The place was Mulahia. The pilot was some guy named Joe something or other. He's supposedly some big shot; I guess he has won a lot of model airplane contests. He was kind of a quiet dude. The first I saw him he was preparing my friend Gerald's very heavy F3b type plane for a flight. He flew it around for few minutes and then brought it in for a landing. He caught it. It was Joe's first ever flight on a borrowed airplane at a site he had never flown before. A few minutes later Joe launched the airplane again. This time he started doing this weird circular pattern. Up above the horizon away from the slope, back around behind the hill, down into the shallow gully, back up into the wind again. Over and over. Faster and faster. And faster. There is a strand of trees right behind where he was flying. I mean RIGHT behind. You could see the shadow of his airplane on the leaves of the trees. He was coming close. Very close. Gerald's airplane started to make a sound nobody had ever heard it make before. We all learned something that day. Some of us have been following the goings on in this hobby for 20 years or more. This was new. something we have never seen before. We may have to find a new place to park our cars now. The DS grove that Joe Wurts pioneered at Camp Mulahia on the island of Maui a few days ago is small. There are a bunch of trees at the high side. Big trees. There is usually a bunch of cars parked at the low side. Big cars. Some of them are trucks even. A while later I went down to the coast to fly my Patton Mustang. Joe and Ted stopped by. Joe flew my airplane for a few minutes. "Thanks," he said, "Nice airplane, it flies well." I may bronze that airplane and hang it on my shop wall. Not. It's my best sloper. Well, my best foamie sloper at least. I will fly it until I pulverize it. In the meantime I think I need something new. Something that will fly well in that narrow grove at Mulahia... --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.219 / Virus Database: 103 - Release Date: 12/5/00 RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
