MCRCC Spring Fly In 2011!

What a fantastic success our MCRCC Fly In was today! Great work by all involved. The field looked awesome, the prep and PR work was wonderful, the food and the "snow balls" were rockin! And the planes, helis and pilots! Thanks to the crew at MCRCC, our vendors, sponsors and guests! Here are 49 photos and two videos. Enjoy!

Aerial video of our Fly In Day!

Elite 3D flying. Yes, he does "parachute" it upside down to the ground...

Still from the aerial video of our field.

Bill Page's (MCRCC) F7F Tigercat

MCRCC Officers 2011

Luke and Maria (my son and wife)

Jerry, Paul (MCRCC) and Jeff (PBRC)

Me and Luke

Me and Luke

MCRCC President Dickie Ober

Cubby's trick of the day was to lose her spinner mid-flight...

Paul Verger and Kenny Chandler officially maidening Kenny's Extra

Kenny with his new Extra!

We had a wonderful time! I flew the Alpha a bunch, the Cubby once (and she lost her spinner. Since I couldn't find another or a 4mm nut, she was grounded for that mis-behavior...), and I lastly flew the Stearman once, had a rough landing. It was weirdly windy; we were sitting facing north with the wind in our face, but with the flag showing a wind from the south. Crazy! We enjoyed 3D pros, scale magic, and 3D and sport helis, jets, static displays and trainers. Looking forward to next year!

Its an odd numbered day, so Cubby flies!

Okay... I suppose its because its a Friday. Or maybe because its an odd numbered day. It could be because its conspiring to have me fail publicly at the Fly-In tomorrow. Whatever it was, Cubby #2 flew like a dream today! She took off clean, flew some sweet basic aerobatics, and even did two touch and goes without cartwheeling or somersaulting down the runway! Two whole packs! Though she did come up short of the runway when I brought her in after her first pack and misjudged her glide; I had the choice of full throttle (around which she can be squirrely) or just letting her bounce onto the ground. I chose the latter and she came away unscathed 2 feet short of the runway.

Which, by the way, has been lined in paint with help from our friends from the Rec Dept! Check out this still from some video Kenny Chandler and I shot from his Stryker:

Sweet! Looks really good after Greg cut it, and some Rec Dept and MCRCC guys painted the lines early this morning in preparation for our Fly-In tomorrow. Thanks, Guys! Sorta looks like the Space Shuttle could land there!

Kenny and me (I'm chewing on a burger...) checking out the Stryker cam.

Tomorrow is the Fly In! Come on out!

Crooked as a witch's broom

Cubby #2. Not a straight line on her. She curves where she should be flat, and is flat where she should  be curved. She's uglier than snot, and I suspect she's got a hex Other than that, she might fly just fine...

I refurbished her. Stripped her down, epoxied the firewall and the whole front end back together. I glued several cracks in her fuse. I spackled over her really rough areas and sanded her down, then gave her a light coat of Cubby Yellow paint. I re-coted some sore spots on her wing, replaced the tail wheel, removed, flattened and reinstalled with a few shims her motor mount. I think her firewall cants left and her thrust vector goes sorta that way too despite the shims. It looks like her wing and tail are more or less aligned. New prop.

Tomorrow we see if she can fly a crooked line straight!

Weighty Situation

My previous posts have talked about issues trying to bring the CG forward on the Eflite Stearman. I bought another 2 oz of weight and glued it on top of the existing weight in the cowl, with one piece on the top of the motor mount. I had dry fit the new weight, but when I first put it in with epoxy, despite the dry fit, the cowl would not seat properly. I had to carefully cut out and pull the new weights off and try new positions, which worked fine. But I am starting to get to a point I will make her piggish if I have to add anymore weight. I plan to trim her out again tomorrow, looking to remove some of the mechanical down elevator I currently have on her. I think there is about 5 oz now.

Blustery day!

I had a great day out at BMF today! I took a couple days off from flying, and was itching to get back out. I flew pack after pack on the Alpha 450 and the Stearman. There was a brisk and shifting crosswind, ranging from NW to SW, to dead calm, all in one flight, so I enjoyed working on some tough crosswind landings and takeoffs. I did pretty well!  I am starting to get used to the Stearman. I fly her on low rates with about 40% aileron, 70% elevator and full rudder, with 20% expo on the ailerons and elevator. I still tend to over control a little more with full rates as she is a tad twitchy. Arnie Miller and I flew her in a couple different configurations and this seems to work best. She is still a tad tail heavy; I need to add some more weight to the nose, somehow. We tried the 4S battery and it overheated the EC5 connectors somehow... It also added a bit more weight than the aircraft wanted and she was a bit sluggish in low speed flight. That's part of the problem of adding more weight to the nose, it might start to add too much to her AUW. All in all it was a great day of flying! Looking forward to going out again on Friday, our prep day for the Fly-In, and then the Fly-In on Saturday!

Bill Page and his beautiful Extra 260. Arnie Miller in the background. Small crowd today, with Vinson being the only other pilot besides them and myself.

We were having depth perception issues today along with some squirrely winds. There were several missed approaches, and I found myself coming in over the blackberry patch when I thought I had turned much later.  Bill got caught in a dangerous corner (the SE corner) and came down a little early coming into contact with the tree tops. That's all it took to total his Extra 260. It doesn't look bad at first glance, but had some significant structural damage. Its a shame, Bill was flying her wonderfully and enjoying himself... Sorry, Bill.

Anticipation!

Its a Fly Day!

Somebody stop me...

Here I go again...This time I am literally piecing her back together.