Not to hijack this already very enlightening RC bashing thread I made a comment about flying Dallas.
It goes something like this.
Our field is positioned about 150' on the east side of a train track that runs along the top of a berm that is about 20' high. Over the past 20 years the trees that line those tracks have now risen to around 70' or more sitting on top of the berm. Every day, and I mean about 90% of the year, the winds turn E to ESE and come right over that high ridge between the hours of 1pm and 3pm and continue on until after dark. It is like clockwork. I watch my weather channel app every single day. It is pretty spot on as to what is happening at the field. If it says 9 mph you can bet it is pretty much going to be 9 mph when you get there. Once that wind turns from that direction it is no longer flyable, even if it states light to variable or 1-3 mph. The turbulence is just too much. Sometimes you see the top of the inboard wing and the next minute the bottom of the outboard. I am not talking a bump and a bounce here and there. I am talking a full tilt of the model in who knows what direction on just about every level lap. It is common on first vertical 8 to feel as though the plane is being shoved into the ground and you just know you are going crash and you have to step way forward to ease up the pressure on it and the next one in that same maneuver will be so light on the lines you are backing up. No, this is not just another stunt guy bitching about weather and place to fly. I have fought through it for years and cut my teeth flying in some pretty nasty sh$t. It has progressed now to the point of not usable for stunt after 1-3 pm.
For many many years it was flyable up to around 8-10 mph from E to ESE. You could watch the trains come by on that track and the air would get down right nasty and you would have to wave off sometimes. There were NO TREES THEN. I can remember many evenings sitting there watching the trains go back and forth as they change tracks and it would ruin a flyable evening. I would pull up for an evening of flying and there would be a train parked on the tracks and Bob would be sitting there waiting and hoping they would move off, he would be pissed off about it too as he usually had something he needed to work on that day. Most of the time they would move off and we could get in a flight or two. Fast forward to today and you can no longer even see the trains due to the trees, and we haven't been able to for several years now. Back then you could fight through it and trim for it and really learn how to fly in a some pretty unforgiving conditions. It was actually darn good prep and conditioning. Once you get somewhere with straight line winds even at much higher speeds flying was much more manageable than what you were working on at our field. Hence the saying "If you could fly at hobby park you could fly anywhere."
In the mornings the winds are usually from the south which is great and works prefect. This is common. Or they are pretty much calm and don't come up until around 10 or 11. But after lunch they turn east. Let me put this in perspective for you. In 2002 from early May until we left for the Nats I had over 200 flights that year in that little short span. I was at the field every evening waiting on the trains and dusk winds. I was there on both days on the weekends. I live only 4 miles from the field and my wife was working evenings then and we had no kids so what else is a guy to do?
Last year, 2014, I had EXACTLY 5 complete patterns on my new plane before I left for the Nats. That was ONE flying session. I had 2 other test flights but they weren't patterns. I still somehow managed a 2nd place finish.
I simply sat there every day watching the weather and the winds would turn E to ESE.
In 2012 I was so desperate to fly I was flying in the dark. I would wait until the sun was down and my eyes would adjust and I could fly off the street lights and car lots lights from across the road. It was insane but that was the only way I could get to fly. My wife said I was cheating on her
until I brought home the hardware.
Without something done to clear off that high ridge of trees, and not too mention pull up all the trees the city recently planted around the circles by the city, our field has become unusable for afternoon and evening stunt flying.
I have a job and retirement is still light years down the road. Morning flying sessions for me during the week are NOT and option. Weekends are a gamble at best weather wise and even if the weather did hold I am sure I would be at the kids baseball/softball games. I can make it to the field on any evening and be in the air in under 15 minutes from the time I leave my house. But it is just no longer an option when I can go.
As far as speed, racing, combat, or sport flying for the most part the effect is not an issue as much or at all. But if you try for consistent 5' bottoms when you see the top of your inboard wing on the way down the square legs and you will put it in. There is no way practice there in the evenings anymore.
Yes this national champion has no place to fly, most of the time, and it sucks.
Topic: This is the other quad idiot (Read 6235 times)