Really? This is the first flight report by anyone since mine in May! - Fort flying July 17th

Well we got there late. about 3:15 and had to mow the grass. It was mid 90s and a perfect mild steady Southerly breeze straight up the runway. But first we wasted 45 minutes getting my buddy Mike and his Dad through security. I ran my lines out and fueled and burped the Cardinal while Wayne and Mike each flew one flight with their Lekkies. And as they landed, a black thundercloud developed nearby and was slowly blowing towards us. It looked to be fully charged, so we stowed our gear under the small pavilion, and everything still got wet. A chair blew across and landed on my Cardinal and Yak.

Two hours later I hooked back up, but everyone else was dubious because of a massively unstable wind. I did wait a while too, still fueled up. I decided I could handle it and launched with a good fast setting. The laps were still 5 seconds because it went to slow on the upwind side. I knew it was trouble when after a wretched reverse wingover I couldn't even do inside loops with controllable bottoms. I think my 3 insides were 25', 2', and 15' lol. That made me nervous, but I pressed on with the inverted laps. Oh yeah, level laps were awful too. The outsides were somewhat better(I always fly them better on every plane), and the inside squares were as unnerving as the inside loops. Knowing I couldn't control my pullout heights and with a real fear of grocery-bagging the Cardinal I gave up. I flew some lazy 8s and another wingover or two and got bold and pulled off a half decent V8. Then I tried a cloverleaf and ended up running to catch it when turn 1 got completely loose, and so then I just flew it out. No grocery bag needed.

After another hour the wind got better and we all started flying. I was rusty as hell, had lots of trouble with my squares all day, banging the corners too hard and flying short horizontal legs. Even on the last flight, you can see it in the video, but I got better with every flight, about 5 in all. The last one was my best, got it on video, but it still wouldn't have taken third place anywhere if there were more tan 3 contestants. But I felt better. By next time I'll be back to my May form and still intend to improve a lot from there. I never know when it may be my last chance, so I'm going to work hard on it.

Everyone liked the twister and were amazed at how light it was, with no engine and associated hardware yet, bit I took it for show and tell. Sorry, the Yak stayed under the pavilion. Oh well, I'll keep bringing it.

Okay, my alarm rings at 4:15, that's 3.5 hours from now, so my story must end here.
Good night all. Thanks for reading my abbreviated flight report.
rusty Rusty
https://youtu.be/KtUZNdxMUaM