The Baylands Battle Bash
See photo gallery here.
Pete Lane is an impresario and master of ceremonies who hosts an annual party at Baylands: BBOB, the Baylands Battle of the Bay.
Only Pete knows why the word “Bay” occurs twice in the title. Perhaps he thought the acronym needed an extra B.
Weapon of Choice. The weapon of choice in this battle is the Slow Stick, a very popular airplane marketed by GWS. It’s cheap, it floats through the air and you can easily find replacement parts—wings, tailfeathers, aluminum or fiberglass fuselage pieces, motors.
You can find the plane online for less than $35, including motor. If you crash it into the ground, you can buy a whole new plane, minus motor, for less than $20.
This was the plane I first tried to fly. Many people have learned to fly with a Slow Stick. I’m not one of them.
12-Second Flights. I used to say that I would count myself happy if I could ever keep a plane in the air longer than the first powered flight of the Wright Brothers: 12 seconds.
During the few seconds my Slow Stick was airborne, it yawed and skewed and skittered in dramatically unpredictable directions as I frantically slammed the transmitter joystick from one extreme to another. “Over Correcting” is the polite term for my early flying style.
Every short flight ended in an awful crash and a broken propeller, and usually lots more damage. The Slow Stick is a lightweight airplane, and its parts are relatively fragile. Most every mishap sent me back to my garage for repairs.
A knowledgeable friend suggested that I’d be better off learning with a flying wing, since they’re resilient and bouncy, and the propeller and motor are in the back, safe from crash damage.
I built a Combat Wing. My friend was right. My flights were still short disasters, but I could pick the wing up, consider my most recent mistake and fly again, right away. This enabled me to learn more effectively. Within a few weeks I had surpassed the early Wright Brothers and soon after I could keep the plane in the air for a span of many minutes.
Fragile? Good! Anyway, the fragility that so frustrated me is a boon for the BBOB. Its events test the delicate Slow Stick frame and the limits of the design, resulting in an excellent spectator event. And the pilots don’t mind, because spare parts are so cheap.
The Slow Stick is an excellent glider. But it’s a clumsy and slow plane and fares poorly in wind. Pete Lane required pilots to outfit their Sticks with floats, which enabled the planes to take off from the uneven grass of the Baylands Great Meadow but added another dose of awkwardness in the air.
He also insisted that pilots use the stock power plant, a brushed motor with limited guts. A motor that burns up if you keep it at full throttle for too long.
About 20 pilots signed up for the event, which was promoted by Pete with a series of hyperbolic cheerleading messages in the Baylands section of the BayRC community website.
Early in the Morning. BBOB kicked off at 8 a.m. with pilot sign-in and plane weighing. Ralph Matile, who supervised the scales, reported a weight range from 16 ounces (Dave North) to 27 ounces (Kevin). Battery size ranged from 910 mAh to 2150 mAh, with most planes using either a 1320 mAh or 2100 mAh 11.1V LiPo battery.
Events began at 9 a.m., starting with All Up Last Down. Pilots applied power for 30 seconds, then kept their Sticks in a glide for as long as possible. The experienced pilots know that there are usually thermals on the far right side of the field, and they soared far higher than their competition.
Next up: Pylon Races, an event that favors the biggest batteries and tests the endurance of these marginal motors.
The Wind Rises. Fun to watch was the 11 a.m. Limbo contest, particularly as the wind began to rise, pushing the lightweight planes hither and yon.
Then came lunch, followed by Spot Landing competition. This was quite difficult, as the wind was now steadily blowing at about 10-15 mph. Nevertheless, the same pilots who had looked good in the Limbo and its predecessors continued to show that they can make even a clumsy contraption look graceful.
And finally, early afternoon brought the Combat session.
The final round of Combat tested the definition of Slow Stick. Bruce Walden flews a biplane Stick. Lightflight Dave launched a Stick encased in carbon fiber shielding with a spinning lawn mower-type blade.
Tails were shredded. Wings lopped off. Planes spiraled earthward. The crowd retreated noisily as a Slow Stick or two plunged to its death.
Every disaster brought a cheer.
A Social Occasion. Aside from the contests, there was a raffle with excellent prizes donated by local businesses, a grand picnic and barbecue and lots of socializing.
The event attracted a crowd of perhaps 150, maybe more.
Pete Lane’s annual fest is the most concrete realization of a tight-knit and friendly community that thrives between the Baylands Park and the BayRC website.
Its lure was sufficiently powerful to convene all six of my so-called Frequent Flyers: Bob, Dave, Mike, Gary, Bruce and, dramatically, Doug. It’s the first time in a month or two or three that we’ve all been in the same place at the same time. That was very nice.
In a lunchtime speech, Pete thanked all the local businesses who sponsored the event, and especially thanked Don Cohn, who created and oversees the BayRC website, a wonderful resource that binds us all together.
I took lots of pictures — more than 1,500. You can see the best here. And if you’d like to read a discussion about the day’s events, go here.
Tags: Airplanes, Baylands, Combat, Flying, Radio Control, Slow Stick, Wind.
June 17th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I enjoyed the event in the utmost, really a wonderful Day.
I think this page is the 3rd diamond on the ring of our flying existence - Baylands Park, BayRc and Ups & Downs. A perfect trifecta.
I made it through three events with no mishaps placing 3rd or 4th I think in the limbo and pylon events, not that placing in these events really matters - it’s all just too much fun being involved.
I did feel like I was in the zone on the limbo course.
The all up last down was not going to be my event as I weighed in with a 2100 and decided to fly with a 1320 at the last minute to save weight. I had been flying with a 2100 during weeks of practice and my plane was most comfortable and balanced with that setup.
I crashed horribly on take off in the spot-landing event such that it put me out of it. I took off into the wind gust that happened along just as my plane was becoming airborne, it shot me straight up, the crowd oohed and aahed. I got the nose down momentarily – thought I was going to make it and another wind gust proved to be too much to deal with. I experienced a ground fault interruption. Damn & Blast!
In the stock combat event I flew like mad trying to hit some thing – anything… fighting upwind, gaining altitude making a turn and diving through the bait ball like a stripped bass on the hunt – nothing – nada! Did this several times for no joy!!! Finally I hit or someone hit me - we twirled a bit – freed up and I was out of control. The wind and structural damage took me back over the crowd of people at an unrecoverable angle and rapid clip - I smacked the ground hard just in front of the bridge. The crash bent the fuse at the point it broke a few minutes later in the unlimited combat. I think I was yelling heads up very loudly – so glad no one was hit.
Ultimate Combat:
My plane was so badly damaged from the prior event all it would do was a left handed tip stall into the ground as Mike threw it. This happened 2 or 3 times - an ignominious end for a proud beast.
I returned home and dismantled my entry – it was broken in half between the tail section and the trailing edge of the wing.
The contest was a long time coming. I found myself devoting a lot of time to practice and trying to ring out all the performance the motor could produce without burning it up. I did manage to smoke a motor and an ESC during the run up to contest time. I also spent considerable time repairing the bamboo stick structure I built to support a battery tray and the plane on the floats.
The Slow Stick is a draggy beast to begin with – adding the floats and flying it was a challenge to say the least.
The rest of it was a stone groove…
June 17th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Well it is an interesting observation with the ‘Bay’ word making twice an occurence in the BBOB acronym.. I’ve been thinking about that (not that there are other things to think about but sometimes you don’t really have a choice!), and came to the conclusion that the spoken ‘Beebopp’ just sounds too good. Or is it the Battle of the Bay Baby in reverse?
June 18th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Way more fun than it looks.
I did succeed in completely destroying my ur-stick. The only disappointment was how early it started falling apart. Prop saver flew off during takeoff of the first event, various other plastic parts and control thingumbobs harried me all day. And this after a series of perfect test flights! I’ve really got to speak to my ground crew.
My advice: hie a new plane to the party. If I do it again, I’ll get the sucker a week before the event and slap on a little more bracing. It’s cool to fly the lightest plane there, but not so great when it falls apart …
Nevertheless, it was a perfect event. The wind breathed a randomness into the events that actually made things more fun. The temperature was perfect, and nobody got hurt. What more could you ask for?
Okay, less Flavored Chips. Nobody likes ‘em.
June 30th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Pete is threatening to change the blogging software, which is overall probably a Good Thing. Be interesting to see how it goes.
June 30th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I do intend to change the software to WordPress, though it’ll take me at least a week, maybe two, to reconstruct the site in WordPress. The new software will handle comments better and give me more flexibility in publishing.
I believe I can do it without affecting URLs for Ups & Downs and without losing any existing content. It is, however, a PITA. But I enjoy a challenge.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Gee, thank you for all of the hard work Pete, by the way, you have a great name!
Reading this article really hits home for me, I put a lot of work into this contest
given, the pre- BBOB and all. This year’s contest was a blast, but went by too fast
for me. I was too busy. I will have to get more help next time. I am glad everyone
pitched in to help a “Brother out “. I am very proud of everyone who came out.
Ethan was stunned to win over $300.00 in prizes, in our raffle. Every year is special
to myself and to the contenders. I really want to thank all of our great L.H.S. and
online hobby shops, who donated $ 1.400.00 in prizes and gift certs! .
I already have some ideas for the next one, but want to see if Mr. Lin is going to
go with a solid foam SS fusalage for 2008. I may have another contest using the
world models E powered P51’s so I will do a probe thread for that. I am fortunate
enough to have such talented people flying with me ( us ) and enjoy your photos
and comentary, Pete, your the best!
Pete Lane
July 14th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Thanks for the nice note, Pete. By the way, you have a great name, too!
I look forward to the next BBOB. Maybe Mr. Lin will come.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:31 am
BBOB 2008 will feature the all new Slow Stick two!
It will have more than twice the wing area and a 15×15 MM stick!
He will have a 15×15 motor mount, and a new Brushless
for her as well. Air photo freaks rejoice! maybe a tow plane? .
Hey GWS Chen, give some to us, we will beta test them to the EXTREME !
Read on and drool……one and one half times bigger is .50 size gas wise.
But it would fly well with a .25 size. Kevins Axi would be perfect.
250-500 watts then.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=713850
Pete
September 15th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Sounds like you-all had a great time! I’m sorry I missed it.. Maybe next year…