I was out at the SOAR Hampshire field today, we had a day that was similar
to the day we had at Nats for RES / NOS, blue sky, BIG air and BIG
sink. Most of the SOAR northsider crew was out, Don Smith, Steve Meyer,
Bill Christian, Rick McCarthy, Sniedley, TK, and Jimbo. Jimbo had his F3B
winch out, and we were getting a bit less launch then we would from a F3J
tow... perfect for practice.
Crank out my first launch and start probing to one of my tree line honey
holes... after a minute or so of transit time, I am down to 200' and
Sniedley mentions that there is huge lift behind us. Great... I head out
further upwind and it's a total sled ride, I am getting pounded. None the
less I divert back to way home that is bound to give me lift, at least I
wont take the same route I got pounded on the way out. Well, I left it TWO
tall grass fields out, no short grass or tape for me... that was a LONG
walk. And the second flight... major poundage as well, they didn't have
the chute back before I was setting up to land. Wow, I mentioned to Jimbo
this was good practice air and he recollected a recent slammed flight.
Of course all this major sink is followed by a very HAPPY cycle, and I had
to laugh, it was like someone called out... "Surfs Up, Dude!"
One model after another launch and getting yanked upward into the sky. So
much for any practice, this is going to be one of those sessions, you could
sense the pilots feeding on the energy and air. I went into one of the
fastest session of thermal looping I have ever had, the snap and energy
burst I was getting over the top was unlike I have been able to rip thru
over and over again. Of course when I am calling out, "Check this out!",
of course everyone else is tearing a hole in the sky too, and saying the
same thing... "look at this", "whoa, check this out!" Jimbo was doing
some move with his Phazer where it looked like a leaf tossing over on
itself, and it was going up. Sniedley was ripping loops with his NYX. I
caught a glimpse of Meyer just making his Escape scream across the
sky. Everyone was taking it way up there, it was just blue sky and it was
very easy to see. After a good 10 or 15 minutes of this and we were way
skied out, Jimbo calls out "Last Down" "Last Down" is a little energy
management skill improvement task we fly on the northside when everyone is
specked out. It can be exciting to watch... just don't watch the other
guy getting squirelly at mach 10 high speed maneuvering on the deck when
your own model is also at mach 10 on the deck... very impressive to see
Jimbos Phazer wingtip to wingtip with my ICON at speed approaching the
field, and hearing the other guys from other sides.
8-) I was first down but made the second place guy look and almost
blink... ;-)
Great day of flying just for the fun of it.
P.S. I was flying a little electric model today at the field as well, I
have LiPO packs and a new charger and, well, OK, I admit it, I like this
electric stuff now!
Jim
Downers Grove, IL
Member of the Chicago SOAR club, and Team JR
AMA 592537 LSF 7560 Level IV R/C Soaring blog at www.jimbacus.net
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