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M.E.F.F.A Flying Sessions
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| 2002 Recent M.E.F.F.A Flying Sessions 2002 |
 Was cold and cloudy with a North wind at 6 mph which diminished to nothing by about 5:30. The flying actually continued until well after sunset. Dave flew slow flights with his Omega electric trying to find some slope lift. His longest flight was only 26 minutes, but it was the longest of the evening. John flew his Elf much faster and showed us some aerobatics. He later flew his zero and showed us how the video camera could show where the plane was going. Ron flew his Wing-e very well. It was trimmed perfectly and could climb quite fast. Bob flew the Bug and a sport electric that was very impressive in its angular construction and workmenship. Bob also flew his rubber powered twin prop "thing" that was graceful and colorful as it twirled up in a dazzewling array of color. Eric, a hang glider pilot, came to watch the show and learn about model gliders. We retired to Aiellos where John showed us longer clips of the video taken from the Zero. Great images! |
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It was cold and sunny. The wind ranged from 14 mph to 3 mph from the NW. The flying was fabulous for all! Ron and Dave flew their electrics, and Ron tried his flying wing. John flew his Elf and later the Zero. Randy flew everything he owned. Bob flew the Bug and another unnamed glider. Jim, new to the group, qualified for MEFFA membership by flying both of Bob's planes. The flying continued until well after dark. It ended with Bob flying his red, white, and blue rubber powered ship in the dark calm. It flew very well and landed gently in the low limb of a tree across the road. |
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Cool and sunny with winds from the WNW at 10-23 mph. He who had the highest wing loading flew longest and best. Ron's Tango was a real trooper under the windy conditions. Mike's Prima 400 also held it's own aginst the wind and could soar the slope. Dave's Omega found the going a little rough at the hill and tried to fly beyond the slope with some success. Cold fingers seemed to be the limiting factor on flight times. Ron's flight of 45 minutes was by far the longest, and Dave's flight of 18 minutes was the shortest. All agreed another flight was not necessary. |
 Ron brought his Kelly t-tail, John brought his new Elf, and Randy brought his Mini Floh. All 3 handled the wind well. Dave's Omega Poly electric needed to wait for the wind to calm down a bit. Randy also flew his Quatro and his big electric. None of the electrics seemed to be able to sustain using the slope lift...propeller drag from the folding props? Dave flew until sunset. Randy and Ron flew until well after sunset! |
 Dave and Randy flew their electrics on top of the hill on Ed Hill Rd. The wind was light from the north, west, and northeast. There were no bugs! Flights were long due to the motors although there was an occasional bubble of lift. |
 Dave, Ron, and John Burt braved the rain and gloom to fly at Whitney Point. By the time they arrived, the flying conditions had improved greatly. Ron sloped his Kelly effortlessly. The Kelly sometimes stayed higher than Dave's Omega 1.5 flying with power on! John earned his MEFFA membership card flying his speed 280 powered Zero. Dave had the longest flight of the day, 38 minutes of calm flying. We flew past sunset as Ron test flew his new Bug electric. The Electric Bug still needs some additional trimming, but it flew very well. Next Monday we will be getting together in the Dryden area. Will send e-mail about the location after the weather forcast becomes finalized on Sunday. The executive committee, Dave and Ron, decided to make some changes in record flight rules. The new rules will be posted in the next week or so. |
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Dave, Ron, and Randy flew slow electric flights. No lift could be found, but many of the flights lasted 20 minutes or more. We flew almost until sundown. Dave's Omega 1.5 seemed to stay a little higher than Ron's Tango, but their flights lasted about the same time. Randy flew his Mini Floh, after flying his Quatro, and managed to get some short slope flights that lasted longer than would be expected with the marginal wind. |
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Ron, Dave, Art, Mike and Ozzie Osprey met at Whitney Point to fly in cloudy and eventually sunny conditions. Art and Mike were flying their new Prima 400's. Most of the flights we had were between 20 and 25 minutes due to lack of lift. Getting an extra minute was rewarding! Ozzie and Ron did have great flights. Ron's was 40 minutes. Ozzie didn't have a watch so we don't know how long his flight was. Those of us who saw Ozzie attack Ron's Tango about 800 feet up decided Ozzie was not a nice guy. This was later confirmed when he almost collided with Dave's Carbon D-lite about 20 feet in the air and 30 feet from where we were standing. It should be noted that Ozzie was NOT given a MEFFA membership card even though he fufilled all requirements for MEFFA membership...we imposed a special membership restriction clause for antisocial soaring!. No photos from today's flying session. Ozzie was supposed to bring the camera! |
 Warm and sunny with a 3-6 mph wind coming from the west and northwest. Ron, Dave, Art, Mike, and Bob were present. Ron sloped his Kelly and did a good job of keeping up with Art's Number 9. Bob sloped his Bug before going off to practice hand launching it. He seems to have it trimmed very well. Lack of any thermal activity prevented him from setting the MEFFA handlaunch record. Dave's Omega 1.5 and Ron's Tango also failed to find lift, but both flew well. Art and Mike had their 1st test flights with their new Prima 400 electrics. They were thrilled to use the motor and pleased that they got the planes back down without crashing! Looks like we will be meeting next Monday, Labor Day. This will be Art's last Monday flying session with us before leaving for Atlanta. |
Only Ron, Bob, and Dave showed. The rest of the guys must have known something! The wind varied between 0 and 4 mph coming from the south, east, and west. You could get up to a 30 sec slope soar if you were lucky. The only real thermal was the one Ron found with his Tango. All electric flights were 25 min. or less. The hit of the evening was Bob's beautiful and cool Mosquito Class HLG. It had a beautifully shaped 30 inch pink wing. The Bug, as he calls it, flew on the lightest lift and actually had several slope flights a few minutes long when the wind came from the east or west. By 6:30 the real bugs and some light rain cut the evening short.
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 Ron, Dave, Mike, Randy,Gib and Art all tried their luck, but nobody could find much lift on the slope or in a thermal. Ron's new little Kelly is beautiful and seems to be ready for some serious light wind slope soaring. Dave had a gentile 30 minute flight with his Omega 1.5 electric which might have been the longest of the day. Gib and Randy also flew their electrics slowly and smoothly without finding much lift. Mike and Art did some moderately successful slope soaring. The only damaged plane was Ron's Tango which apparently had an electrical problem shortly after launch. Everyone appreciated the mosquito spray and cold bottled water Art brought with him! . |
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Ron, Dave, and Art tried to fly an apparent west wind, but there was turbulance and very little lift. Art had briefly successful flights with his #9 and the DG-300. Neither Ron's Tango or Dave's #7 had much success on the slope or under power. There were no crashes!. Dave was convinced that the wind had a northwest component and we were getting turbulance from the north dike. . |
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Ron, Dave, Art, John, Randy, and Bob met to fly. Not much slope lift. Art's DG-300 and John's Monarch-C had some difficulty staying up on the slope. Randy's 60" Salto, a beautiful scale sailplane, didn't find enought lift to stay up. Randy, John, Dave, and Ron flew their electrics. Ron had a record breaking 43 minute flight with his Tango. He later crashed it giving flying lessons to a new pilot. Dave had a 37 minute flight which never got more than 100 feet above the dike. Randy kept his electric flying smooth as silk. John also flew his Koleos successfully. Bob did some amazing thermaling with his speed 280 past the downwind side of the dike. He also flew a beautifully trimmed rubber job to end a great flying day. . |
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Mike, Ron, Art, and Dave flew. Mike did the best slope soaring with his 2 meter. He also worked on improving his field repair skills while attending to the plane's vertical fin problems. Art found some brief pockets of lift with his DG-300. Ron flew his flying wing smoothly until it spun down from low altitude. Dave and Ron had one electric flight together. Ron's Tango stayed in the air about 3 or 4 minutes longer than Dave's 35 min flight with his # 7. The electric flights were a combination of weak slope lift and motor run. No real thermals or other sources of strong lift were found. . |
 Mike, Ron, and Dave braved the wind and clouds to fly briefly at Whitney Point. Ron got his flying wing under control and was able to keep it above the horizion when the wind came from the proper direction. Mike successfully flew his Number 9 although it needed some field repairs to keep it flying. Ron and Dave had one unremarkable flight each with their electrics . |
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Dave, Ron, and John arrived at 4:30 to see a Bald Eagle circling in a lazy thermal. He never got very high. That was the story of the evening. Dave, Ron, and Randy had slow-low electric sailplane flights. Dave had the longest of the evening which was only 28 minutes. John went to the west side of the field and tried hand launching his Monarc C. Bob flew his Parasol which is a tiny stick and paper electric powered plane. Randy also flew a 280 powered power plane which was aerobatic. The evening ended with Bob flying one of his rubber jobs. Dave was hit by a dog, but no damage was done. . |
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The west wind at 3-6 mph was inconsistent and caused a lot of turbulance in front of the dike. Mike managed to do some very smooth slope soaring anyway. Dave & Ron had difficulty keeping their electrics in the air. Ron had the longest flight of the day with his Chip Shot. After 2 hours in the sun, heat, and marginal winds, we decided to call it a day. . |
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Ron and Dave arrived early. They saw a Golden Eagle which was sloping 5 to 10 feet above the north dike. He appeared to be checking for fish. He soared back and forth along the dike for about 7 minutes! Dave, John, and Ron flew at The Point. It was in the mid 70's but felt cooler due to clouds, some rain drops, and a 6 mph NNW wind that died to 3 mph from the W. Dave and Ron each flew one long powered flight early in the session. Ron landed after about 1/2 hour fearing a rundown battery pack. His Chip Shot got caught in turbulance near the back of the dike and hit the far side of the dike with minor damage. Dave spent another 7 min. trying to get his Number 7 to land in the persistant lift that developed about the time Ron landed. Ron also flew his new flying wing which is fast but wants more wind than we had at the time. It looked like a knife cutting through the air! John, who was new to the flying site, did some nice test slope flights with his 2 meter Espirit and his Koleos. He then proceeded to set the Whitney Point slope soaring record flying his Espirit for 54 min. (and 58 sec.) in very light and inconsistent lift. He sure taught the older guys a lesson in smooth flying!  |
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Art, Dave, Mike, and Ron flew at The Point. It was in the mid 70's but felt cool at times when the wind picked up and the sun went behind some dark clouds. Art flew his second hand DG-300 for the first time and loved the dive brakes which allowed him to make gentile landings. Mike was the most consistent sloper of the day. Dave crashed his #7 because he forgot to turn on the receiver!. Ron had a nice, long, gentile flight with his Speed 280 V-tailed Chip Shot. That plane seems to be consistently good even when the wind is not cooperating. Must be very clean in the air!  |
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Art, Bob and his son Jim, Dave, Mike, and Ron flew at The Point. It was in the high 70's with sun and a mild west wind that made for great sloping. There were 6 planes in the air for a good part of the evening. Jim and his dad changed planes so we couldn't keep track of who was flying which plane. They both flew well. Mike and Art did a good job sloping the light wind. Ron flew his original with a speed 280 v-tail and had a half hour flight which was identical to the flight Dave had with his speed 400 glider. Nice job Ron! 
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Art, Dave, Mike, Randy and Bob met at Daisy Hollow Rd. because the wind direction did not allow good flying at Whitney Point. The temperature dropped from 60 to 55 degrees as we fley. It was a bit chilly, but nobody seemed to mind. The sun was partially blocked by high clouds. It seemed darker than usual for that time in the evening. The wind was from the NW to NNW at 3-6 mph. Sometimes the lift was there, and sometimes it wasn't. We all would come down during the down times except those who happened to be high up at the time and could ride it out until the lift returned.  Art and Mike flew the #9's for the second season. They had their ups and downs. Art lost the pushrod to one of the v-tails causing some difficult turns when he tried to go downwind and right. He did manage to keep the plane out of the trees and suffered no other damage to the plane. Dave and Randy flew power gliders and didn't have much of a problem when the lift was poor. Dave CLAIMES he would have flown his #9 if he didn't have to loan his transmitter battery to Arthur who could not charge his transmitter before the flying session began. Bob slope soared for the 1st time with his "Little Nipper" which has a full flying stab and is only about 30" in wingspan. In the photo you can see that the radio and battery are covered with a hood which seems to resemble a cone made from a styrofoam coffee cup. He got the hang of sloping after a few false starts and could stay up as long as the rest of us.As the wind died and it grew dark, Randy flew his little electric power plane and did a nice landing without the landing gear. Bob flew his Saran Wrapped power glider (remember the tree at Whitney point?) which flew well in the calm air until he lost control while flying inverted. It hit a shrub in the field from an altitude of 8 feet causing minor damage. |
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Revised 9/17/2002
11 - Ron
16 - Dave
21 - Art
24 - John Burt
52 - Walt
40 - Ron
58 - Mike
22 & 37 - Bob