RC SLOPE SOARING
SPRING LIGHTENING!
By Greg Schutte | gshooty@yahoo.com
THERE ARE A HANDFUL of flying days that stand out in my memory as something special. One recent day happened to be one of those for me. I am not sure what factors are needed to make those days happen, but let us see where the wind takes us.
The morning started out with me loading my truck with flying machines. I grabbed my Corsair, and the wing was broken. If you have ever owned a Slope Soaring Corsair, you know that this is not a surprise. The fighter glider had a stripped elevator servo.
My Tomahawk Combat wing was next in my hand. The airplane was good, but somehow the radio had been dropped and the gimbles were pushed in and would not move. I took the radio apart to see whether I could fix it, but it too was damaged. At least I have spare parts for my other radios now.
My P-40 had a broken tail that was only held together by the pushrods. The only airplane I had in flying condition was my Sparrow. I walked out of the garage a little disgusted. But on a good note, I now have a good excuse to build more airplanes.
Good Friends
In my life, I have been fortunate to have met some good friends. You know, the friends whom you would call for bail money if you were in jail but cannot because they would be sitting next to you, and you can’t remember whose idea it was in the first place. I was headed out to fly with such friends on this day.
Roc is one of my oldest RC buddies. We met on the slope many, many moons ago and have flown all types of RC together and built other stuff as well. It was Roc’s idea to use his 1/4-scale gas buggy to tow up my 120-inch Thermal Duration glider one day. It worked well. I even have a video to prove it.
My friend, Ken, has been on the slope with me for the past couple of years. Although there are multiple RC Slope Soaring pilots in the area, they are all hit-and-miss to see on the hill. Ken has been there to go with me on my adventures. He has also given me lots of insight on how to finish scale models to a high degree of detail and realism. Both men have helped me with my crazy ideas and have even instigated a few.
The wind was blowing straight in at a steady 20 to 25 mph. The weather was nothing but blue sky and white clouds. It was not cold but cool enough that the air was thick, with lots of lift being produced. Richard and Doug were there when I showed up as well.
Richard can back up the stories about how bad lithium batteries can explode when they hit the ground and how big the fire can get in a short amount of time. Doug is an experienced RC pilot who just moved into the area, and today was his orientation at this flying site. He also owns one of those aircraft that has a twirly thing on the nose, a wing, and continually
messes up your hair when you operate it. Ken did the most flying out of all of us. He has some nice aircraft that fly well. He was not able to destroy or even crash his Bluto—that thing is fast and carves through the air.
Roc’s been out of the Slope flying scene for a while and, like me, he needs to update and build some new sailplanes. But his glider survived his flying skills and will live to fly another day.
I had some nice flights, and my Sparrow did not let me down. Chasing Roc around and keeping up foreign relations was fun because we were both flying inverted. When we were not flying, we stood near our vehicles and had a show and tell. Ken let us give him a hard time about the fresh carnage and we all had to offer our input on how he should proceed with the carcass. I had just gotten a new Focke-Wulf Fw 190 project from some pilots in California who have a group build on
RCGroups. It is a nice kit and I wanted to show it to the fellow fliers. I cannot wait to build it.
With every sport, there seem to be ups and downs with people who participate. That day was the first day in years that I had flown with more than two other pilots at the same time. While I regularly fly with multiple pilots with my speed wings and paragliders, I do not have the same interactions with them while I am flying. It is just me flying by myself while around other pilots who are flying. When we land, we all hang out and talk about our flights, but it’s not quite the same as standing next to a fellow pilot while giving him or her a hard time, and it doesn’t have the excitement of a near miss or a collision, or the thrill of the whistle as a sailplane goes by and you instinctively take that quick glance to see how close it was and whose it was.
I always enjoy doing a group high-altitude peel off to do high-speed flybys. The theme song to the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep (Black Sheep Squadron) plays in my head every time. I can almost hear the Pratt & Whitney or Merlin engine cranking the ponies in my head when I am executing a scale barrel roll.
Looking back on that day, I think what really made it special was the group of fellow pilots who were out flying. We had old and new friends who were all glad and excited to be there intermingling. There were plenty of stories, laughs, and flying.
I guess that the first good day of spring flying after a cold winter will always be special, but this day will go down in my memory as spring lightening.
Fly safely!
SOURCES:
League of Silent Flight (LSF)
www.silentflight.org
