February 2 2019 (More)

In Al Bleyenberg’s absence, our safety officer commanded me to write a morning report of activities at the CVRC field:

We came, we flew, we crashed. (Well I did anyway!)

Bill Holder got in a lot of stick time with his Commander, flying in SAFE mode down low, but pulling a lot of loops, rolls and upside-down flying up high. He also made a lot of approaches using 1/2 and full flaps, proving just how slowly that bird can fly. He managed a wing drag once, but other than that, no other close-calls.

Jim Bates brought along his “Showtime 50”, a nice looking gas-powered 3D plane. I had a little trouble figuring out what the thing was in his hands though. It looked a little like my portable short-wave radio receiver with it’s crazy-long antenna, and it operated in the 72 mHz band. How quaint! Shades of model flying’s glory days . . . but it flew quite well, even though THE MAN seemed slightly nervous.

Dick brought a sailplane along, and had it in the air very gracefully, but I failed to get the name of the model. Guess I was too busy flying?

Then came Wayne Windsor with his beautiful white scratch built biplane. I was really anxious to see that thing fly, but alas, Wayne had not replaced the velocity stack in the engine after cleaning up the motor at home in preparation for the flight. So sad, but just looking at that thing was a treat. Wayne’s a real craftsman.

One of the “other Al’s” in the club decided to break out his para-glider wing chute, or whatever you call that thing, and wrestle with in in the wind. Apparently you need to do that every so often to avoid problems? Geez, I don’t know, but he got a real workout. I have some video that I’ll put up after editing.

And then there was me. Got the new Parkmaster in the air for 3 batteries worth, and while it flew well, I ended the morning with a semi-soft crash that broke a carbon fiber spar in the landing gear. Nothing I can’t fix fairly easily. I also spent a lot of time wrestling with my “Crack Beaver”, and I’m happy to say no damage in about 12 minutes aloft. Certainly a new record for me. My slowpoke also spent a lot of time in the air, and again, no damage. Happy about all that.

Bill and I left around noon, but we intend to be back at it tomorrow.

Hope you’re felling better, Al!

Lonnie

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