At the Field. Ohhhhh My Gosh!

[Avaiojet]

Ohhhhh My Gosh!

I actually got my Pathfinder in the air again this morning. I decided to head north to the flying field and see my flying mates.

No one holds my Nicon, so I'm the guy with the camera.

It's hot, really hot in Florida, so the turn out wasn't grand, just great!

Dennis and Lyn.

Dennis taught me everything I know and Lyn smokes a pipe. Yes I know, makes no sense but ya gotta wright something.  

I had a great time even though I broke a prop.

Oh, the photos aren't posed, I caught both of them by surprise.  

Charles

[Steve Helmick]

How did your flying go? Do you do the whole pattern, or some of it? I encourage folks to do A pattern, because then you'll not be running out of fuel in the OH8 or something silly like that. Planes will live longer!  Steve

[Brent Williams]

How did your flying go? Do you do the whole pattern, or some of it? I encourage folks to do A pattern, because then you'll not be running out of fuel in the OH8 or something silly like that. Planes will live longer!  Steve

Or in my case...don't keep flying additional stunts after the pattern... I resemble that remark about silly maneuvers and planes living longer...

[Steve Helmick]

Notice, please, that I wrote "A pattern". Doesn't have to be THE pattern, or the Beginner Pattern, or the OTS Pattern. Just going out there and making chit up will eventually lead to brain fade and indecison at a critical time. If you do THE pattern and know for a fact that you have fuel to do a couple of outsides to unwind your lines, go for it. If you're not sure, fly level. I don't think it makes sense to do anything after the pattern for an official flight, but there are some that do it. I'd rather concentrate on a great entry into a good glide path, into as good a landing as I can manage. Trying to manage the best I can, with my limited ability.   

For example, I've watched PTG fly many laps, very high, appearing to be praying, not looking at the plane at all until the engine coughs. I asked him why he did that. He said that he crashed once doing tricks on an official after the pattern, and won't take the risk again. He flies better than I do, so I figured I'd learn from his example.

I'm afraid this has become a bit of "thread drift", but maybe it's also on topic. Charles' thread; he can decide.  Steve

[bob whitney]

  a stop watch ,when playing will tell u how much time u have left. we had a flyer that lost more than one plane playing around at the end of a flight, .the watch took care of it

[Avaiojet]

I don't care if the thread drifts, I'm used to it.

I couldn't get a good run on the OS LA 46 today, actually losing RPM intermittently. This engine I purchased used on ebay, but it has run better than today. It was getting to hot to fuss with it on the ground.

I brought a Ringmaster that John Stiles sent me as a gift for the ring-a thon, but I couldn't get the old McCoy 35 running.

Still a good morning and nice seeing the guys.

As far as doing stunts when the actual pattern is completed, If I ever get to the point where I can fly a complete pattern, when it's done, it's done.

Thanks for the replies

[Steve Helmick]

  a stop watch ,when playing will tell u how much time u have left. we had a flyer that lost more than one plane playing around at the end of a flight, .the watch took care of it

True enough. But one then needs to know how long his/her engine will run, and a lot of sport fliers and Beginner class fliers don't know how long their engine runs, making the stopwatch interesting only IF the engine run is steady and consistent, the tank consistently filled correctly, and the engine starts quickly and all that sort of detail stuff.

The watch might also distract them when they really need to be paying more attention to their flying. I remember well checking my stopwatch while flying inverted a few times (no crashes!) before I decided that was a dumb thing to do. I still did some dumb stuff and had overruns during my contests in Beginner, despite years of contest flying in other events. I guess glider towing experience doesn't help a lot?  Steve

[Fred Underwood]

  a stop watch ,when playing will tell u how much time u have left. we had a flyer that lost more than one plane playing around at the end of a flight, .the watch took care of it

These work quite well unless very noisy, with minute count down until the last minute, then 10 second intervals.

http://www.braillebookstore.com/Talking-Timer-Clock.1

[Steve Thompson]

Congrats Charles on a fun day!

As far as extra stunts after the pattern, it was common for my brother and I to yell "one more loop" from outside the circle when the other was obviously winding down and short on run time.  Had to do one more, of course.  This practice built confidence in timing your tank precisely and improved your ability to run backwards and whip while cussing and also presented an opportunity to learn inverted landings. 

[Pat Chewning]

Congrats Charles on a fun day!

As far as extra stunts after the pattern, it was common for my brother and I to yell "one more loop" from outside the circle when the other was obviously winding down and short on run time.  Had to do one more, of course.  This practice built confidence in timing your tank precisely and improved your ability to run backwards and whip while cussing and also presented an opportunity to learn inverted landings. 

I did this today (running back while cussing, inverted landing).  Not because of "extra" stunts at the end of the pattern, but because I'm messing with prop and engine stuff and had a shorter run.   No fun at all, but luckily got the lines tight and did a reasonable inverted landing on the grass with no damage.   Lots of luck involved.

[RknRusty]

Good going, Charles. Glad you got some flying time.
Rusty