Thanks KF for the inspiration!  love the T-shirt!

I went to the Sepulveda Basin this morning with the original Ukrainian Resistance, a production Ukrainian Resistance, a Skinny Bomber, a Wright Amount of Wrong, a Giant NoCal Beaufighter and one of the static display model Guillow's Beavers that I built for trade shows 12 years ago. 

The Beaver had been hanging from my ceiling for a decade.  Since it was never meant to be flown it has scale dihedral and a scale size elevator.  For some reason I decided to try to fly it indoors, last Wednesday, at Stonehurst and it flew, not spectacularly but it flew.  So I decided to try it outdoors today.  In dead air, indoors, it will fly but with a 3 mph breeze and that scale dihedral no way.

The Skinny Bomber flew well enough that I sold another one. 

The Wright Amount of Wrong had a bad landing and broke the nose block.  This was a new one since I broke the nose block at Stonehurst on Wednesday hitting the wall.  I decided that this is a design flaw and I am redesigning the nose block, will change the plans, and issue a supplemental nose block kit (free) for anyone that has bought one.

I didn't get a chance to fly the Beaufighter since the wind started to come up and it doesn't like to turn into the wind which can be a problem on this relatively small field.

My last flight of the day was the production Ukrainian Resistance which demonstrated it's usual spectacular climb.  I had a few bad moments when the drift started taking it to the tree line higher than my 30 foot pole would reach but I was flying on an unbraided motor and it bunched at the peg which caused it to stall and come down just short of the trees.

All in all it was a pleasant mornings flying. (Or as my wife puts it, "play time with my friends.")

KF

Went to the Sepulveda Basin this morning to test some models.  It was a beautiful clear, dry morning only there was only one other flier there. I brought the Ascender, Skinny Bomber, Side Effect, Giant NoCal Beaufighter and a Wright Amount of Wrong with the new stabilizer design.  Except for the Wright Amount of Wrong this was the first time I would fly any of them outdoors. 

I flew the Ascender first with a longer motor than I used indoors with about 1500 turns on it.  It went up about 75 feet and caught an Eastward blowing drift. I thought that I would l either tree it or loose it. but it easily cleared the trees along the park road by about 30 feet then the motor bunched at the rear giving it a stall and dethermalized it so it came down between the park road and the trees around the golf course.  That one is going into kit!

I wound the Skinny Bomber with only about 1000 turns in a smaller motor and walked out into the field far enough to compensate for the Eastward drift.  The wind turned around and started blowing West!  I walked  back the other way and launched it.  It started climbing and then the wing came off!  I had been flying it indoors with the wing saddle on by friction and forgot to use some dental bands to hold it on for outdoor flying.  It's so light that no damage was done and since the flight started well I didn't bother to set it up again since I wanted to fly the Beaufighter. 

Don Smith helped me wind the Beaufighter and since it is trimmed for a hard right turn and has a lot of power I walked out about half way into the field and launched it down wind figuring that it would turn back towards the "pits".  Unfortunately, the wind had become strong enough that it couldn't turn into the wind and I ended up chasing it to the West end of the field. 

By this time I realized free flight flying had been blown out and packed up.  At least I didn't loose anything and nothing got broken.  I just have to get up and get out earlier!

KF