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BBOB 2008: Slow Sticks in the Sky

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

Slow Sticks rise into the air like balloons.

The longest day of the year was also one of the hottest: 101° at Sunnyvale.

But the heat didn’t deter determined flyers, who packed the two proximate Pickleweed Place parking bays by 8 a.m.

After all, today was the BBOB: Baylands Battle of the Bay, Pete Lane’s annual celebration of the Slow Stick.

Last year in The Baylands Battle Bash, I wondered why the word “Bay” occurs twice in the title of the event. This year I learned the reason: so Pete Lane can call it “BeeBob,” as he did several times during the day. I had thought it was “BeeBeeOhBee,” which is much less cool.

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Quadrophesia

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

Four Wings

Last October (let’s see… that’s five months ago!) I started building a pair of Mini SpeedWings so Mike Nadler and Gary Morgan could join Dave North and me in foam-slamming combat sessions at Baylands Park.

I finally finished them last night and delivered them this morning.

Why did it take me so long?

Work was speeding along for a few days in October, then I made a mistake.

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The Fall

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

A Walk Around the Park

As flyers, we’re fascinated by gravity. We can’t escape it, but we try to minimize its effects on our aircraft through weight reduction, large lifting surfaces and efficient power sources.

Oh, and good judgment. In the hands of an inexperienced flyer, even a lightweight plane can turn into an earthbound meteor.

As Mike Nadler likes to say, “Gravity, not only a good idea, it’s the LAW!”

On Monday I was walking from my house to my eye doctor’s office—a four-block trip—not thinking about much of anything, particularly not gravity, when my foot caught on an uneven patch of sidewalk and I tumbled forward.

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Disaster Stories

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Dump TruckMerry Leap Year Bonus Day!

I’ve been sidelined for a couple of days with an eye infection but I plan to venture out to Baylands today.

Meanwhile, here are two of my favorite R/C stories.

Mike Nadler told me this Best Crash Story just the other day.

A Pulverizing Mishap. A few years ago, he belonged to a group that flew on a leveled section of a dump site.

One of his friends flew his plane over his head and, as happens, lost orientation and control as the plane passed behind him.

Unfortunately, the plane landed in the bed of a passing dump truck.

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Gary’s Hammer Symposium

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

Four So Far

Saturday, Gary Morgan hosted what he called a “Combat Hammer Build Symposium” at Baylands.

Wikipedia tells me that Symposium originally meant a drinking party but has since come to refer to any academic conference, whether or not drinking takes place.

This academic conference focused on the profile foam Hammer plane, which Gary, Mike Nadler, Rick Carmichael and others have been building and modifying for the past six months or so.

It’s cheap, acrobatic and easy to build: perfect for streamer combat.

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