Archive for the ‘Flight Logs’ Category
September 4th, 2010 | 
Author: Due to the heat and possible rain, the Summer Fun Fly was moved to October 2 and will coincide with the Potluck Dinner and Night Fly. We will begin flying Fun Fly events at 1pm, and we will have the Pot-Luck Supper at 5pm. We will continue with Fun Fly events as long as necessary (and practical). The Night Fly will being at dark, as usual. Families are welcomed and encouraged to attend the Fun Fly, the Pot-Luck, and/or the Night Fly.
This is a club-only event.
The events people volunteered for are: Balloon Burst, Bob Lavey; Spot Landing, Tony Fox; Egg Drop, Dave Husher; Limbo, Marvin Hendrix; Timed event, Bill Bergen.
Dave Husher will provide the following materials for the Egg Drop: egg-sized hacky sacks with crepe paper streamers, paper cups, popsicle sticks, #64 rubberbands, and duct tape. Any other prior arrangements and/or modifications to your drop aircraft will be legal! Simulated Egg dropped closest to mark in the center of the runway, (best out of 2 tries) will win a fabulous (read cheap) prize.
The Balloon Burst will consist of three balloons placed acrross the runway and spaced about five feet apart and about four feet high. The challenge is to pop as many of the balloons in five minutes as possible. The outside ballons are worth five points each, and the middle ballon is worth ten points. Striking the balsa stick holding up the balloon will result in half the normal points. In the case of a tie in the amount of balloon points, the faster time will be the winner.
Posted in 
This is my Seagull Extra 260 with a DLE 30cc gas engine. After the untiemly demise of my H9 Funtana (airframe and engine), I was still craving aerobatics and after seeing how well Tony’s 260 flew I thought I’d give it a try on a slightly smaller scale. With the pain of the recent loss still fresh on my mind, I am flying again, but a bit more cautious this time. I hope this plane lasts a long time. I just need to keep telling myself “keep it high, two mistakes high”! enjoy the video and I’ll see you at the field. Roger
Due to the heat and possible rain this weekend, we decided at tonight’s meeting to move the Summer Fun Fly to October 2. Astute readers will realize that is the same date as the Night Fly. We will begin flying Fun Fly events at 1pm, we will have the Pot-Luck Supper at 5pm, and continue with Fun Fly events as long as necessary (and practical). The Night Fly will being at dark, as usual. Families are welcomed and encouraged to attend the Fun Fly, the Pot-Luck, and/or the Night Fly.
Sorry for the late notice of the date change. If you know of anyone that planned on attending, please make sure they know of the date change.
It had been a while since I’ve flown at the field with the regulars, and today looked like a nice day, and I didn’t have any chores at the house that needed done straight away, so I packed up the Temptation and headed to the field. It was in the low 90s with a light southerly wind that kicked up to 5 or 7 MPH at times. There was just enough wind to keep it from being too hot.
I got out there about 1:30, and Roger Youmans, Dennis Keigley, and Max Freeman were already out there. Roger was really out there, too, as he was wandering around the field about 25 yards off the runway. It turns out he was picking up the pieces of his gas-powered Funtana. He told Max that he was doing spins, pulled out too low, and perhaps should have pushed instead of pulled. Ugh. I hate to see that Roger. That was a nice flying airplane. I hope neither the engine nor the electronics were hurt.
Dennis was probably there for a long time flying before I got out there, as I only saw him fly his electric Corsair once before he left at about 2pm. Max had his 60-sized SNJ and flew it once. He flew well and made a terrific landing.
I got in 4 flights on the Temptation, and I’m starting to feel like I’ve got it somewhat trimmed.
Mark Labadie, Tony Fox, and Dan Stelljes came out about 2pm. Mark had his 40-sized Cherokee, and he put in 2 flights. Mark appears to be feeling more comfortable with that airplane, although he says he loses it in the sky sometimes. Watching today, I can see why. That plane is mostly white on the bottom: the two black and red strips on the underside of the wings aren’t large enough to see from very far away. Mark was thinking of putting a bold color on the underside of the plane to help.
Tony had his electric Chipmunk and flew twice. Dan had his Saito 125-powered Funtana and flew once.
Mostly we sat in the shade and visited today 
Tomorrow looks like more of the same. Get your stuff charged up and come out and sit in the shade with us
Beth, John, and I went out to the field about 6pm to try some experiments with balloons for the event we will be running in the August 7 Fun Fly. Beth and I had talked with Kelly at the Balloon Closet earlier in the day, and he had given us some balloons to experiment with. We had a 3′ a 2′ and a 17″ balloon that Kelly had filled with helium and tied about 50′ of ribbon to. We placed them 50 yards east of the east edge of the run way, and we lined one up with the north edge of the runway, one centered, and one lined up with the south edge of the runway. Right away we could see problems: there was very little wind, yet the balloons were being moved many, many yards to the north by the south wind. That caused the balloons to also ride very low to the ground at times. There will almost certainly be more wind than that in the middle of an August afternoon, so we already had concerns about how well this even would work out.
We had John’s electric 40-sized Ultra Stick, and after letting him fly around a bit, I tried breaking the balloons. John was concerned about flying that close to the ground, and he seemed disappointed that he couldn’t give it a try. However, after seeing that I was completely unable to hit any of the balloons, I think John was happy that he didn’t have to try It was really very much impossible to hit even the largest of balloons. Trying to get lined up with them when they were that far away from the runway was too much of a challenge. We decided to move them in by 25 yards and try again with John’s second battery pack. That actually didn’t turn out much better. I got closer a few times, and I did catch a wing on the ribbon once, which turned out to be a very bad thing. It turned out that the ribbon was impossible to break by hand, so when John’s plane hit it, it just yanked the plane around, and it wound up in an attitude with the nose pointed nearly straight up and zero airspeed. Luckily I was able to give it full power and pull out of the stalled condition with no damage. That was another clue that we were on the wrong track with this event
Roger Youmans had come out while we were setting up, and tried breaking balloons after I’d moved them in to 25 yards. He was flying a small yellow and black electric, and he was getting closer than I was. Roger did break the 2′ balloon that was centered on the runway! Yay! So it was possible. Roger then concentrated his efforts on the 3′ balloon, and during one attempt, he got hung up in the ribbon and lost his prop and battery. Roger, Beth, John, and I spent 10 -15 minute searching around, and Roger found the battery pack. That was good news.
As a last resort, we put the balloons on the runway, and I was able to break the 3′ balloon that way. Yay! However, the 17″ balloon was made of sterner stuff, and I just bounced off when I hit it!
It turns out that this was possibly the worst idea for a Fun Fly event ever We’ve gone back to the drawing board
Be sure to congatulate Dennis the next time you see him at the field!
He performed a beautiful “Figure M” manuver with 1/4 rolls up and down on Wednesday 7-21-2010 to complete his Gold Card requirements. He has done a stellar job and is an excellent self-trained pilot. Good job!
Sorry it’s been so long since my last post: it’s been wild around Casa De Lavey this spring, and I’m barely able to keep up. I’ve been flying a lot, though, so my priorities are still okay
I knew it was going to be hot today, but I went out about 1:15 anyhow. It was 91 degrees when I go there, and the wind was from the SSW to SSE at about 10-15 with a bunch of gustiness. Mostly it was right down the runway, but it was really bouncy.
Dan Stelljes, Tony Fox, and Dave Husher were already there. Dan had his new Funtana, but he was having some kind of problem and never did fly.
Tony had his gas-powered Extra, and he flew 3 times that I saw, and I suspect he had more. Tony’s had that plane set up for electric and had a Saito 220 in it for a while (if I remember correctly). With the gas engine, it seems to have more power and fly better than the other configurations. At $3 a gallon for fuel, you sure cannot complain. A nice pair of Hattori long pipes would sure quiet it down, though
Dave had his mini Ultra Stick, but it suffered a rough landing in the gusty winds, and Dave didn’t get to fly again.
I had my YS 110-powered Zafiro and my electric StingRay. I got in three flights on each practicing some of the parts of the Advanced sequence that were giving me fits. I’ve had serious problems with the turnaround Top Hat followed by the Reverse Cuban Eight. I’ve been very hit-and-miss on whether I roll in the right direction on the Top Hat, and I never leave myself enough room to get the Reverse Cuban eight centered. I made gains today on the Top Hat: I was making good corrections on the up-lines most of the time, and I don’t think I rolled the wrong direction a single time. The Zafiro flies fast, yet I was able to get the Reverse Cuban centered once or twice. What fun! Maybe I’ll be ready for the KC contest June 26-27
Mark Labadie, Bill Whitaker, Max Freeman, and Bill Bergen were not far behind me.
Mark had his Great Plane Piper Cherokee, which I helped him trim. Mark flew a couple of times and made a couple of landings. They were not the prettiest, but they worked, and the engine was still running both times. If Mark is able to get out and fly regularly, he’ll get used to that plane quickly and start flying and landing better.
Whitaker and Max may or may not have had airplanes, but if they did, they never did pull them out of their trucks
Bergen definitely did not have an airplane, but he and I had a nice visit anyhow.
Roger Youmans and Marvin Hendrix came out a bit later.
Roger had his trainer, and he ran out of receiver battery on his first flight. The engine died during the flight, and Roger made a terrific dead-stick landing, but after landing he found that with the flaps deployed, only one aileron would work. He sat and visited while the battery charged, and he was back in the air about the time I left.
Marvin didn’t have an airplane, as the tank split recently on his 25-sized SNJ. He said he’s getting a new tank this week, so he can get in his June flight.
We missed Mike at the field today. He’s recovering well, but he won’t be back out for a while. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to travel with contests to me until September or so, but hopefully he’ll back out to fly with us at the field in July or August.
Came home from a pizza run and the wife told me to look on my picnic table. There sat the Eurofighter. Quite a bit the worse for wear (Unfixable) but I got all my electronics back and the battery was still almost fully charged (wasn’t much of a flight) and must have unplugged in the misshap. Bob and Beth Lavey had gone back out this evening to hunt for it and found it withn 5 feet of what appeared to be a deep pond behind the cement plant. I hadn’t even seen a pond when we treked all through that area yesterday. The Lavey’s are supper fine folk, but I’ll bet you already knew that. Thanks Bob and Beth!!!