Propspinner, good for you. The hover will come. Practice, practice, practice. For 6 weeks I've been trying to get my Katana in a flat spin, inverted. Once it a while it would happen briefly, just as my early attempts with Twist hovering. But today I could get that Kat into an inverted flat spin and hold it for a while, when I wanted to. It's all in the fingers and the eyes, experience. I thought I would NEVER hover the Twist. It took Down three months, he says.

Our birds weigh in at about 5.5 lbs--with the OS 61s. If you can climb straight up with whatever engine you're using, you can hover. Props are critical. I don't think thrust lines are, but I'm not sure. My firewalls are all standard, unchanged, screws not washered. All my Twists, in the end, hovered--but it had more to do with me than the power and Twist. When I had my .45 on the Twist, the best prop was a 12.25x3.75. Truth be told, the .61 with the MAS 13x5 prop does it best.

Troddin' down: DownTrodden took two of the longest walks any of us have taken since I've been flying with him. One had to be almost a quarter mile into the swamp, through deep snow, to fetch the Hirundo glider. The only way he found it in the thick swamp was by my turning the radio on and moving the servos. He thought it was a red squirrel. Ha. But that's how he found the bird without walking all about in that snow. The snow on the pond wasn't bad, but the snow in the woods wouldn't support his weight, so Down returned sweating and red-faced. I wanted to give him my Gator Ade, but he's on a diet--thinks he won't fall through the snow if he's lighter. Hah. For that he'd need that sky hook again.

Down's Twist went down for reasons I don't know, but it picked a far spot. Because Down says grace over his Twist before every take-off, she repaid the favor and chose to land, by herself, in the middle of several 50 to 100 lb boulders. Go figure. He put her up again--after he recovered his wind and could hold on to the transmitter.

I best not mention the UCD with the G-2300 engine. Suffice to say I learned some new swear words from Down--and not to speak to him (esp. making obvious observations like--the muffler is leaking) when he touches that bird. But it was right AFTER the UCD problems, that an idiot showed up.

That poor meth-head on the snowmobile doesn't know how lucky he is, for true. While Down was still in the air with the Twist, the guy came back across the pond, drove RIGHT in front of him, a yard away and stopped. The guy made a definitely physical threat, more or less to me, about what he would do if we came close to him again. I had gone to stand beside Down when the guy stopped his mobile. [The idiot drove right UNDER Down's low hover, intentionally, I'm sure. I saw him stop at the edge of the pond, then drive under the bird and across the pond.] The guy was STANDING on his sled, just so you get an idea, and was just three inches taller than than Down, standing on the edge of the road, BELOW the sled. Down landed the Twist a yard behind the mobile, stopped her and then said, "Now what was it you're gonna do if I fly close to you again?" Great beginning line, filled with submission and tolerance.

Ah, I damn near died, trying not to laugh. Had that guy made one, slight move toward Down--and Down was WANTING him to, WISHING him to, BEGGING him to, insisting on knowing what the guy might do. "I just want to know, is all," Down says. "Exactly, precisely, now what were you going to do?" Did you ever see anyone back peddle while standing on a snowmobile? Cool move. Guy admitted he had "been drinking." Down's mustache was 12 inches from the guy's helmet.... Gimme a sec... I have to stop laughing before I can go on....

Okay. I had my OWN troubles: loosened the Sullivan wheel on the Kat--after 2.0 flight hours in the air (well, some on the ground); and came out of a nasty move with the Twist and flattened her gear--but she's still whole. I have to redo the firewall, too. Seems a bit weak. Nothing an overnight chore won't fix. And the Twist started her old habit again: flaming out with inverted loops at less than half throttle. But I NEVER walked as far as Down's troddin' today. Never. That'll keep HIM humble a while--at least 'til... well, maybe morning.

The pictures of Down walking to his Hirundo across the pond and coming BACK from his walk for the Twist are both long telephotos, so it's a far greater distance than it looks. The picture of Down working on the Hirundo is not telephoto. Note the Kevin's P-40 waiting to go up. He did a fine job with it. Rick was too hungover, he said, to fly.

Tomorrow I get to maiden the Rutan Voyager Long-EZ.

We flew from about 9:30 to 6 p.m. I went through more than a half gallon of fuel. Ah, I hope you all had as much fun. What a day--and Down will NEVER again mention how far I have to walk to retrieve a bird. That's ANOTHER blessing, prolly short lived.

Jack