Barbara and I spent a fun morning in Visalia, just visiting and looking - neither one of us competed. Like the Dodgers, maybe next year. First, we wandered up to the Official's area and asked the number of contestants and were told: 285. Suitably impressed, we watched the precision handling of transmitters, flight group call-up and the launch master doing his thing. A marvelously well-run contest, all honor to the CVRC! The weather was hot, the sun bright and the wind to the tail position for launch and landing. The landing targets were "improved" this year to a new high -or low, depending if you're looking or landing. I didn't measure them but they appeared to be a bulls-eye circle about 6 feet in diameter, with two maybe three) smaller circles inside. This called for the "dart" landing technique, which in many cases resulted in a flop to inverted position. Very challenging landing task, but how else do you declare a "winner" when the lift is so good all over the field. Barbara was impressed with the air. It was tempting for her and after all those years (we started in R/C soaring in 1971) to see a R/C sailplane go up is still magic. She's been resisting, but watching that lift made her want to get her thumbs on the sticks again. Maybe when we retire! Barbara chatted with the three women entered in the contest. She was a little suprised at that as there were more women competing 20 years ago! She and Joan Nolte had a nice visit. Joan just got her LSF Level V goal and return and had a good story about the flight. It was supposed to be a tune-up for the real flight. The number of vendors has increased and the quality of the kits is amazing. All the goodies a sailplane nut could want were on display. I was disappointed that the lunch break did not have the air tow demonstration of last year, maybe it took too long. We did see a demo of the 10-cell electric sailplane (F5E?) that climb like a pattern ship and come down in a glide at over a hundred miles an hour - not scale miles, real miles. With my reflexes I think the lifespan of such a model would be 3 minutes or one flight, whichever came first. We left for the 4-hour drive home feeling nostalgic and full of fun from the people we met - old friends and new. If you didn't go to Visalia this year, go next! Richard Shilling Barbara Henon RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
