Mike Palko shows up with his
Silencer " "Shut Up I'm Flying Electric" at our field, and I'm often a bystander at the Mike Palko show thinking up new electric stuff to sell under the "Palko Products" name, our little running joke. One top secret device undergoing market testing as we speak in an "Electric condom," - "when the passion happens, sparks fly." Un ohh there we are, out of the packet.
Electric is advantageous in so many ways. Presents me with an Arf like conundrum. What to do. What to do. Planes that look better, often fly better, than my questionable quality craftsmanship. Planes I DON'T HAVE TO BUILD. With electric the motor runs the same. Starting doesn't aggravate my carpal tunnel syndrome. And of course no more gloppy oil and burnt fuel to sort of get off. For the moment I've got an out. The cost to get into it. Lots more than my typical ebay special or swap meet bargain FP, LA or Tower clone. Then there's the math, I glaze over soon after Mike begins to do the equations, figuring out a configuration to work with such and such parameters of wing area and weight. All those different motors, with different windings, all those brands of battery pacs. All the alien info rubbing in how old and out of touch I am with these new techies. Computers at least came along 20 years ago when my mind was a sprightly forty. At my present number it's easier to be a crank, practising my coming role in years to come. Red faced outbursts at the present decadent state of the kids.
Then there is the reason I've observed many of us do the hobby. We did it like this at a simpler time in our lives, when we were innocent young guys and flying plane on wires felt so good. Just like we do it now. The noise of engines still a siren song. My my. Imagine flying without the noise and mess. Not the way I did it when I was eleven and twelve. Palko's a crazy young kid trying to ruin everything.
That turncoat BH. No matter how he tries to affect a young modern image, we all know why he wears a hat.