Two clues before I even brought out the planes. There was only one guy there at 11a on a beautiful Sunday.And he left right after I got there and saw him struggle to land a foamie Cessna. The wind was dead calm, except when it wasn't when a sudden gust would pop up.
First flight: Did I get the CG wrong because it flew tail heavy as fuck. Trims were all off. Where is that sudden wind coming from?? Barely got it down. Made some adjustments and found that the elevator trim was elevator up, not where I had put it when I reset up the airplane... Put the battery where it used to go, making it a bit nose heavy. Third flight, much better balance, trimmed up nicely but here came the gust and it just threw it into the ditch in the middle of the field as I was trying to get it back to the runway.
Butchers bill: tore off the nose gear taking with it the balsa sheeting under the fuse between it and the battery compartment, broke the prop and lightly bent the prop shaft (dammit). Damaged the firewall.
The field really needs to be levelled, the Geotex is bumpy and barely useable. The flyable space is too narrow for my comfort as I fought the sudden gusts. I won't be able to comfortably fly the 26 and 30cc planes there, I fear. But it will have to do for this year. My son is at the NH Renaissance Faire today, and I see that it's on the same road as the Fremont Flyers field. I looked at it on Google maps and it is a wide and clear space, they even fly turbine jets there ... Their club fee is $40 less for a better field. It's 45 min away though... I will need to consider it next year if SNHRCC still doesn't have a field.
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