|
M.E.F.F.A Flying Sessions
| 2001 Recent M.E.F.F.A Flying Sessions 2001 |
|
Art, Bob, Dave, Gib, Mike, Randy and Ron met at Whitney Point. It was 60 degrees with no wind and partial sun. Everyone fly and flew well. To see 6 or 7 planes in the air at one time was like watching butterflies migrate! Randy flew the v-tail Hobbie Hawk succesfully although there was no wind to slope on. He also flew a small handlaunch which he could catch with ease. He did some nice flights with his electric too. Bob flew his good as new saran wrapped electric. He had a small digital camera on the fuse. Hope he got some pictures we can use. He also flew a 12 inch rubber power stick and tissue plane with twin rudders. Had several beautiful flights. It was very well trimmed.  Dave and Ron flew their electrics. All flights were long and slow. The longest of the evening was 28 minutes. Gib also flew his Challanger with an 05 colbalt motor and a large battery pack. Boy could that plane climb! Art and Mike, the hand launch guys, flew the 9's off the improved high start. Dead air times were almost 90 sec. They then invented highstart stunting...aerobatics off the highstart with a catch landing. Art flew inverted for the 1st time. Too bad he didn't know how to right the plane before it landed. He "darted it" into the soft ground and claims the record of 3 inch ground penetration. No major damage to his plane! We have run out of Mondays before Daylight Savings Time ends on Sunday 10/28/01. No M.E.F.F.A session is planned for next week. It will be too dark to fly by 5 pm! We sure had a good season. Think about weekend flying until next Spring. |
|
Art, Dave, Mike, Randy and Ron met at Whitney Point. The weather was much better than predicted. Sunny with a 6 mph wind from the west that tapered off as the sun set. Just warm enough to keep the fingers from getting really cold. By 6:00 the sun was setting, and it did get cold. Gib came to check us out. He also flies gliders and electrics. Hope he will bring some planes to fly next time. Randy sloped his newly rebuilt and untrimmed Hobby V-tail without success. It has full flying stabs which makes it hard to get the trim right the 1st time. We all look forward to seeing it fly in the future. Art sloped the Number 9 with ease. Dave was surprised at the altitude he got with the Number 7 sloping without a motor. Randy, Ron, and Dave got beautiful electric flights in the gentile lift although none of the electrics got very high. Randy got a long flight by sloping the lift from the far off overlook!  We have only 2 more Mondays before Daylight Savings Time ends. Hope the weather holds. |
|
Art, Dave, Mike, Randy and Ron met at Whitney Point. The sun was strong and the temp was about 65. The wind started out about 10 mph from the WNW and tapered off to less than 4 MPH by sundown when it got quite cool. Randy, an old flying buddy from the 70's, joined us for the 1st time. He flew a 2 meter electric which he slope soared with the Number 9s Art and Mike flew. Art got a little bored with the flying and tried to take a core sample with the tail of his Number 9 This task caused his servo mounts to break lose, and he was done flying for the day. Randy also took to the heights and showed us how to slope the dam over-look from were we were standing some 1500 yards upwind. Both Ron and Dave were able to slope the overlook with him. Dave and Ron flew their electrics in the calm of sunset with slow, long flights which ended past sundown. Both Dave's Number 7 and Ron's Tango appeared to be in perfect trim for the varied wind conditions. |
|
Art, Dave, Mike, and Ron met at Whitney Point. The weather started out cloudy and warm with a 6 mph W wind that made for great slope soaring. Both Art and Mike had good flights with their Number 9's. Then it became partly sunny and the wind died out completely. Art and Mike tried some hand launches but failed to set the record. Mike tried one hand launch from the top of the hill. He got 45 seconds, but Dave is sure it would have lasted the minute necessary to set the record if he had made fewer turns. 
Ron flew his new Chip Shot. The plane has a 43 inch wing span and a very light wing loading of only 4.6 ounces per square foot. It's covered in Purple and blue saran wrap. The wings are foam partially covered with light balsa. He reports the wing has no spar! It has tiny MAX1 motor drawing only 1.4 amps, a 300 mAh NiMH battery, and weighs only 7.5 ounces! It has a prop that looks like it was stolen from a 1940's rubber powered plane. The Chip Shot flew very well in the wind, and after it died out, he was able to thermal it in light lift. No trim was necessary!. The 1st flight was 26 minutes! Ron plans to give the Chip Shot one of his home made folding props.Dave got a record 40 minute flight with his Carbon D-light without ever getting very high. No planes were damaged. |
|
Art, Dave, Mike, and Ron met at Whitney Point. The weather was warm and sunny with an 8 mph wind from the NW that gradually reduced to 3 mph by sunset. The small, thin, puffy clouds disappeared about one hour after the flying started. The slope soaring was difficult due to the angle of the wind which was about 15 degrees off the hill, but both Arthur and Mike had good long flights and got quite high occasionally. Mike flew his 2 meter job which seemed to explode on landings as the rubber bands would pop off. Dave set a new electric flight record of 37 minutes with a flight which never got too high or too low. The source of the lift was not clear, but it didn't seem to be slope or thermal lift. Ron's Tango really flew well and had no trouble keeping up with Dave's Carbon D-light. The Hand Launce record is still up for grabs since no one has tried enough to get even a 1 minute flight. Dave says it can be done by launching from the hill (assuming no wind for slope lift) and gliding down to the flats. Well Dave, lets see you do it! |
 Art, Dave, and Ron met at Whitney Point. The weather was warm and sunny with a 15 mph south wind that gradually reduced to 5 mph by sunset. Ron test flew his new Tango with a geared 400 motor. The Tango is a cool sailplane with beautiful triple tapered wings and removable v-tails. The Tango had a good climb rate and low sink rate. Should be a candidate for the electric power duration record! Art had a record 51 min. slope soaring flight with his Number 9. At times he was less than 12 inches above the ground near the bottom of the hill, but he just wouldn't give up. That's going to be a hard record to beat considering the nature of the hill and the wind at the Whitney Point flying site. Dave flew his Quatro t-tail but couldn't find any thermal lift and couldn't sustain the Quatro on the slope lift Arthur used for his record. |
 Bob and his son Jimmy, Dave, Mike, and Ron met at Whitney Point. The wind was from the NNW at 15 mph but gradually calmed down. The slope soaring was poor due to the angle of the wind. There were no long slope flights. It was neat to see how much higher Mike's Number 9 would fly than would Ron's Elect-Ron. Bob flew a beautiful balsa power plane covered with Saran-Wrap. It flew well until grabbed by a tree at the end of the parking lot. It suffered some water damage when the Whitney Point Fire Dept. blew it out of the tree with their high pressure line. There's much more to this story, but you'll have to ask one of those present to tell it to you. |
Art, Dave, Jason, Mike, and Ron met at Whitney Point. It was hot and sunny with puffy cumulus clouds and an intermittent gentle breeze from the South. There was no lift! Jason flew both the 2 meter on the slope and the Number 9 off the mini start. He had never flown before! He did just great! Jason earned a M.E.F.F.A membership card! Ron and Dave had long slow fligths with their electrics. Arthur and Mike flew both slope and mini high start.  |
| 7/28/2001 - Real M.E.F.F.A Session! Dave and Walt flew at an undisclosed site. The sign on the fence suggested that one could only be on the field if your written request for use of the field was apporved. But the gate was open and the flying began. Walt was hand launching the Eligo while Dave used the mini start to launch the Number 9. It was sunny and hot with a light South wind. Walt had several flights just under a minute, so the hand launch record goes unrecorded. Dave had several flights in the 3-4 minute range. None exceeded 4 minutes, so he holds the mini start record with 3 minutes. The Number 9 did very well circling in light lift. It would have gone up much higher (and gotten a longer record time) if he didn't bail out of a great thermal to avoid drifting over a professional football team that was practicing in the next field over. Dave said landing the plane in the middle of the football practice, recorded with live TV cameras, might have looked bad for us. |
 7/23/2001 - Four flying close in on the slope! Art, Dave, Mike, and Ron met at Whitney Point. The afternoon started out sunny with a light south wind which was just enough to slope the hill. Arthur did a beautiful job with the Chuperosa even when the wind reached 16 mph by the end of the evening's flying. He had a 26 minute slope flight which is the new M.E.F.F.A slope record. Mike did a great job too. He had several long slope flights with his 2 meter. He is becoming a competent slope flyer! At one point all four planes were on the slope. Not that they panicked, but both Ron ahd Dave started their motors and decided to go back to thermal hunting. The slope soaring ended after about 2 hours when Arthur and Mike collided and put Arthur's plane out of commission. Dave had a 28 minute thermal/slope flight with his Quatro. It sloped much better after he added some weight to the c.g. He also shared a long slope flight of his Number 9 with Arthur who flew it as well or better than Dave. Ron had 2 long slope/thermal flights with his Elect-Ron and did a cool landing on the top of the dike in the 16 mph wind.The Elect-Ron ran the slope much faster than any other plane which suggests that a high wing loading has it's place in slop soaring.What a great flying session! Lesson for the day: Heavier is sometimes better. |
|
7/16/2001 - Three Ring Circus! Art, Dave, Mike, and Ron met at Whitney Point. Started out sunny with a 4 mph wind from the west. By the end of the session it was dark, cloudy, and starting to rain. Art and Mike did some nice slope soaring. Mike's 2 meter is all repaired and trimmed. It flies very nice! Art, Dave and Ron flew hand launch gliders from an Mini-Start, and Ron and Arthur tied for the record of 1 minute. This record won't last long. Ron and Dave flew electrics too. Dave had a 23 minute flight. Ron had the last flight of the afternoon. It was long with light lift. Seemed to go on forever, but he didn't time it. Lesson for the day: Always time your flights. |
|
7/9/2001 - Dave continues to crash his Quatro in the wind! Ron and Dave flew. The wind was from the west at 17 mph but grew calm later in the evening. Ron had no trouble sloping his Elect-Ron. Dave had another short flight...about 15 seconds before crashing his Quatro in the wind again. He did better with his D-light although a high altitude spin which lost the plane in the sun almost did the D-light in too. After the wind stopped, there was some nice evening flying. The D-light seemed to stay up for ever. |
Arthur, Dave, Mike, and Ron met at the point to fly in a strong wind. Dave lasted less than 30 seconds before crashing his Quatro. Mike had a couple of short flights before the wind blew his 2 meter plane into his shoulder breaking the tail. Ron did a lot of good sloping with his Elect-Ron. Arthur had several good slope flights with the Chuperosa and set both his personal record and the M.E.F.F.A record with a flight of 19 minutes. |
6/18/2001 - Bob and Ron fly. Ron flew solo from the west facing hill with
his Elect-Ron and got a 42 min. thermal flight...totally unwitnessed and therefore not legal for the record books. After this excitement, Bob arrived armed with a very light, open balsa structured plane covered in multicolor Saran Wrap and powered by a small geared motor. It flew slowly and solidly. It even flew inverted! In addition, he had a fleet of free flight planes that were flown at the end of the evening. The lateness of the evening prevented the usual Aiellos feast. |
|
6/11/2001 - Rain, thunder, and lightning. Art, Dave, Mike, and Ron met at Whitney Point where they found a thunder storm in progress. After an hour at MacDonalds, the rain let up and the flying began. Eventually, a light west wind provided some marginal slope flying. Dave was "Mr. Mistake" setting his radio for the wrong plane, forgetting to time a long flight, and launching the plane once with a dead battery. Mike became much better at light wind slope soaring. He learns fast! Art did a good job sloping the Chuperosa and doing his special into the wind landing consistently. Ron did some impressive sloping with his electric glider. No planes were crashed or damaged. Lesson for the day: Canopy tape doesn't stick in the rain. |
 5/14/2001 - No Crashes! Art, Dave, and Ron met at Whitney Point. Partially sunny with 62 degrees and a windchill of 45 degrees due to the WNW wind which averaged 19 mph and gusted to 25 mph. Ron's Chup-Tron handled the wind well and had 2 long flights. Dave had one flight with the Quatro which was getting bounced around a bit. He got nervous when there were a few near collisions due to the turbulance and the only lift being close to the west dike they flew from. Art had several short but controlled flights with the Chuperosa which was at the mercy of the wind. He did several spectacular landings on the top of the dike despite the wind. After 45 minutes on the dike, all were eager to retire to Aiellos. |
 5/7/2001 - South Dike Sloping! Art, Dave, and Ron met at Whitney Point. Sunny and in the 60's. The wind was 6-20 mph from the south. Hazy sun on the right side made turning hard. If it's got a wing, then slope it. Ron sloped his Buzzard Bombshell in that wind! Dave's Quatro did very well too. Art just kept on going with the Chuperosa and landed a few times without incident. He deserves the most improved flyer award for the day. |
 4/30/2001 - One Out Of Three Survives! Art, Dave, and Ron met at Whitney Point. Sunny and hot with no clouds. The wind was 4 mph from the southwest alternating with 8 mph from the west. We flew from the southwest face of the dike. Ron flew a new glider which had Electron fuse and tail feathers with a matching white Chuperosa wing. It flew beautifully until a radio glitch sent it into a spiral dive ending with an abrupt contact with the parking lot. Dave, who doesn't want to talk about the aborted flight he had with the D-Light, had 2 great flights with his Quatro. Was able to keep it high out over the north dike where he flew on slope lift when the wind quartered where we were standing. He claimes his crash landing, which put the Quarto out of commision for the rest of the afternoon, was caused by attempting to make a low pass for photographs which resulted in being blinded by the sun and then pushed by a gust of wind too close to two kids who suddenly appeared. He couldn't use his motor because of the kids. The Quatro flew behind the dike, and he crashed it into the back side of the hill to keep it from going into the river below. Through all the commotion, Arthur just kept sloping his Chuperosa. Flights lasted 2 or 3 minutes as the wind was not constant. By the end of the afternoon, he was flying the Chuperosa very smoothly and consistently landing it within 6 feet of where he was standing. He was the only M.E.F.F.A member to go home with an intact plane. NICE JOB ART! Debriefed at Aiellos as unusal. We plan to fly again next Monday afternoon if weather permits. |
4/23/2001 - Super M.E.F.F.A Flying Session ! Art, Dave, Ron, and Walt met at Whitney Point. The largest M.E.F.F.A gathering ever. Art was the only member to remember to wear his M.E.F.F.A shirt! It was a warm and sunny day with 15 mph winds from the south. Sloping the dam site was the order of the day. Walt had about a 16 minute flight without ever running the motor on his Electron 400. Ron's V-tail only used the motor when he slipped behind the dam a few times. Dave's Quatro ran the motor continuously for the 1st 5 minutes of a panic ridden 18 minute flight which included 10 minutes of trying to get the Quatro back on the ground. Art had a beautiful 2 minute flight with his Chuperosa but later lost a panel from his wing on an overly forceful launch. The wind was strong enough for Art (and Walt and Ron) to fly Art's stunt kite! All went to Aiellos after the session. This is going to be a great M.E.F.F.A summer! 
 |
| M.E.F.F.A HOME PAGE |
Revised 1/1/2002