A few days of crummy weather coupled with an itch to improve the Ups & Downs photo gallery gobbled up my attention span this past week.

I flew Thursday and Friday, hammering out a number of small wing combat sessions with Dave and Bruce. We had some satisfying collisions and are gradually sculpting a set of Combat Rules, none of which is retroactive.

The rules so far:

The goal is to hit an opponent’s wing and cause it to cease flying while you stay in the air.

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My goal for 2008 is to become a proficient helicopter flyer. I’m starting from zero—perhaps less than zero, since I found learning to fly a fixed wing plane so difficult. But after two and a half years I’ve become a capable airplane flyer, and I’d like to stretch my horizon.

In the year 2007, I accomplished two compatible goals: I trained myself to fly lower and much closer. I’m now very comfortable with that style of flying.

I also learned how to fly inverted, another early aspiration.

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Whenever it rains, as it did last night and early this morning, a puddle of slimy mud bars the entrance to the Great Meadow. Compounded from a mixture of clay, goose droppings and water, it’s worse than simple dirt-based mud. One of these days, I’m going to turn a not-on-purpose somersault as I negotiate this hazard.

Wild Combat. In the wake of the storm, Thursday’s north wind was quite frisky, gusting up to about 15mph. Dave and I waged wing warfare for three flights, alternately whacked around, stalled and accelerated by unpredictable blasts of air. We didn’t make much contact—I think we hit each other only once—but agreed that this is the best kind of combat flying.

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After flying combat sessions for about three months, Dave North and I are gradually figuring out Small-Wing Combat.

Mike Nadler liked to say about streamer combat: “The only rule is there are no rules!”

We’ve adopted Mike’s no-rules-rule as a starting point, but you gotta have some definition.

So far, these are the rules:

• In order to qualify for combat, your wing must be 24-30 inches in span.
• If you hit another wing, good! If your hit smacks the other wing to the ground, you score a kill unless you also immediately crash, in which case it’s a no-credit event.
• If your plane lands prematurely it’s a kill, but no one gets credit.
• Flying sessions are 9 minutes in duration. If you’re still able to fly after a premature landing, launch your plane!

Obviously, the rules are in flux as we gain experience. I suspect that as we refine the guidelines we’ll probably add limits on motor size and over-all weight.

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On Saturday, flyers discovered a Swainson’s Hawk trapped in a tangle of monofilament in the Baylands Giant Yuke.

One wing was wrapped tight to its body.

During the past few months, people have tried multiple times to rescue planes from this tree. Some of the attempts were successful. Many were not.

Those efforts left a nasty spiderweb of monofilament snaking through the tree.

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