The scene was Saturday 10am. I was lying under my car changing the oil.
>From that vantage point it would typically be hard to get a good feel for
the prevailing wind. The rock wall, which stood only 3 feet from the car,
furthered my isolation from the wind even more. Yet as I was reaching for
the second drain plug (yes, my car has two), I suddenly realized it was
windy. At 10 in the morning, wind! A very good sign. My hopes went up a
notch. Later BASHer Tim called to report that the weather forecast called
for 15-20knots on Sunday. At which time I, a confirmed pessimist, actually
got optimistic.
Consistent with the season, Sunday dawned gorgeous. I loaded my car with
glee and genuinely enjoyed the drive to Banos. When I arrived I was
delighted to see the wind was coming from the north. This direction
corresponds to my favorite Banos slope!
I arrived to find no one at the slope. I was the first to arrive. This
seemed curious. It's a rare day when you can beat BASHer Charlie to the
slope. Then as I was starting to unload I noticed there were folks farther
down the road. Turned out I wasn't the first to arrive. They were just
flying near the end of the road. There are a few flyable spots past the
typical north site and they had set up at the second to the last one.
The "almost last" site is an interesting slope whose only real advantage
are the handy shade trees. They make the location very comfortable for
smaller groups. The actual lift at the slope however, was unremarkable. We
soon moved to the typical north site.
Luck is often called upon to explain random chance. Certainly, when it
comes to the something such as the wind it's an understandable choice.
However, in our case I don't buy it. I'm convinced that there has been
influence from above. God has smiled on us at the BASHes because we have
had a whopping 17 months IN A ROW with decent or better wind! SEVENTEEN!
However, Sunday's BASH came millimeters (angstroms?) from breaking this
streak. The wind at 1:00pm was light. It only got lighter from there. For
many it was as good as zero. However, for those with light HLG's it
remained flyable nearly all of the day. Much of that time was flyable for
Mongo Juniors and DAW 126's. Light combat wing could make a few passes
occasionally.
I was fortunate to have a "new" (new to me) HLG! The plane was a gift that
I had nearly turned down. It's a Poquito from Blue Feather models. When it
was offered to me the wing was broken in three pieces. I wasn't too
interested but was eventually convinced. It sat in my garage untouched for
months. Then, two weeks ago, for some strange reason I just started to put
it back together. I don't know why I chose then to assemble the plane but
now I'm glad I did. THANK YOU CHARLIE! Thanks to the Poquito, I was able to
rack up 2 hours, 20 minutes flying time on my Tx's timer! It turned out to
be the sweetest little flyer and it kept me in the air! At times when only
the Maple Leaf's were flying.
Speaking of the Maple Leaf, this was the plane of choice (along with it's
brother the Encore) for the conditions. These planes are the cat's pajamas!
They really are as good as folks say they are. I loved watching and flying
them.
Lunch was provided by BASHer Mike and his wife Katie. Thank you guys! You
made it seem like home.
Several BASHers had the new flying wing from Pat Bowman known as the Sonic.
I flew it from a bungee and it was very nice in every aspect that I could
test with nearly no slope lift. Apparently this plane is intended for
dynamic soaring. I can't wait to see it get cranked up on the back side.
The neatest plane of the day was a scratch built B-25 electric. Clark used
the gear from his B2 bomber to make a 20" span B-25 out of pink foam that
weighed in at 6 ounces. It was impressive and actually flew well. However,
we found out that it didn't like flying with only one engine. It was only
marginally yaw stable and would do a vicious tip stall with only the
slightest provocation after loosing one engine. Kudos to Clark for his
ingenuity. This is what modeling is all about.
I had asked for "good flyable wind" and at the end of the day I had been
given over two hours of exactly that. There were new planes to watch and
fly, plus, a hot lunch right on the slope! It was a great day.
Bill Swingle
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Pleasanton, CA
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