Did you Fly today?

[Evan]

awesome flights guys

[19000rpm]

Well, the gods of winter, actually the last days fall, were smiling today as the temps hit the mid 40's. I had to fly!!

Out to the HS running track with my newly modified "fantasy" Korean War 70mm EDF (modified eRC Rebel). Sorry, no pics. Maybe later. I'd just added some rockets and bombs, since, without them, it didn't look quite threatening enough.

The winds were highly variable. Blowing 12-15, then drop to nothing. Blow 10-12 and then back to nothing. Back up to 15. I'm not complaining here. It's the mid 40's, in DECEMBER, and I'm flying with out the cold weather clothing!

This plane takes awhile to rotate. At full throttle, most of one side of the track. Once in the air she's magnificent. Lots of agility. Plenty of speed. Now, appropriately threating with its new weapons array.

The whole time I'm flying I'm thinking of how I'm going to land in these variable winds. I make a couple of low and slow passes to prepare for a landing. One time it's too slow; the next time it seems a bit fast. I conclude: I'll have to make a fast decison, on final, as to, if I deploy the spoilerons, and/or use the paved track, or the grass.

On final, I dip down over the trees and decide speed is good and I'll go with the grass. Wind is a steady 12. All is well until it's 3' off the grass. Nose, slightly down, no spoilerons, since I had a nice head wind, getting ready to flair...Then a blast of wind hits. The gust must have been plus 20. Rocked me a bit on my heels. Harder than anything since I'd been at the field.

I have this theory about wind (Murphy's Law kind of thing) and when it will affect a landing. But, that's for another time...

The plane stops forward motion immediately. Like spoilerons, air brakes and a drag chute; all deployed at the same time. Or, the arresting hand of the fall gods?? Put up to show how arbitrairy the gift of an unseasonable day might be?

Since the nose was still down a bit, the gust slammed it into the grass. Hard!!

I've never experienced anything quite like this: The plane bounces about 3-4 ft. in the air, moving neither forward or backwards, and spins around in a roll and lands on its BACK! You had to be there to appreciate how bizzare that looked.

The bottom line is; that there was no damage. So, it was a great flying day! If a little unusual. That's one of the reasons I love this hobby. No matter how long you're in it there's something that's going to surprise you!

[Gabe]

Whoah! Truly bizarre! Ive had some weird landings in high winds, but never anything like that.

I flew the mini Stryker Q yesterday for about 3 min before we had to go over to the in laws. That was the first flight I'd had since before my daughter was born. It was a lot of fun!

[19000rpm]

Finding time to fly with a newborn and the holidays...That's a trick.

[r/c basher]

I flew my Mcpx 3 times today and crashed 3 times. Im starting to learn inverted flight which is proving to be difficult with the Mcpx because the tail motor likes to blow out and the main motor is weak. Out of the 3 crashes there wasnt any damage except a bent landing skid. Thats one of the reasons why I love this bird, you can try a loop over and over again without any damage.

[19000rpm]

Glad to hear the mCPX is holding up so well for you r/c.

It's too bad they didn't have something like the mCPX about 5 years ago. I could have saved a bundle on parts.

It was a bit blustery yesterday, but about 50 degrees. Much like a spring day.

I flew 3 batteries in the P-51, 10 powered, Reno Racer and blew the fan out on the mini 50mm F-16. I was lucky to get the F-16 back with only the left horizontal stab snapping off.

The HLI 64mm F-86 took a bad tumble on landing, at the end of the 3rd flight, and split the fuse. Darned wind. My timing on landing on windy days has been off quite a bit of late.

[shakycyclic]

THUNDERSTORM? IN JANUARY?

Checked the weather maps: Front vs front vs front. Means rain, rain and....thunder??

Oh well...

[19000rpm]

Yep, the jet stream is off track this year. Very weird everywhere.

[shakycyclic]

A friend noticed: Our local collection of Canadian birds haven't gone anywhere, it would seem. Such indicates SC is under a warmer than usual winter, as those birds tend to pack up around November for further south.

Weird don't do it!

[19000rpm]

I was on a little family vacation up to Grand Marais in northen MN, on Lake Superior, just a few miles from the Canadian border.

The weather was unseasonably warm and I brought along my super duper cub and had some time to fly it. So I did. While flying; I was wondering how many R/C planes had ever flown there.

A few days later I was at the same spot and, to my surprise, I see a float plane flying across the harbor. At first I thought it was full size. Then it became apparent it was R/C.

I drove around to the other side of the harbor and found the only 2 R/C guys in the city. It was a delight. Really nice guys. Flying a couple of 40 sized planes. One a Hobbico Nextstar and the other one of the Tower models.

[bugstersdad1]

Hey 19000, how did you like Grand Marias? You picked a great weekend to go. Do you go there often? You probably drive right past my place!

[19000rpm]

We haven't been all the way to GM for awhile. We've been to Two Harbors more often.

Yes, it was beautiful weather! Actually our digs were between Tofte and Lutsen. We stayed in a cabin 30 ft. from the shore. Sat there in shorts looking out at the lake by a roaring fire. Went up to GM 4 times from there.

We went up 35W to 61. Where is it you live?

[bugstersdad1]

Mar 19, 2012 13:32:36 GMT -6 bugstersdad1 said:

Hey 19000, how did you like Grand Marias? You picked a great weekend to go. Do you go there often? You probably drive right past my place!

Between Tofte and Lutsen, so you must have stayed at Bluefin Bay then? I'm up on top of the hill in Duluth. Where are you from? I'm guessing somewhere down in the cities?

[19000rpm]

We stayed in a cabin, "Red Cottage", about 5 mins north of Blue Fin. We did go to Blue Fin for lunch one day. Good Walleye sandwich.

We're just west of the twin cities by Lake Minnetonka.

[Doozer]

You must purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka!


That's a cool looking plane. I bet that pontoon landing is tricky? I'd love to try that some day.