The sun was warm the wind was manageable and I got to fly from noon until dark on both Saturday and Sunday!! It was about time the rain fell during the week and let the weekend alone. I got to fly my plane on Saturday and my heli on Sunday for the first double header weekend of the year. What fun!! Now if it wasn't over an hour from home to either field it would be perfect.

Hope you guys had a great weekend too.

Each week, I visit an isolated field and fly for a solid 5 hours burning up a half gallon of fuel. I go out early in the morning when the wind is light and most other flyers have to earn a living. Consequently I don't have to concern myself with field etiquette and frequency conflicts. My only problem is my spot is an hour away, but it's the best site around! One can't have every thing!

Ciao,

Eagle Al[8D]

Flew Sunday -- took 5 planes to the field & flew four -- it was too windy & turbulent to test fly my modified Smith Miniplane bipe. Lots of fun hovering in the wind & did a harrier landing with a Superstar hot-rod.

I crashed, but have already rebiult most of it. The only reason it isn't 100% rebiult is because i have till next weekend to do it. This week i am going to the lake

Friday night was perfect. It was the first day with winds under 5 mph that I can remember. The T28 looks great buzzing around real low. But I don't fly that low unless it is very calm. And the evening light is great. I actually got the hang of sucking the flaps up quickly on the touch and goes. It was a blast.

Saturday was 18 gusting to about 25. The Chipmunk handled it well. I have had a small problem with the incedence. The wing was about 1/2 degree positive and the elevator trim was so much that axial roles were wobbling. I had thrown in 2 degrees of down thrust to counter it, but then I didn't like the way it rounded the top of loops. So I had worked on the saddle and managed to get the wing withing 1/4 degree of zero. The Chippy flew much better and trimmed nicely. I noticed the ailerons both looked just a schoshe low, so I turned thier clevises out one turn each. Bingo, she like that. So this week I removed one degree of down thrust. Oh, and I worked on the tank. It was starving in certain attitudes with ten minutes on the tank. But I was landing with enough fuel for about 5 minutes flying left. Turns out the clunk line was too short and not flipping all the way to the sides and top of the tank when rolling or holding a knife edge. And I tweeked the cowl mounts. I drilled out the blocks and CA'ed the an inner Nyrod core into the holes. Now the srews bite good and I don't have to tighten the heck out of them and deform the cowl. So the Chippy had a good makeover this week after all that I learned last Saturday. The incedence is nearly at zero and the down thrust is now only 1 degree. The ailerons are ever so slightly reflexed. This should be just about perfect, I hope. That last degree of downthrust won't come out without a fight.

Sunday got away from me. NASCAR and the couch !! Then rain.

Kingwoodbarney,

I will be out your way this time next month. My daughter is graduating from the University of Houston on May 14th.

Where do you fly? I might try and make a trip there.

2 feilds. Both are just east of Lake Houston. One is off FM1960 east of Huffman, the other is on FM2100 south of Huffman. But you cant see either one from the highway. Houston area has nearly 20 clubs. U of H is a good ways from me. Scobee is public on the west side of downtown. I think there is a group near NASA which might be closer to the U of H , but I don't know them. Crosby has a nice field, Propnuts, their big anual swap meet is tommorrow. Their info is in the AMA mag. IF you stay downtown I would suggest Scobbee Field.

Thanks, if I have time I might check a couple of them out. Distance is not a problem as I wll be driving about 14 hours to get to Houston anyway.

Well, Houston is pretty big. If you aren't used to it, the driving can be a little intimidating here. And boy howdy , can you get lost bad here! It is 4.5 million folks in the area. And the fields are out of the way and kind of hard to find. And they tend to be way out in the sticks or otherwise low rent. You can find yourself in a bad place in a hurry . Be careful.

I traveled the Houston area for my job for about 3 years so I know what you mean. I think I have been to some of the worst they have to offer. I can't wait until my daughter is gone from there, in about 4 or 5 weeks.

I know for a fact that Houston's worst can't hold a candle to East St. Louis though. Even the police won't go in there, but I have......ONCE!!

I hope you have another good weekend.

Our club hosted a two-day all electric fly-in, so I spent approximately 16 hours in the warm, hot sun And loved EVERY minute of it!

Jerry

PS NewtoRC, where do you fly? RCRC??

Last weekend it was 75 degrees and sunny this week it was light snow with a high of 40 degrees

Just shows you what Kansas weather is all about

Sounds about the same as here in Northern Alabama. Weekend before last was sunny and hot and last weekend was 25-30 mph winds and highs in the 50's but wind chills in the 30's to low 40's. To make matters worse, my heli club had a fun fly in Huntsville with many of the top pilots in the country in attendance. Even with the cold and wind they still put on a heck of a show! Sure wish it could have been a little more comfortable.

Boy , it was blowing today. 20 gust to 30 and a high of 67. My club had a fun-fly scheduled for today. I imagine it was more of a cook out.
I stayed home and did chores and worked on the new Bananza.

Went to Top Gun Sat. a little windy.....got hot.....planes were outstanding with pilot skills to match.....show, demo was the best I've seen

I tried to go out today, but me and my instructor called it off due to windy conditions. I think i will go out with him sometime this week

Another rainy day on Saturday and windy on Sunday made for less than ideal conditions for flying. However, I managed to do a little flying on Sunday. I started off with a couple of flights with my heli at our club in Huntsville and then an afternoon flight with a new Seagull Models Space Walker at our airplane club in Woodville. The Space Walker was purchased second hand but never flown and was powered by an OS 40LA. The first flight showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the model was underpowered. The engine ran great, but the takeoff roll was long and climbout was hazardous as the plane threatened to stall several times until enough airspeed was achieved which seemed to take forever. Once in the air, almost full power was needed to make the plane handle nicely. It flew nicely after trimming until the engine started to sputter and finally went dead. That is just what you need on a maiden flight of a new aircraft, a 20 mph crosswind and a dead engine! Even with these conditions, the landing was fine with only a little bit of a hard touchdown. Nothing was damaged and after checking the engine, I believe that the problem is in the fuel tank. I will check it out and be ready again for next time.

I will be unable to fly for the next couple of weeks as I will be attending my daughter's graduation from pharmacy school in Houston. So all of you think of me when you are having fun on the next two PERFECT weekends!


Good Flying to all.

Saturday was shot, and then frustrating. Cold front blew in Friday night/Saturday morning and I woke up to temps in the 30's with an uncomfortable north wind. Didn't get out. Saturday evening was worse. I was already tied up with projects at the house so I couldn't get out, so of course it warmed up and winds totally died out in the evening. Good flying weather, but I couldn't make it.

Sunday made up for it. Was in the 50's and overcast, but no wind at all. I went out and figured it would just be a morning of talking with buddies in the stands. I pretty quickly started clearing up a bit so I managed to get 6 fantastic flights on my own planes. And I got my student where he made his first landings. So it turned out to be a great day!!!!

RCKen,

I am glad someone got in a decent day of flying. I hope I can get a few when I return. It has been a miserable year here since last November or so with rain every couple of days followed by wind and cold. We had a very mild winter, but it just won't go away. I am sure it will turn into extreme heat in the next week or so. Seems like we just can't get a comfortable weekend to just play.

RAIN [:'(] all weekend, plus SNOW [X(] this AM. A bit ticked[:@]

Had some good flying Saturday morning! ~50 degrees, light wind right down the runway. The Irvine .53 in my GP Extra died a few weeks ago so put in a well-used Irvine .46. Still flew well. The high point was taking out the Rambler 45 that I hadn't flown for over a year. I wanted to put it up for sale so wanted to make sure all was working well. What a lovely plane to fly! Has my vote for the best sport plane. It will be hard to part with.

I sure do not miss the Northern Ontario weather!!

Murray

Sunday morning packed the Midwest Super Stearman in the wagon. Not much space left but managed to squeeze in my Phoenix Robin, a small ARF in which I have a 25FX.

No wind at home, but when I got to the strip (which is close to the coast) there was a gusty wind blowing right across the strip. Haven't flown the Stearman for quite a while and I want some stick time under better conditions, so it stayed in the car.

The Robin is not the best thing to fly in a wind due to its size and the fact that it's pretty twitchy. The upside is that it was cheap, I've had it a long time and there's no pressure when I fly it. Anyway, fly it I did and had a good mornings flying, putting it down every time in the middle of the strip when other, larger planes were having difficulties. Finally had to quit when I found that part of the sticky backed covering material was bored with hanging out with the plane and was looking to go off on its own

All in all, a good day even though I didn't fly the Stearman (Barbie and her friend were most disappointed they didn't get to fly). Heading for winter over here, in a month or so may need a sweater on a cold morning until the sun comes up!


Terry

Redback,

You are going into what we are trying hard to get out of. I hope you have a short and mild winter and get back to some great weather.

Some day I would like to go "down under" and fly with you and your mates.

Hmmmm. Is flying "down under" the same as flying inverted here in the Northern Hemispere? Do you have to apply down elevator to fly level? And do flat spins spin in the opposite direction??



Of course I'm just kidding. It just struck me as funny when he said that!!

I never thought about that.....HMMMMMM....I better start practicing!!