December 27

What a great time! There's nothing like getting 9 straight hours of flying in during the dead of winter!!! We had a record turnout of over 100 pilots and spectators over the course of the evening. The roster shows 32 registered pilots for the night. The evening started with some heavy interstate traffic for most as they traveled from all over to attend. However, based on the good flying and camaraderie, I think it was well worth the effort for all. Lot's of children were there and seemed to have a good time. Heck, some even got some stick time. Thanks again to Hobby Lobby for helping us with the advertising. The indoor crowds are getting bigger every week. I would also like to thank the guys at The Hobby Shop for their support. They have been really good about getting the word out and Glen has made some very generous prize donations.

The event of the night was a limbo contest. We had about 10 entrants competing for bragging rights and a $20 gift certificate to The Hobby Shop. We had a tie for first place at the 18 inch mark! The two winners were Mark Murdock and David Grantham. Mark was flying a GWS Slowstick and David was flying a GWS IPS powered delta wing of his own persuasion. Mark made a mid event modification to his Slowstick by removing the landing gear. This gave him the necessary clearance to fly below 18 inches.

Team Kummerow made the trek from Tennessee and brought some new designs to test out. Mark says that he will bring some more Widgets to the January session.

David Hogue was in town from Raleigh, NC and was able to bring his IFO and Hacker powered 3D design.

Rufus Carswell finally committed successful sub 1 oz. RC flight! Way to go! He's been working on some really cool little projects that have taken quite a bit of patience, skill and old fashioned tinkering.

Somehow I was able to "trick" Glen into building me the awesome looking Learjet. We put 6 or 7 successful flights on it over the course of the evening. Glenn brought some of his first Learjet kits and sold all but one. For those interested, Glenn's website is here.

Unfortunately, I was chowing down on a Whopper at the BK lounge when someone managed to hover a GWS Tigermoth just below the rafters. How they did that I'll never know. (See pic below) :-)

There were a record number of flying toys at this indoor session. Over in the corner a group was enjoying a Vectron Flying Saucer. I picked up little Stealth Bomber that is powered and controlled with differential trust from two pusher props. I am supposed to do a review on this subject but the weather outside has been really bad when I had free time. Consequently, I've "sat" on the plane for quite some time. I figured I might as well try it at the indoor site since they do claim that it can be flown indoors. I really did not have very high expectations of this plane but was quite impressed with it's performance. It looks like a bat flying around the building and sounds even funnier. Here's a link to the company.

A note from the Treasurer: We collected $290 on this evening. With the $15 prior balance, this puts our total balance at $105. On another note...three people forgot to pay this weekend. I really don't want to have to go down a check list each session to see who paid and who did not. I'm trying to keep this fun for me too....so I can fly. Please bring your $10 registration fee to me as soon as you arrive. I do not like having to ask people all night for money.

The next session is scheduled for Saturday January 18 and will start at 1 pm. Mark your calendars and get your planes ready to go! Our competition on January 18 will be a touch and go contest. We will move one of the large band risers out to the middle of the flying area. The goal will be to accomplish as many touch and goes off the riser as possible in a one minute time frame. The winner will get a gift certificate to The Hobby Shop. The worse crash during the contest might get a gift certificate too!

Why did I do this? Multiple transmitters inside a building can wreak with some receivers. A good quality receiver is one of the best investments you can make.

Maxx Products MX 6800 Micro RX

Best Single Conversion rx I've seen at our indoor events.
Really good for models in the 2.5 oz to 7 oz. range.
The occasional glitch is so minor you won't crash your plane.. unlike another brand.

Hitec Electron 6 Dual Conversion