Kasra was excited.

He and a group of wing flyers staged an impromptu pylon race last weekend.

“You have to come Saturday,” he insisted. “We’ll do it again, with more people.”

I don’t normally visit Baylands on weekends. It’s crowded and I generally enjoy a two-day break from flying, as fun as it is. It’s a chance to do some repairs, maybe build something new, or just read a book.

But Kasra was insistent, as was Mike Bowns, whose tall Battle Wing banners served as course markers for the pylon race.

So I showed up Saturday with my one flyable Wild Wing and, of course, a camera.

The Great Meadow was crowded with kiters and a school outing and who knows what else. It was really crowded.

After some deliberation, Kasra and Mike Bowns set up a short race course on the far side of the Great Meadow, flanked by kite flyers and the plane-eating wetlands. To add a bit more spice to the challenge, Al Alshamari was flying his giant scratch-built Piper Cub in the very nearby sky.

I joined the crowd in the air and tried to steer my wing around the pylons.

Everyone looked good, except me. I sucked.

Well, maybe some others sucked, too. I didn’t have time to rate anyone else’s performance because I couldn’t figure out where my wing was in relation to the pylons. The far side? Nope. Try again. Miss again.

My turns were wide, I couldn’t keep the plane level with the pylons, my depth perception went flat. I sucked.

So after a couple of minutes I landed and fired up my camera.

Tags: Airplanes, Baylands, Flying, Wings.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 6:26 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.