WOW.
Dudes, this was too cool. Just got back from two solid days of flying. I
have a lot of photos and video, but I wanted to make a post this evening
while I am fresh back from the event.
TK and I arrived Fri. afternoon driving in from Chicago and there were A
LOT of people there. I registered as pilot 50 at that time, and there were
more after me. Busy flight line was the first thing that struck me, two
tugs working hard and a nice line of sailplanes queued up for a tow. After
registering and checking out the cool looking event T shirt and hat that
was in the registration bag, I went on to socializing a bit in the
pits. But the constant series of tows was just enticing me to fly. I
built my DG 800s and walked it out to the flight line, Capn' Jack was all
too eager to help me with another set of eyes. I got an excellent tow,
Peter Goldsmith towed me up with his cub and let him take me up to
clouds. I told him I was off, he replies... "great Jim, I think my wings
are freezing over" 8-) Needless to say I flew that flight for awhile! 8-)
I landed and Cliff Bryan was pulling his new ASH-26 out, so I followed him
out to the flight line. I ended up being his second set of eyes, and Cliff
got that bad boy hooked up and skied out. After flying around for a long
period of time, he asked me if I wanted to try. 8-) What a wonderful
model, Cliff wasn't in a rush for it back, but he did check the battery
levels twice while I was flying, so it must have been a pretty long
flight. Such a sweet model.
Skip Miller was just pounding the cross country course all day long, I
think he went over 26 miles.
Then I wander back to the pits, see Capn' Jack over at the tents and he
asks if I want to fly the Ventus 2AX. By this time the air at about
3:30-4pm is about the best its been all day, and I am like SURE! I'LL FLY
IT. Jack let me fly it up the tug and I flew it for a long time, 40
minutes or longer, and then the ultimate TX who-ore himself, McCarthy
couldn't take it any longer so he took the sticks, and he flew it for
another 40 mins. Finally I pried his fingers from the pizza box and I got
it back for some more, and then TK wandered by and he took it for a long
flight, and then finally back to Jack, the last sailplane to land on
Fri. I forgot the final launch count for the day, but the tugs went
through 10 gallons of gas.
Of course then all the electric fun fly stuff came out... and then over to
a BBQ at John Diniz house for excellent food, drink, electric heli flying
in the driveway, and John did a small jam session in his basement later
while McCarthy tried to finish building the scale model he didn't quite get
flying earlier in the day. Just more fun!
Today was a windier, with more people in attendance, but less of the flying
at anyone time. Only one tug worked the flight line constantly. I flew
once in the morning when the wind was calmer, but decided to help work the
flight line and snap pictures and video in between the chores. Paul Siegel
and Steve Siebenaler flew over from Ohio in Paul's Super Cub to check out
the action and really put in a nice landing on the grass strip. Flying
continued non-stop all day long. Later in the day there was a raffle for
1:1 scale glider rides, and although I didn't win one, I have never been up
in a glider so I bought a ride. What a HOOT! So I got to sit in the front
seat of 2-33, did an aerotow, and even got to fly it awhile. Shot a lot of
video up there, and got some of flying site from above, with little
sailplanes and tugs flying beneath us.
Now that tops off a great couple of days! 8-) Don't miss this event next
year, apparently it has really grown, now in its 3rd year. This is my
first, and I really regret missing the first two.
Pix and video tomorrow.
Jim
Downers Grove, IL
Member of the Chicago SOAR club, and Team JR
AMA 592537 LSF 7560 Level IV R/C Soaring blog at www.jimbacus.net
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