Pull on your boots: the Great Meadow is squishy. Rain has saturated the ground. Water pools in the lower sections of the field.
My wet-weather footgear is a pair of calf-high rubber boots which I bought at Orchard Supply Hardware a couple of years ago for about $20.
They’ve enabled me to wade into the wetlands slough to retrieve errant planes. And now they let me navigate the spongy turf and slicks of mud with comfortably dry feet.
Using a $30 disposable camera, a 65-cent pic chip, a resistor, some wire and a servo cable, Ben Levitt upgraded his Easy Star with aerial video capability.
See two sample movies.
Learn how he did it, see more videos and get his pic code here.
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.
Wednesday brought early morning rain, but by 10:30 the rain clouds had moved on, leaving a gray sky with occasional patches of blue.
It was a good day to fly: not much wind, relatively warm and I had Baylands mostly to myself for the morning. Mike Bigby came by for a while and flew his HyperFlea. Not what I’d call a crowd.
Four batteries later, I decided to walk around the park while my charger did its stuff. Midway around the circuit, I heard honking and looked around. It was Gary in his olive truck, entering the park.
“Are they still planning to release Pickleweed Red?” I asked.
He said yes, at 1 p.m. In about 45 minutes.
“I’m finishing my walk,” I told him. “See you in about 15 minutes.”
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.
New Colors. Browse 1306 pictures in the Photos section, updated Jul 3.
Winter Style (1/9/08)