NetHeads, First, you've gotta see the photo at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/flights/06012837m.jpg . Then I'll tell you how it got that way.
When I checked weather at 9AM this morning, it was only 6 or 7 mph, although a direct crosswind. As I was driving up to the airport, it was kinda gusty, but I didn't think it was anything I couldn't handle. Once the plane left the ground, I knew I was WRONG! That thing went all over the place. Upon checking the AWOS at a neighboring field (I can't pick it up on the ground at my airport) it was reporting 18knots with 25 mph gusts, in a direct crosswind. I knew I was in trouble, as if the turbulence wasn't enough. I flew up to a friends' house in southern TN to take a few pictures and then came back. If I didn't have a plane to Germany to catch at 4:00, I'd have landed at nearby MDQ on their huge runway, and waited for things to calm down at sundown to return. But I pretty much needed to put my plane on my runway and in my hangar in the next hour, so I did. I really did pretty good at navigating through the stuff on the way down, but I deliberately landed a little fast, and gave it a "little" too much down stick when I had it planted, because my runway is short and I didn't want to run off the end of it. This is the result. Unfortunately there's a long lead time on these props, but I'll see if I can get WW to expedite another 54x54 Sensenich for me. I also have a crank on the way from the nitrider, so it'd be a snap to swap cranks. I'll have to think on whether I want to tear it down right now or wait for the 3100cc engine that I'm in the process of getting all the pieces for, but the fire just got turned up on the new engine... Mark Langford, Harvest, AL see homebuilt airplane at http://www.N56ML.com email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
