Southern NH Flying Eagles

Last year I checked out a couple of fields and clubs, joined a couple, but never made it out. Yesterday I renewed my membership with the Southern New Hampshire Flying Eagles, AMA Clube 2417, in Merrimack, NH. No electricity, but they have a great geotex runway!

Flying there today was a small crowd, which allowed me to fly a couple of times. I met Carl, who greeted me right after I arrived, friendly and welcoming! Then Tom, a 17 yo with "the touch", and his dad, Bob. Tom is an intro pilot instructor. Chris showed up later. I really felt welcomed, and comfortable flying. Some kids showed up with their dad and Tom took them up on a buddy box. A touch breezy but not bad at all.

 

The stations are well designed and made. I love the transmitter holders, and that they designed in a fold-away foam support for putting the airplane in upside down!

 

Trees at the North end of the geotex runway.

 

 

Runway 18 (looking south). Once you cross the low end trees on the north end there's a long approach to the threshold. The planes seem to eat it up in a hurry though. Yes, those trees at the south end are very, very tall, and very, very close.

 

 

Looking across the runway to the stations which are on the west side of the field.

 

 

Runway 36, looking north. Those are the low trees, and they are further back than they look. Getting used to where they are is a challenge. You can see the grass landing strip to the right.

 

 

Looking at the stations from the south end of the field.

I flew several packs, flying the Alpha Sport 450, the first plane I always fly at any new field. I mentioned in a previous post that the MX-Bach had its rudder go over hard and stay. Nothing mechanical, leaving only some programming issue. I had to remove the control arms and reset it. It had not stripped. Well, today the Alpha Sport did the same thing. Hard landing, and all of the sudden the rudder was over hard and I had to climb out over the pits and it was all I could do to control her. Back in the pattern and brought her down successfully. When I got home I had to remove and reset the control horn, and on again, it was not stripped and the programming had not changed. This is wierding me out... Is there something wrong with my DX8?

Fortunately I also brought the Ultimate and the Pulse, which flew perfectly. Set up differential ailerons on the Ultimate and the worked pretty well! Will try them on all my planes.

I like this club so far. These guys were good ambassadors. It will take some time for me to get used to flying out of the bowl the trees create, and landing on the geotex runway. It requires a bit more precision, and I am excited about that. Not that there is a good place to crash, but here, there is no good place to crash. It's nice to have some skilled people to watch and learn from. I look forward to coming back!

 

Posted with Blogsy