Hi Fliers,
Can this guy fly without a hat, plane, or his Tx turned on??? No… but grab a camera and he is ever ready to show that he can look like he can!
And, can he fly with his hat on, Tx on, and plane in hand??? You bet he can and today he took us to school to prove it. New plane, old plane, doesn’t matter. Today Robert beat us with some old thing he dragged out of the trash last year! (should have never fixed it for him) Robert smiled and his plane just Twinkled.
Four intrepid HL fliers ventured forth this morning and braved the 58deg freezing temps before the fog lifted and the sun came out. There was practically enough dew on the grass for swimming. Any colder and we would have been ice skating instead.
Our newest HL flier, and YES, he can fly, John Heienickle came out to play with his recently purchased custom Vibe dlg. I gave it some quick tosses to help get his flight modes trimmed out, and a then a few instructional tosses to show him which end of the plane to hold before throwing, and then we turned him loose against the wolves (Robert, Bill, and myself) to fend for himself in his first ever HL contest. We teased him with the bait, hooked him in the mouth, and reeled him in hard. John’s got the fever now and there is no cure. Friends may not let friends fly 2 meter, but friends definitely show their friends how to fly hand launch! Hey look Mikey, he loves it!
We tried to make things as simple as we could for the rules today in order to help him out. The task was for all to throw simultaneously, and try and make a 3 minute max. You had to launch and land somewhere in the vicinity of the field boundary and not fly too long past the end of the task. We were really loose on this today resulting in NO landouts.
Scoring was simple. First to land got a point. Next to land got 2 pts. 3rd to land got 3 pts. And last one down got 4 pts. Anyone who made the 3min max got 4 pts. We flew for three rounds of nine flights. Or was it nine rounds of three flights? I forgot. All I know is that we flew twenty-seven times and I only got to sit down twice and p** once.
Bill got off to a hot start and by the first break, I was beginning to wonder why I had sold him my best floating plane, but then the air began to get more active and my NXT began to show its stuff in working the lift. Bill was not done though and proceeded to show us that his new plane (my old Stream) could thermal too. As I had said many times before, Bill had reached the point where his flying had progressed past the planes he was flying and if he got something newer, look out. Today proved that that was very true! Bill’s flying was 50% better with the new Stream than it was before. John continued to improve with every throw too, and as his confidence grew, so did he launches. So by the third round, he was no longer automatically the 1st one down and even maxed a flight! (that’s where the hook really pulled all the way through his lip; totally irremovable.
Robert reeled off 9 straight wins to establish early dominance and never looked back. What can I say? It was a very Twinkle day. I do still have some work to do to get my thermal mode dialed in on the NXT. Rudder mix is wrong and wants to kick it out of the lift, so I ended up flying in cruise most of the time. It thermals well in cruise but could do better with more camber available. At least that is what I am telling myself to ease the sting that Robert inflicted.
All in all it was an absolutely fantastic day. At the end of the day (well it was barely noon, but Bill was double parked and had to leave for another date) here is how it all shook out:
pts norm pilot
97 1000.00 Robert
85 876.28 Wayne
77 793.81 Bill
30 309.27 John
Way to go John, and way to go Bill! (no way to go for Robert; he was expected to win!)
Now that we have four fliers, it is time to reel in a few more. I know there are still other HL gliders in the club. I don’t know what is holding you back from bringing them out, other than fear… fear that you might actually like it that is. 🙂
And that’s the way it is!
Wayne
btw, didn’t finish the new Vortex 3 in time to fly it today, but should have it ready to go by Monday. See you all again then!!! Wow what a day!!!