Control line Stunt Heaven!

Boy it was beautiful today. We got there early in case we had to mow, but it was already done by Happy Gilmore, our club's faithful maintenance member. The wind was rock steady about 8-10 MPH with stunts off to the side of our beloved life-giving star.

The Ukey was all fixed up... again  this time with a new elevator and control horn. I spent so much time on it, I never got around to making the external plumbing on the Oriental look professional. It has a goofy looking overflow vent poking out the side, but it works fine. And my feared fuel problem was non existent. Last time I had switched to Sig 10/20 and it had a scary lean run. Thank goodnes it's an ABN engine, so no damage. I spiked the fuel with 2% castor since my usual Powermaster is 10/22. It ran beautifully with a minor change in the needle. I must have just ingested some weed seed on the rollout on that awful flight last week. I love this FP40, it almost sounds like a high buck piped engine, it mildly 4-2s like I've never had one before almost all the way up to the end where the horsepower maneuvers are. It turns on going up and turns off coming down. Somewhere between 5.1-5.4 second laps. The engine run time today was about 5-1/2 minutes.

I put up several flights on the Ukey and I'm pretty sure it will serve me well in Saturday's Profile event. I got the imaginary pattern points on most of my flights, and Finally made a 40 point landing. At least that's what I awarded myself. I'm getting better at that. I flew the Oriental conservatively and aborted the second half of the Vertical 8 and one other, maybe the outside square. When I abort the overheads it's usually because I don't cheat far enough behind myself on top, so I don't feel comfortable continuing through the exit. I'm pretty sure I won't do that in the contest. Surprisingly enough the Horizontal Square 8 is my most proficient maneuver now aside from round loops and the round H8.

The last two trips to the field have ended with me feeling frustrated. I hate that. But we took it slow and I flew as well enough. I have flown better at times, but we had fun and finished up with that feeling in tact. So I'll go into this weekend feeling competent and trusting my equipment. Can't do any better than that. And two Saturdays later, we have the Bob Shaw first annual Stunt only contest on the last day of the Joe Nall at Triple Tree Aerodrome, and I'm really excited about that. Just a day trip. Drive up, less than 2 hours, fly and come home.

Wayne flew his Cardinal and Pathfinder today deciding which he'll fly in H'ville. He'll judge Saturday and I'll fly in profile that day. Then we'll both fly intermediate Sunday and team up pitting for each other. That's great since we have our routine down pat, and he can crank the Oriental for me. Something that's a problem after popping my bicep tendon last Summer. That rotating motion is the main thing that injury affects. The FP40 is a very easy engine to crank. Easy to flood, but Ken told me how to quickly un-flood it, and we got to try that procedure today. It really works. Thanks Ken. Wayne chose the Pathfinder with its Supertigre 45, a very sweet combo. And he flies it like it's locked onto rails. I predict first place for him. He's never won a stunt trophy since beginner and rarely gets to fly at contests.

So, unlike ever before, I have all my trimming done, I can fly my planes fairly well, and all of my equipment is pretty organized so I can relax the rest of the week. Go in fresh. Yeah!
Rusty