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Thanks for the kind PM, Gordy. I'll respond
on group since I don't think you'll mind this.
I haven't met you face-to-face yet, but I am
beginning to understand you like to stir the pot to see what rises, and then use
it as a contribution to the group dialog. So I took your jibe in that
light, and did my best to contribute something interesting.
I hope to make Visalia too (maybe we'll meet
there), and maybe the SVSS (Sacramento) Spring Fling. Nats is as far east as I
will probably travel this year. Perhaps my son and I can many of the RCSE
crowd while at Nats--it would be fun to have faces to go with the
posts.
A Personal Story from the Southwest
Classic
It's the First round of my first major
contest, and I'm wondering how well my plane can take these allegedly
monster winches that CASL has. The Bubble Dancer is supposed able to take full pedal launches, and I
decide that I've never had a problem before on any other winch, so I'll just go
for it and try to max the early morning round with a 4 minute flight.
So on being assigned a winch, I step up and
get hooked on. A friend is timing for me. I take a few deep breaths and floor
the pedal. Up it goes, good pitch up and angles, tension starts to load the
line, lot's of altitude, high and coming closer to the turnaround, ready
to dive/zoom...and then we hear a far
off 'WHACK!'.
My brain and heart goes into
high gear as I silently start repeating the mantra "fly the plane, just fly the
plane...". Meanwhile, the line comes down loose, and the BD is flying but the
elevator isn't working right. In the background another pilot says
"Hmmm..., a Bubble Dancer broke the line?!".
I'm in overdrive, and stop hearing anybody.
Pretty soon I calm down the porpoising, mostly by minimizing control inputs, and
gently bring it down to soft landing. The elevator is loose, and a the
bottom of the wing covering has a big tear, but nothing else is wrong.
Unbelievable, but it appears that the snap swivel(s) on the line recoiled
up after the line break, pinged the wing, while the line
yanked down on the elevator, popping one or two threads on the nylon screw
so the elevator was wobbling.
I run back to our canopy, grab some clear
Ultracote and an iron and go looking for power. I just cover the whole
tear with a big patch, and go visit the Winch Master. "Was that my fault?" I
ask. He says no, you shouldn't be able to do that given the heavy line we use,
and offers a reflight.
I take the reflight, chicken out a little
and start pulsing the pedal. On the first pulse, the BD pops off, but there's a
little lift, and I get 3:55 out of 4 minutes anyway -- plus 0 out of 25 possible
landing points with that itty bitty little landing target. Now, out of 99
pilots what place in that round, what would you think that would get me: 5
seconds short and no landing points?
How about 75th! Now
I like that. 5 seconds off, only 34 pilots
even get any landing points, but that's only good for 75th place. These guys are
not only great folks to be with, but they are good, and that means I've got
a challenge if I want be on par with
this crowd. Well, that kind of
challenge is a long term prescription for FUN.
I flew the rest of the contest with full
pedal launches, and didn't have any more launch troubles. Everyone I met was
totally supportive and answered all my newbie questions. My club compatriots
coached me all the way through, Sarb Nam (my wife) liked everybody as
much as I did, and it was just a fun experience from beginning to
end. I came away with whole lot more confidence, and look forward to next
time.
-Aradhana Singh
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- RE: [RCSE] RE: RCSD, Current Projects, Flying in NM ... Aradhana Singh Khalsa
