I forgot my camera, too. It was a fine contest. The down-south guys did the work and took the job of running the contest seriously. There were some unexcused absences, but most of the NW stunt posse was there.
I had some interesting misadventures. On my first flight I mistook Gary Letsinger, who was standing about 20 feet around the circle from the judges, for a judge. I started the second wingover when I got to Gary. I told him he was disqualified for impersonating a judge, and he went home. On my second flight, the evil wind was switching between westerly and northwesterly about every maneuver. Also, there was a wind shear at about 20 feet. The triangles were fun. I did the first turn and whoosh, the airplane blew way over to the right. I was wondering how to get back to the starting point without hitting the ground along the way. Somehow I made it. The horizontal round eights were sorta OK, so I started the square eights in the same place. The wind had shifted, so I was struggling to make the loops look squarish and neglected the concept of an intersection. On the vertical eights, the wind seemed to emanate from the center of the upper loop. It was round, but pretty big, what with the wind blowing the airplane away from the center.
My people were flying diesel combat nearby, which helped determine the wind direction. It added some authenticity to Paul's jet thing. The only thing one could smell when he flew was burning kerosene.
I failed to tie down my canopy, and it blew into Steve Helmick's truck. The guys eventually stowed the canopy before it could kill again.
Topic: NW Skyraider's Raider Roundup (Read 1018 times)