and I went out to the field for Ken to get additional flight time. 

Over all it was a good time for those that showed up to participate in the event.
 
Sincerely;
Ed Vincent 

Terry's Plane Rack

HERE'S AN AIRPLANE RACK FOR YOU. I STILL NEED TO PUT ONE MORE ON TOP AND THE FOAM AND PAINT BUT IT COSTS AROUND 20 DOLLARS ALL PLANES ARE TOGETHER READY TO FLY AND NOTHING TIED DOWN. JUST TAKE OUT THE ONE YOU WANT AND GO FLY

May Fun-Fly

We had a good turnout for the Saturday event ... except we didn't have any competition. We had a lot of planes, flyers and training sessions. See the pictures below.

Ed Vincent and Ken Conway doing some training.
Ken was in control most of the time and was doing a good job at that.

Steve Stafford and Gary in the pit area getting a model ready

Another positive we collected $15 for our charity fund by passing the hat around. We forgot it on our last funfly. This will help offset our club's charitable contribution.

Safety Lesson

Lesson learned!!! 

Last Sunday and I was enjoying a nice day of flying. Ed Vincent got after me for reaching over the running engine to remove the glow igniter. He said that made him nervous. On the next flight I got the Saito 65 started and tried to move the starter wires out of the way and my hand got too close to the spinning prop. The photo below shows the results after 17 stitches administered at the hospital emergency room.

Result of carelessness around a spinning prop

The tendon in my right hand index finger was nicked and the doctor had to repair it. Now I have very little strength in my right hand due to this injury. And my wife is really pissed at me. She suggested that I staple the hospital wrist bands to my flight box to remind me of my stupidity and carelessness. That I did the following day.

I was fortunate that there were several club members at the field to help, especially Mark Sullivan who had emergency responder experience. He arranged a pad of paper towels to help stop the blood flow and then drove me to St. Thomas More's emergency room and spent the next three hours waiting with me. I also thank the guys at the field who put away all of Mark's and my flying stuff. Later we were able to retrieve it and get it home at the end of the ordeal.

Monday I returned to the ER because there was further bleeding through the dressing, and on Tuesday I saw  Dr. Carlson, the hand surgeon. I described the APC 11 x 7 propeller as having very sharp tips, almost like scalpel blades turning at 4,000 RPM. I am fortunate that more damage wasn't done.

Lesson learned!!! 

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.