June 11th, 2008
On Wednesday, Tom Guerrette brought his red Fly Fly BAE Hawk jet to fly at Baylands.
The day was windy, but this is a hefty plane, big enough to shrug off the wind.
“You shouldn’t take pictures,” Tom smiled. “It’s not painted yet.”
The Hawk did look mottled. Tom had spackled it to fill in dings and dents and hadn’t yet applied makeup. But it was mostly a nice bright red, and I’ve seen Tom fly much more homely aircraft than this spaceship-graceful speedster.
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Tags:
Airplanes,
Baylands,
Crashes,
Flying.
Posted in Baylands | 6 Comments »
June 3rd, 2008
Last weekend, Harold Hasselbach drove to Nevada, seeking wide open spaces where he can fire his cannon.
He ended up in Carson Sink, about 60 miles east of Reno. According to Wikipedia, Carson Sink is a 300 square mile playa in the Lahontan Valley of northwestern Nevada. It’s the central portion of prehistoric Lake Lahontan, which existed in northwestern Nevada at the end of the last ice age, between 20,000 and 9,000 years ago.
As Harold says, “I finally found a place where there are no crowds.”
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Tags:
Airplanes,
Flying,
Photos.
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May 30th, 2008
Thursday afternoon, Suzette went for a two-hour ride in a helicopter, courtesy of the San Jose Police Department.
She won the ride in an auction benefiting the San Jose Museum of Art, where she volunteers as a docent.
Taking off from the NASA area of Moffett Field, two SJPD officers hosted her on an aerial tour of San Jose, during which they flew over our house. Sadie and I didn’t realize that she was overhead, otherwise we would have run outdoors, barking with excitement.
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Tags:
Flying,
Helicopters,
Photos.
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May 26th, 2008
When a 6-ounce foam wing runs into a 3 lb. 450-class helicopter, this is what happens.
Fortunately, Danh Le’s T-Rex helicopter survived the encounter and landed successfully, suffering only a nick in one blade.
The Mini SpeedWing lost its right elevon, about a third of its wing tip and some shreds of foam from the wing itself.
This little wing has proved itself in combat. I’d guess that it’s flown 70 or more combat sessions without suffering serious injury. I’ve rehinged the elevons, Gooped up rips in its foam and resoldered the motor leads. Otherwise, it seemed indestructible.
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Tags:
Baylands,
Combat,
Crashes,
Flying,
Helicopters,
Wings.
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May 19th, 2008
Monday morning, workers at Baylands Park made an interesting discovery: a baby gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer).
I’d guess it was newly hatched. But, like all snakes, it was already able to navigate its environment, looking for food and avoiding threats such as monstrous people.
At this stage in its life, it’s not ready to tackle a gopher. Insects are far more likely prey. And big birds are high on its enemies list.
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Tags:
Baylands,
Photos,
Snakes.
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