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.
I launch my little wing, punch Memory and then Start/Stop on my talking timer.
It begins silently counting down.
Next to me, Bic is flying his Formosa. He’s been in the air for a few minutes already.
Bic was the first person I saw using these $12 talking timers.
At first I thought they were weird, intrusive, gimmicky, annoying.
I enjoy a quiet flight. Conversation is often enjoyable, but silence is a pleasure, too.
The timer was intrusive. But … I like to time my flights, and I really don’t want to take my eyes of my plane while I’m flying.
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.
Merry 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.
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.
New Colors. Browse 1306 pictures in the Photos section, updated Jul 3.
The Other Direction (8/17/07)