Hi fliers,
Chris Erkmann and I snuck out this morning to slip in a little more practice before the contest tomorrow, and to test his newly repaired rudder. He had a problem earlier where a servo partially came unplugged and caused a hard landing with booboos. Plane flew well today but the servo plug is still a problem.
>>>Chris, for now just stick in a couple of short servo extension leads rather than trying to solder connectors the night before a contest. If you don’t have any, I’ll bring some tomorrow.
I arrived at 9am at the sod farm and Chris had already been flying for some time. The air was very light and smooth. Perfect for testing trims. I spent about an hour testing various camber settings on the CX5 to find its best float setting. I was fairly happy when finished. Then I spent a while flying my newest Vortex3 which had just been setup. I think the settings still need a little tweaking and I may need a couple of grams of nose weight to get it to groove like my other one.
About half way through our session, Matt Keeven drove by in his John Deer 6 wheeler golf cart and started up a conversation. Well, his son was actually doing the driving. (he looks about 8. Time to give him some flying lessons!) Matt and I chatted about when he got some flying lessons from us when he was ten. (33years ago) He still remembers those lessons very fondly and I am sure that is why he has liked watching us fly ever since. It was a seed well planted and well watered. If we can get his son involved in the same way, we may be good for another generation of flying at the sod farm.
As we were talking, I mentioned our HL contest tomorrow and our plans to park on the stripped area of F and fly on G. He liked that idea and suggested that with a south wind next week we could do the same thing for next week’s TD contest. I asked about the Field Rule we have about setting up near the edge of the field with our winches and he said that normally that was good. However, at the moment, the edges of the field are still a little tender, so he asked us to set the winches into the field about 30-40’ and avoid traffic near the edges. (so no pitting there either.)
I also asked about electrics and how they do not cause traffic like the winches do and that they were more like HL in respect to the grass. He said we can start flying electrics at the sod farm NOW. I know that there are several of you who really wanted to know this one. 😊
As it looks to me now, we are set up pretty well for flying in the middle of the sod farm. We can park on the stripped area of F and keep the road clear for farm equipment to pass. And with fields G, A, and B, we can set winches for almost any wind direction. I almost think Matt stripped that area of F specifically for this purpose. Unless they ask us to move because they are working in the middle, it would be my recommendation that this be our go-to spot for the time being. It seems to have Matt’s blessing.
Bottom line: HL can continue flying as we have been for the last month. Electrics can fly as of now. And I think that after next week’s TD contest the field will be open for winches.
The only question is how long will the sod last? They are harvesting grass like gang busters. It has been a perfect spring for the grass and they have gone from planting to harvest in 7 months. Matt said it was a new record for him.
See all you HL’ers in the morning. Arrive at 9am. Contest starts at 9:30.
O happy days,
Wayne