Excellent Fort flying, 2-19-17

It was good for me to get back out. It's the first time I've been able to try flying with some success and fun since my pinched neck-nerve incident during a wingover in November. I managed to do all the 45 degree stunts well, but still can't do anything that requires looking up higher than that. Even the low stunts were shocking me some from the waist down, but I'm getting a little more used to it. It only happens when I'm flying, how strange is that. But the exercise and camaraderie was refreshing and so was finishing the day once again with a smile on my face.

70 degrees with shifty thermals driving the RC guys mad. "How do you control line guys manage to fly in this wind!?!?" Lol, they always say that. We had a good turnout for a change. Three RC guys were there all day. You'll see them in the videos and pictures.

I flew two flights with the Wind warrior Cardinal, careful on the first flight, and only a few assorted types of loops, and it took me a bit of stick time to stop stumbling around. On the second flight I flew PA style loops, inside, outside, squares, both ways, decent 8s and triangles. I bailed on the exit loop of my sq. 8 only because they were getting rounder, so I just said screw it and flew on around. I didn't do them in order, rather, I did them when I felt confident enough for each one.

Y'all may recall I've said a few times that some day Watt's old fuel soaked, rickety and oft-repaired Cardinal ARF may start falling apart in flight... Yeah, well... today was the day. When I took off, and during my level flight, I felt it bump. Like it feels if a pair of line connectors comes unstuck. Wayne, like any decent pit-man, says they were not kinked at his end while I was putting on the handle. And I walk the lines out constantly tight and closely look at the handle connectors after I'm in position. Oddly the plane didn't really jump either. So I flew all the stunts I described and came into the outside square loops. It did suddenly start hunting for a lap somewhere in there, but it quit with me blaming myself. But it was unusual for this plane. On the second of the two loops, when it came time to pull out of my vertical dive, I pulled on the handle and nothing happened. I yanked it and it started to turn but clobbered the ground. Old repairs and the soggy front end broke off.

Wayne used his inspector skills and we found no convincing problem. One flap was off its coupler, but not ripped off. I am sure it wasn't me, and I'm usually pretty honest with myself after a wreck. And I've had a lot of them. Looked like 2 laps worth of gas left in the tank.

The good news is, I have a spare LA .46. And I have a dusty Nobler just sitting waiting for glue and a power plant. FP .35 or .40 depending on the weight. As for right this minute, the Shoestring is the only true stunter in the fleet. The Twister is a couple of weeks away now that the wing is finished, but I'm very dubious about flying it. I'm pretty sure I'll just let Wayne fly it while we're trimming, and see how I feel after that.

I feel so much better after finally getting out to fly and being successful in my conservative way. I'd say we got the good out of the day. This will help me regain some strength and it gave me a much-needed happiness boost.

I gotta go to bed now. I'll give y'all the video/photo-journalistic version tomorrow.
Rusty





Oh yeah, and look at the new headers on my Yak. Howard Rush printed them for me.