Copter Crash Course

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

Eileen adjusts the Honeybee, watched by Emily and Mary. Annie takes a picture.

Eileen adjusts the Honeybee, watched by Emily and Mary. Annie takes a picture.


Looking for help, Eileen showed up at Baylands late in the morning Thursday.

She had a helicopter, an Esky Honeybee, and she wanted to learn to fly it in one month. More precisely, she wanted her 16-year-old daughter, Emily, to learn to fly.

We helped her sort out her gear. She had two bad batteries, a flaky charger and a helicopter in need of tuning.

Danh Le checked out the helicopter, made adjustments and flew it. Mark Gitin loaned her a battery to enable the flight. Oscar Yatco, Rick Carmichael and David Galvin also helped her out.

She came back Friday and spent a bit of time hovering the helicoper close to the ground.

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Return to Half Moon Bay

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

On a perfect day at Half Moon Bay, Matt Abrams works out with his Multiplex ParkMaster.

On a perfect day at Half Moon Bay, Matt Abrams works out with his Multiplex ParkMaster.


The Peninsula Channel Commanders opened its new Richardson Field for flying Feb. 1, but what with weather, remodeling and other distractions, I hadn’t had a chance to visit since a series of work parties in January.

Wednesday, Bruce Crawford, Larry Smith, Matt Abrams and I met at the new field for some serious flying.

The weather was perfect: cool but so sunny that I was quickly peeling off layers of clothes, shrinking from Michelin Man to more human proportions. This is a lovely flying site, just off of Highway 1 about 4 miles south of Highway 92.

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A Different Wetlands

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

A sea otter relaxes in the sun.

A sea otter relaxes in the sun.

The day after my 1,000,004th birthday, my friend Lee Smith and I went to Moss Lading to take a boat tour of the Elkhorn Slough (“slough” is pronounced “slew”), a National Estuarine Research Reserve managed by the California Department of Fish and Game.

Like Baylands Park, Elkhorn Slough is a restored wetlands area. The 105 acres of wetlands adjoining Baylands Park are a largely dry marsh. Elkhorn Slough is much bigger and wetter: at 1,400 acres, it’s the largest tract of tidal salt marsh in California outside of San Francisco Bay.

Mammals we’re most likely to see at Baylands are ground squirrels, rabbits and gophers. In Elkhorn Slough, it’s sea otters, sea lions and bay seals. I’m sure there are many small mammals along the shore, but they’re hard to spot from a boat.

After buying tickets from the captain of the Elkhorn Slough Safari, we boarded a 27-foot pontoon boat — a box riding on a pair of floats — along with about 25 other sightseers. Our guide and captain was Yohn Gideon, a local naturalist and birder.

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Three Maidens & a Dwarf

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Harold’s handsome plane makes a low pass.

Harold’s handsome plane makes a low pass.


This poor blog has suffered from the dislocation and dust of our ongoing Bathroom Remodel, not to mention a run of bad weather which has kept me from flying.

Monday was glorious, though.

Our contractor and his crew, who are Vietnamese, observed Chinese New Year (Year of the Ox) Monday and Tuesday, so the house was quiet and I didn’t need to solve the Goat, Wolf, Cabbage, Boat problem.

The temperature was chilly (low 37°, high 60°) but the bright sun felt at least five degrees warmer. Winds were light.

Time to fly!

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Mike’s Cessna 140

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

The Cessna flies in a sunny, blue sky: perfect winter weather.

The Cessna flies in a sunny, blue sky: perfect winter weather.


A few weeks ago, Mike Nadler bought himself an early Christmas present, an almost-ready-to-fly Ultrafly Cessna 140, which he ordered from a Taiwan dealer.

After a long idyllic warm fall, December temperatures have plummeted into the the 40s and 50s, slowing down our building days and nipping into our flying time, especially when rain reinforces the wintry weather.

So it took Mike awhile to finish the plane—he builds in an unheated storage space with an open garage-style door—but today he brought the Cessna to Baylands for its maiden flight.

The day was overcast, just starting to clear, when Mike took off.

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