We’d stayed late at the park, and the sun was going down. I started packing up my gear.
Suddenly I noticed a very old man sitting at one of the picnic tables.
“How’re you doing?” I asked.
“Aye, ye scurvy dog!” he replied, loudly thumping his left fist on the table. “How many leagues to th’ Rusty Gudgeon?”
I know that Talk Like a Pirate Day is Sep. 19, so he wouldn’t be one of those pirate wannabes.
Maybe he was the real thing.
Inspired by Danh Le’s slingshot-spinning reel hybrid, I searched and found a commercial unit on the web for $89.95 here.
But that seemd unreasonably pricey, so I went shopping.
A trip to Sports Authority yielded the following:
At home I found a 7-inch-long scrap of black acrylic. I drilled six holes, used two pop rivets and two black cable ties and, 30 minutes later, produced the Fetchomatic 3000.
The sky is filling with clouds and we expect rain tonight and tomorrow, so no field trials for at least a day or two.
I look forward to nicer weather and trees filled with planes. 
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The wind rose on Thursday, from calm at 8 a.m. to 20 m.p.h. at noon, with gusts to 25 m.p.h. At around 10 a.m., Bic Tran is flying his two-day-old Mini Mag around the Great Meadow.
The wind has crept up to about 12 m.p.h., not quite hissing through the trees, but quietly shushing out of the north northwest.
Bic’s first plane was a Slow Stick. He built it carefully and learned to fly it well over the course of three months.
But he was bored with it. He sought more of a challenge. He wanted ailerons.
In a week of otherwise perfect flying weather — lots of calm periods and low-wind days — Wednesday was a thrill ride.
At 11 am, the wind was blowing from the west at 20mph, with gusts adding another 5mph or more.
When it’s windy, I’m most comfortable flying a wing. My current favorite is a 24-inch Mini SpeedWing powered by a three-cell 460MAh LiPo battery powering a tiny Feigao brushless motor spinning a 3.5-inch propeller.
I usually fly five days a week from the Pickleweed Place picnic spot at Baylands, but sometimes you gotta leave home.
On Friday, Doug, Mike, Bruce and I visited Rancho San Antonio, another excellent local flying venue.
I’ve written before about RSA and about the challenge of changing perspectives (Doug and I crashed into trees when we were displaced to the Meadowlands picnic area by the park lawn mower test track), but Friday I was again reminded of how much we depend on familiar cues when we fly.
Red Funjet. Browse 1437 pictures in the Photos section, updated Aug 27.
Continuing the Glue (2/9/08)