Great Morning at the Field

[David Hoover]

I finally got myself organized this morning and took my oldest grandson to the field to start teaching him to fly.  It couldn't have gone much better.  Konstantin was there when we arrived just about to start a flight so I told my grandson, "You're going to see what these planes can do.".  Konstantin took off, did his level laps pulled up into the reverse wingover then performed his usual hard recovery and my grandson went "O-o-o-o-oh!".  A much better introduction to the pastime I can't imagine.  We did 6 short flights and then the wind started to come up but by the last flight I was not doing much controlling any more.  A couple of more flights and he'll be soloing.  Part way through the morning Konstantin, who videos each flight on his iPhone then reviews it before the next, grabbed my grandson and went through one of his flights, explaining the maneuvers and which ones he'd done well and which ones not so well.  My grandson is ready to come back for more!

[Russell Shaffer]

Your grandson got a great introduction to control line.  How old is he?  Grandkids are fun.

[David Hoover]

Your grandson got a great introduction to control line.  How old is he?  Grandkids are fun.

You're right about that.  Can't do much better than having a world class flyer (Konstantin, not me) giving you one-on-one time.

He'll be 12 in another 10 days.  This Saturday he and I are off to a Blue Jays game to celebrate his birthday.

And you're right about grandkids being a lot of fun.  There are 5 in the same family ranging from 12 to 3 years old.  Their mother is a teacher so it's pretty wild time around here when she has to go to a  Professional Development day and we get all five for the day.  Takes us a couple of days to recover.

[Andre Ming]

Excellent story. Great to see C/L being passed down to the youngsters.

[M Spencer]

Very Good , but dont you guys have a Watering Can ! .  Nice Picture & script . A .049 F2B coming Up ? .

[RknRusty]

That's exciting and fun. For both of you. I hope he really gets into it.
Best wishes,
Rusty

[David Hoover]

Very Good , but dont you guys have a Watering Can ! .  Nice Picture & script . A .049 F2B coming Up ? .

Thanks for the comments but we don't have a watering can big enough to keep the field green.  It's been a very hot, very dry summer which we will look back upon longingly when we hit that howling wind -20C stuff in the winter but right now, between the water to keep the garden growing (love my zucchini and tomatoes) and electricity for the AC, I don't like looking at my utility bill.

Since I'm all electric a .049 F2B is unlikely.  The plane he's learning on (Ring Rat 250 from Stevens Aero http://www.stevensaero.com/StevensAero-RingRat-CL-250-Nostalgic-Electric-Control-Line-Sport-SAK-RRAT250.html ) is capable for sort of flying the full pattern with a few tweaks so unless we really smack them (I have two) we should be good for a while.