My choice for Baylands Bird of the Month is the red-winged blackbird. Big flocks of them are scouring stretches of grass for seeds and bugs.

I don’t remember seeing them last year, but they were probably all around while I was fixated on my primitive flying skills.

The bright red epaulets on the males are striking. The males travel in large fast-moving groups, foraging.

Looking for a picture on the web, I learned that it’s one of the most abundant North American birds and that it loves wetlands.

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Rancho San Antonio. Wednesday I went to Rancho San Antonio to fly and to meet Ron Fikes, who had offered to provide me with templates for his excellent blue foam Starfighter.

I’ve never flown at RSA, so I was a little timid, but the morning was perfect: sunny and wind-free.

The perfect plane for the occasion was the Starfighter, so I launched it and flew high while I became familiar with the airspace.

I centered myself on the pilot line. Just behind me, slightly to the right, I could just see the frequency board.

Every minute or so I thought someone had come up behind me, and I turned to look. It was always the frequency board.

Every new field is a challenge.

Mower Races. Last week, we were displaced from our usual spot at Baylands because the park was testing potential new employees on a lawn mower race course which threaded through our adopted picnic spot.

So we moved from the right side of the Great Meadow to the left side.

What seemed like a small change was surprisingly big. Doug, who has rejoined us on a semi-regular basis, twice hit a tree. I also hit a tree. It’s been months since either of us hit a tree, but the change of perspective fooled us badly.

The wind was strangely lively, too. Seems that it rolls and tumbles as it negotiates the trees at the left of the field.

Now I was across town, flying at a new hard-pack airfield with a big depression running in front of me, left to right, and a frequency board sneaking up behind me.

Regardless, the Starfighter flew well. As I flew, I noticed that a group of flyers to my left were flying home-built planes, several made of blue core foam, wings and flying saucers painted in cartoon styles.

Jellyfish in Space. The sky reminded me a bit of the jellyfish display at the Monterey Aquarium: brightly-colored slow-moving alien creatures floating in space.

After my first flight, Ron said that pilots with Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) planes usually fly to the left of the frequency board, while those flying home-brewed foamies and built-up planes generally fly to the right.

“Where should I have flown?” I asked, smiling. “After all, I bought this as an ARF, but it looks home-made.”

“You were in the right place,” he answered. “In the middle.”

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Site News. When I started this blog, I figured I’d update it at least once a week, no problem.

Then I took over the PCC website, and found myself up to my neck in web publishing.

Aside from remodeling that website once, twice, three or four times, I’ve been busy publishing lots of fresh photo pages there every month. In case you missed them, here are a few of the best:

• PCC Egg Drop
• A Visit to Jake’s Garage
• Lake Hennessey Float Planes
• Combat Wings: Battle of Britain.

You’ll also find about 50 video clips, many featuring excellent flying, in the Photo Galleries section.

So I’ve fallen back to a slower pace here.

But I’ll continue to update this site regularly. Within the next few weeks I intend to remodel it with more flexible software. I’m planning to switch to WordPress, an excellent blogging tool.

So far, the biggest gotcha is figuring out how I’m going to manage photo galleries, but I’m determined to work it out. And, of course, importing all the blog entries into their new home. I’ve got about 1/3 in place so far…

Tags: Airplanes, Baylands, Birds, Flying, Radio Control, Rancho San Antonio, Wind.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Baylands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.