Bill’s First Time

New club member Bill R. flew an Ava Pro for the first time this week – a next step to fly his recently purchased Ava Pro.

This fall Bill R. announced his time of 9+ minutes to watching club members at a contest this summer. For this first year R/C sailplane flyer and MVSA newbie, it was a big deal. He can be heard mentioning the flight from time to the time with pride. On a 5-10 mph wind Monday, Bill put down his MBOT (Micro Bird of Time) and landed Bob G.’s Ava Pro.

Bob’s voice coached as Bill took the controls at about 150 feet – turn after turn, stalling here and there and finally down to Bill’s first Ava Pro landing. It only took a few minutes before he made his first launch and complete flight.

For Bill, the Ava Pro was a bigger plane with a whole different feel then his 100 inch Olympic he competed with this year. There was just a few minutes to talk before he had to get back to work.

With the new experience unlocked, we might be seeing another Ava Pro flyer at the field – for fun and for the 2022 season. His Ava Pro was purchased from Wayne W. this year for an undisclosed amount. It was one of two Wayne took to the NATS. (The other was involved in a rapid descent landing, was recently fixed by Bob G. and it was the fuselage flown by Bill on his first Ava Pro flight.) In 2021, the Ava Pro continued to be the dominant airframe at MVSA contests – while not winning in Unlimited – the airframe was used 5 of the top 6 flyers in RES. We don’t have competition data on it’s presence in Unlimited, a class dominated by “carbon planes”. – Bill smiled big as he walked back from the landing area.

Side Note: Word is Brandon M. has acquired several Unlimited class airframes. The son of R/C soaring legend, Mark M, was at the first once this fall. Bob G. handed him an Ava Pro and Brandon flew for an hour or so with the longest flight longer then 10 minutes.