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I Hate Slow Sticks

Sunday, October 14th, 2007

Dead Slow Stick

The other day, Al Alongi asks me to help him with his Slow Stick. We check and adjust the control surfaces. The right aileron is sloppy—it settles on a slightly different center point after each deflection.

That doesn’t seem like a big problem, since the error is small. We can adjust with a slight twitch of the transmitter stick.

Al is an old-time flyer just getting back into the air. He’s a little rusty and he’s looking for the perfect starter plane.

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Posted in Baylands | 2 Comments »

The Giant Tree Rescue

Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Spaghetti Up a Tree
See more pictures here.

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.

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Posted in Baylands | 4 Comments »

Wing to Wing Combat

Sunday, September 23rd, 2007

Mini SpeedWing

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.

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Posted in Baylands | 3 Comments »

Laughing Latin Dave

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

Laughing Dave

When Dave Melara flies at the Great Meadow, you can hear his enthusiastic glee a hundred feet away at the Pickleweed picnic tables.

It’s why most people know him as Laughing Dave. He’s explosively dramatic, a passionate pilot who audibly celebrates his successes and mourns his occasional disasters.

An engineer, Dave enjoys tinkering with his planes, which range from discus-launch gliders to electric ducted-fan jets.

“Look at that! Look at that!” he exclaims, watching his latest EDF jet go into a silent glide.

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Posted in Baylands | 6 Comments »

Going to a Fun Fly

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Fun Fly

It was billed as a Fun Fly and I wanted to shoot fresh pictures for the PCC website. Also, I thought it would provide a good topic for my blog.

So I drove to the club’s Half Moon Bay airfield on an overcast Sunday morning.

Paul Lum, Mike Peck and Eric Einarsson are there when I arrive, all flying in the breeze.

I take some pictures.

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Posted in PCC | No Comments »

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