Norman writes, “Graupner Cumulus, a 1960s design long out of production. Hobbico came out with a later model which resembled it, but not in the same class performance-wise.”

I started this blog for the same reason I often do things: I couldn’t figure out why people write blogs.

Writing a blog, it seemed to me, is like standing blindfolded on a soapbox in a public park, shouting things into the air. Maybe there’s a crowd here. Maybe not. I wouldn’t know.

But this same sort of puzzlement led me to start a computer bulletin board back in the last century. Why do people devote their computers to things like this? I wondered. So I dedicated a computer, wrote an amusing welcome message and started a few discussions.

What I discovered then was community. A different sort of crowd than I was used to. Ephemeral people who waltzed and danced the tango in the message sections, mostly people I wouldn’t physically meet for a year or two, but people who quickly became my friends.

Now I’m going backwards, starting with a community of people I know in the real world — flyers at Baylands and, more recently, at the PCC field in Half Moon Bay.

The intersections of those physical places and this virtual place are gratifying and often surprising.. Bill Smith and Bill Howlett, noontime Baylands flyers, send me encouraging emails about the blog. People notice their pictures in the Faces section, and enjoy correcting me when I mangle their names.

Bruce and Mike often comment favorably on the blog, but I discount them because they’re my friends. What else are they going to say?

Enter Norman McKinstry, whose daughter Pam is a friend. He earns a slot as my New England correspondent (he’s recently moved to New Hampshire from Cape Cod) with a surprise email one day:

Pam from Carmel Valley sent me your website which I am enjoying very much. I have long envied the site at Half Moon Bay which I have seen in movies & magazines thru the years. I would like to know which direction the wind usually takes. Slope soaring with or without motor (electric) has been my first passion in RC for 40 plus years. It is to me the most pure & enjoyable form of flying with feet still on the ground. Have you heard of LSF? League of Silent Flight? Level 5 is the hardest, but easily achieved these days with Lithium batteries, etc.

I know that Norman is a hearty 82 years old (83 on the Ides of March, says Pam), and that he still flies regularly and teaches newcomers how to fly.

But let Norman tell it:

We moved from Cape Cod a month or so ago, & I left behind 4 or 5 fledgling flyers whom I was training. Some are soloing… Some not! ALL had EASY STAR EPP electrics with good 8-cell battery packs of NiMh, or Lithium. This is a fine craft for all to enjoy. One cohort put in a Brushless motor & folding pusher prop so he can slope soar when conditions permit. Some students have bought the larger EASY GLIDER w/motor etc. Another terrific performer. We also recover crashes from the surf — but not surf like yours.

I responded to Norman in an email, but I’ll repeat and amplify the answers here. The wind blows various directions, often from the west but sometimes from the north or south. In eight or so visits, I have yet to see it blow from the east. No, I hadn’t heard of the LSF, but I’ve now visited the site now and know something about it. And I suggested that Norman look at the sailplane and glider sections of BayRC.

Back to Norman:

When I departed CCod… I gave away ALL my larger Sailplanes to best buddy Mario Borgatti. They included 100-inch Great Planes Spirit with Picolario thermal sensor & walkie-talkie which spoke to you as your glider gained or lost altitude!!! I also gifted him a 112-inch Graupner Cumulus… which I had for 32 years!!! A thing of beauty no longer made nor seen. It had swept back wings, all-flying elevator & Rudder… Unbreakable plastic fuse called “Fertigrump” by Graupner. It is as good today as when new… a credit to durability, not my skills!!!!

This was my favorite sloper of all time. I even made different sets of balsa-covered Foam wings… using different airfoils such as RG-15 & Epplers for more speed. It is the most graceful bird to watch.

Altho some of the higher-performing sailplanes are big bucks…NE sailplanes used to sell the Sparrow in 3 configurations. I had two different sizes of Sparrow…one with Hi-tech moulded Kevlar wings (hollow)…and the larger Sparrowhawk. These were fast…topping 100 MPH when winds were high.

I did notice some people’s faces with names well known in Glider circles. I have met Darryl Perkins, Miller, Smith & some of the others at the 1983 & 85 nats which were at Westover AF base in Mass.

These people have skills beyond compare. In fact, a neighbor of mine was Helmut Lalke, a German immigrant who placed 1st & 3rd in 2-meter & unlimited Sailplane competition. He introduced his own computer-controlled design of Electrostatic wing levelers in a 2-meter sailplane & came 3rd in the larger size unlimited with the same aircraft. In all the years I flew beside him he never failed to not land his sailplane in his left hand!!! (Double negative but U know what I mean.)

Yeah, I do know what you mean, Norman. Double positive, actually. Very happy, and perhaps a bit breathless.

I’ve been listening to the Shins this past week. I love the new album, “Wincing the Night Away,” and it’s sent me back to their earlier, also beloved, albums. Driving back from flying at Half Moon Bay last Wednesday, I fell again under the spell of their song “Pink Bullet,” from “Chutes Too Narrow.”

Since then it’s been a book you read in reverse
So you understand less as the pages turn
Or a movie so crass
And awkwardly cast
That even I could be the star.

Perhaps that’s why people write blogs: to star in their backwards-writ books or awk-cast movies.

Tags: Airplanes, Baylands, Flying, Music, People, Radio Control.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 4th, 2007 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Elsewhere. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.