Conference vmszoo::rc

    Just as I was finishing up that last note, I thought I could feel a
    bug crawling around inside my pant leg.  At first, I assumed it was
    just my imagination, but with the danger of Lyme disease from ticks,
    I decided to go to the bathroom and check for sure.

    Sure enough, there was a tick on the inside of my pants crawling
    around and just looking for a place to bite me.  

    This is a serious danger!  If you get Lyme (pronounced "lime")
    disease, there is currently no known cure, it is very difficult to
    diagnose, and in its later stages, can leave you a vegetable in the
    hospital.

    So, if you've been outdoors walking around in the grass, make SURE
    you don't have any ticks on you!!!  Ticks are small - only about the
    size of the head of a pin, so you have to look carefully.

    (This public service announcement brought to you from someone who
    wants to live for MANY more years...)

                       _____
                      |     \
                      |      \                          Silent POWER!
      _        ___________    _________   |            Happy Landings!
     | \      |           |  |         |  |
     |--------|-  SANYO  + ]-|  ASTRO  |--|              - Dan Miner
     |_/      |___________|  |_________|  |
                      |       /           |     " The Earth needs more OZONE,
                      |      /                       not Caster Oil!! "    
                      |_____/

    The ticks that carry the disease are the size of a head of a pin.
    the larger and more common varity around here is not known to carry
    Lyme disease. If diagnosed, antibiotics cure it quite fine. but
    yes, always check for the little critters.
    
    
    
    							Dave
    

  FYI - Regarding Ticks:  Use of an insect repellent (OFF, CUTTERS...)
does help in keeping the nasties off of you.  Make sure you use it 
generously on the pant legs, socks, shoes.....Also try to wear lighter
colored clothing so the ticks are easier to see.


  Jim  (who lives in Westboro and doesn't want Lymes)

Real sorry to hear about the Cub. I really did look nice in the video...

One personal rule I try to apply is to watch the "instructor" fly his or
someone else's plane before I'm willing to take the chance. You didn't
mention if he was flying his own or just there to bum sticktime (which always
makes me suspicious)

Shame on you for now doing the range check before you got all set up (I know 
it's hard to take and I don't mean to be mean) but you could have had a runaway
when you were tuning the engine (unless you stake it down like I see some of the
oldtimers at my field). I personally find that it's always tempting to fly once 
that engine gets tuned right and I try to get the range check out of the way 1st 
thing.

As has been said many times in here, you learn through your (and other's) 
mistakes.

On the subject of range checks: I have a policy of range checking
at the start of every flying session, and at every fourth flight,
though I usually crash before then.  I am appalled that this is
not the general practice.  The reason usually given is that the
radio is ok, and with no change to the installation, why
rechecck?  The answer is that range checks are not for the radio,
but for the battery.  It is the quickest, simplest, and surest way
to verify that the battery is ok while coincidentally checking
the radio.

The other one that gets me is when they fool with the engine for
an hour with the radio on, then wonder why it does an roll in on
takeoff -- the batteries don't care much wheither they're flying
or not.

	Several changes and questions have been asked lately concerning 
    the HTA shirts, so I am re-posting this note and hope it will answer
    all questions.
    
    	The "Hi-Tech Airforce" was semi-officially christened with that
    name last year. It applied to a group of Deccies that would often
    gather at a local flying field during lunch to get in some stick time.
    It appears that certain members of this local club were not too
    enamored of this group of "hot-doffers". BTW-in the eyes of those that
    gave us the name, the A doesn't stand for Airforce! ;8^)
    
    	Originally we considered the idea that a lunchtime flight at the
    CMRCM field was necessary to qualify for HTA membership, along with
    being a Deccie of course, but decided that with the international
    flavor of DEC, then any lunch time flight anywhere is all that is
    necessary. So, if you work for DEC, full time or contractor, have flown
    at lunch time, and have a witness literate enought to write a
    statement, then you too can qualify to purchase an official HTA shirt.    
	
    	The shirts are a light blue, with the HTA logo in black on the back
    of the shirt. The logo is about 11-12" in diameter, and features a 
    pilot (very similar in appearance to a microhenry) controlling a robot
    that is controlling the plane. The possibility of having the logo done 
    in colors was mentioned, though it would have cost an extra dollar per
    color per shirt. Since this is a silkscreened logo, all shirts would
    have to be the same. The majority opted for the single black outline
    version. I apologize for any confusion on this. BTW-Fabric Markers are
    great if you want to customize your own logo.
    
    	You have your choice of either a T-shirt $10.50, or a golf shirt
    with collar for $16.50. This is for sizes S to XL. For XXL add $1 per
    shirt.    
        
    	If you meet the requirements, and would like one of these fine
    articles, please let me know as soon as possible. As soon as I get the 
    money in hand I'll order the shirts. Delivery was quoted as 10 days 
    from date of order.
	
    	All ordering information, lists, and other information pertaining
    to the Hi-Tech Airforce will be continued in WEWAND::DECRCM, note 133
        
         __       *   *        *
    * __|__|__  *    *    *     *
  *     (**)   V *  _______|_______ *
   *   (    )--| *         0  *  	   	
 _____(______)_|_________U___U______*___
	                
      "The Sno-man"			

Hey, I got my picture in the paper! I'm in the bottom left corner of the front
page of Thursday's Hudson Daily Sun. (What? You've never HEARD of the Hudson
Daily Sun???)

I was flying my Prophet glider last Saturday when a young women stopped by
to ask for directions to a little league field. She didn't get the directions,
but she did take some pictures of the plane and me launching it. She eventually
admitted to being a photojounalist (Aha, I thought so). She asked some
questions about the plane, and how it stayed up so long. She was clearly 
looking for one of those "general interest" photos that they run to show people
enjoying the good weather.

The amazing thing is when they did run the photo, the caption was 100% right.
My name was spelled right, "Prophet" was spelled right, and the description of
catching thermals was accurate. Good photo, too. Maybe I can get her to cover
the CRRC contest this summer.

Dave

    Well, Kay and I went out at lunchtime today to the soccer field in
    Acton. This was my first time out there although I've driven by and
    seen people flying there over the years. The conditions were good and
    the sky was clear and after a couple of trim flights and a couple of 5
    minute flights, I got into three consecutive thermals (with trips
    upwind in between) for a personal best of 22.5 minutes! That included a 
    few loops and some "follow the speck" moments. All with the Gnome off a
    small hi-start. I guess I'd better build a bigger plane if I'm going to 
    fly that high!

    Congrats! Feels the same with full scale when you thermal out, believe
    me!!
    
    ajai
    

    They are always people making their fun out of the world's situation...
    
    The KBO plant was closed down this morning due to a bomb threat.
    Employees were sent home and supposed to call or come some time later.
    Well, I think, nobody really beleived it was very serious, but you
    never know. And, when the sky is so blue and clear, the sun shines and
    the snow is bright and the world just looks wonderful, one just can't
    imagine something really bad could be about to happen...
    
    So what to do with a morning like this? Reinhard and I decided to leave
    civilisation and head for an open field. With our planes, of course.
    Reinhard had his CG Kadet Seniorita with skis, I had my Elektro-UHU 
    (first time with motor speed controller, not switch). We got some great
    flights in. Since there wasn't even the lightest breeze, it was not
    cold although temps were well below freezing. Flying is a nice thing to
    start the day with. And now I'm back at work and try to get done in an
    afternoon what I planned to do in a day, since I'll be off for the next
    two weeks.
    
    Looking forward to read this file again when I'm back. And I sure do
    hope, Al Casey (and all others) will still be with us when I'm back.
    
    Best regards,
                  Hartmut

What an afternoon.

Jim Reith, Lamar Phillips, Dave Walter and I spend a short
lunch hour in Acton.

Wow - I never seen so many thermals in such a short time.

Previous to this I have only thermaled out the Chuperosa
from a hand launch about 3 times.

Today - 5 times from hand launch.  

I think I only used Lamar's up-start once or twice.  

One flight I caught a nice one and Dave came over to share
the thermal.  I was trying real hard not to let him out
climb me with his predator.  We got right over Lamar's head
and about 125 feet up and both gliders locked up in a mid air.

I think I flew up under Dave.  They tumbled like a wounded duck
for a second then separated and both flew fine.

We did have a couple of mishaps.  Lamar did a real scary pop off.
Jim Reith road the up-start into the ground on his LAST launch.
I stalled bad once and sheared off my wing bolt.  I had too much
up trim in and I let Dave fly it that way (I still didn't realize
the error yet) and he tried to land on top of the goal posts!
That was another wing bolt.

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

It was a good day although the wind changed directions on us several times. It
made a pain for launches off the upstart(for me at least ;^} )  My "mishap"
Kay mentioned, happened on my first launch off the upstart. I popped off about
50 feet up but was able to recover and land without any damage. The rest of the
flights were unenventful( mishap wise :^} .)

I caught a glimpse of the little tangle Kay spoke of in the last note. Like he
said, it happened almost directly over my head. It looked like two birds trying
to mate in the air. They kind of locked tails, tumbled together a little bit, 
and then flew off. What a sight! 

Dave was having good luck with his Predator. On his third hand launch, he caught
a "hat sucker" and had a great flight. I let him fly my Gentle Lady a few times
and he almost caught a good thermal while "hand launching" it! He gave me a 
little stick time on the Predator also. What a nice ship! I've got to hurry and
fininsh the one I'm building. Like I said, "Quite a nice ship!"

-Lamar

If you're counting mishaps, I had another small one. My last launch of Lamar's
Gentle Lady, I gripped the fuse a little too tightly and heard that
tell-tale "crunch" just before releasing it. I know Jim heard it. That was why
I had the long flight... I was afraid of what I'd find when it came down! Lamar
assured me that the GL is his beater plane, and if the damage isn't visible, it
ain't worth worrying about. 

    Looks like a busy lunchtime.
    
    For those of you not on the normal Acton mailing list... there will be
    a pretty fair turn out today so it might even make interesting
    spectating

This should go in the "Lunchtime excitement" topic, but I'll keep it short.
As the last two notes mad reference to my "goal", I'll explain what they meant.

Today was the maiden flight of my Great Planes Spirit. It  was windy today, but
not bad enough to keep me from flying. Kay assisted me with the intial trim of
the plane( I held it while running as Kay worked the TX just in case it blew
out of my hand) and it seemed balanced okay. Next we did a couple of hand tosses.
On the second hand toss, the plane started to climb a little so I thought I'd 
try a small turn. Well, since we fly on a soccer field, we have these little 
obstacles in a couple of place called soccer goals. Several of us have scored 
goals in the past and today was my day. ;*}  I thought I was past the goal, but
I wasn't. I ended up turning right into the middle of the net. G O A L!!!!
Luckily, the only damage was a broken fin. A couple of drops of CA and I was
back in business. I'll enter more about the Spirit in the glider topic tonight.
I really like this plane!

-Lamar

    I'm cross posting this from the DECRCM file as an example of what not
    to do the day before leaving for a contest...
    
    The note said:
    
    Well, I just got back from a session in Acton with Lamar and Kay and it
    was interesting to say the least. My second flight was my longest (5:49
    and my first flight, when I was trimming my flap/elevator mix, was
    second best at 2:39. Everything else was in the 1:30 to 2:00 range.
    
    I broke a cardinal rule of contest flying. I flew my contest ship the
    day before leaving for the contest and ended up with just a warning. I
    stripped the gears on my flap servo when I tent pegged my last landing
    due to my battery dumping. I was setting up an approach when I popped
    full flaps and then gave it some down to try a steeper angle descent.
    The low battery gave up and it went in at about a 75 degree angle into
    the tall alfalfa with a boink. No damage other than a couple of missing
    teeth on a futaba s-133 (the flap servo). I was gonna replace it with a
    JR 3001 last night but decided to not bother for now. I think I will
    after all.
    
    Check it all over tonight and charge things up for the trip tomorrow
    night.

    Al Ryder also showed just what you are not to do 2 days before a
    contest...
    
    He was flying his Wanderer...  After he launched, he felt it was going 
    up too steeply, so he fed in a touch of down elevator...  The plane
    accelerated as he realized he fed in too much down and he started
    feeding in up elevator....    ***SNAP***  flap, flap, thud!
    
    The fuse apparently survived intact, The wing has one clean break just
    outside of the fiberglassed center section and another break at the 
    polyhedral joint.  Its going to be tough for him to get it back
    together before saturday, but it can be done!
    
    
    On the other hand, I got my drifter out for its first flights since the
    folding wing trick...  It flies OK...  Since we were flying at the
    small field (and I didn't want to have to try to repair it!) I kept it
    close to the field and played with the trim adjustments....  Boy, the 
    spoilers DO make a difference!!  I was able to put it down about 6 feet
    from a marker we had put out!!
    
    So the Drifter-II lives, long live the Wanderer...
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    

	Hey, I don't want to sound negative or anything, but if you guys
	are cracking up your planes left and right while fun flying them,
	what's gonna happen when you step up to the winch under the pressure
	of a contest? ;-)

	Seriously, I think you should fly, fly, fly, til you're so comfortable
	with that plane that you can't even CONCEIVE of crashing it! You want
	to concentrate on following that thermal, not how may degrees of flap
	do I need?, and which switch did I program for landing configuration?

	(Just my very humble opinion.)

	Dave

    Fortunately, I am that comfortable with the plane. I was fly, fly,
    flying but the 250ma battery was dry, dry, dry! I'm glad that the
    battery dumped when I was landing and not circling in that hat sucking
    thermal! Shouldn't have tried to suck 2 hours of flying out of a pack
    that consistantly cycles at 1:30 8^)
    
    Up to the winch under pressure?  Just step on the switch and snap the
    wings and javalin the fuselage into the woods half a mile "downrange".
    After all, I do this to relax...

>>  going to be tough for him to get it back together before Saturday

    It is fixed.  I didn't get enough sleep, but it is indeed fixed.

    And stronger than before!  This had a wing like the Gentle Lady ---
    delicate.  No longer.  I put 1/4 inch wide carbon strips on the bottom
    of the short spar and part way [but farther] out on the main spar.  The
    narrow strip of fiberglass at the root has been replaced by a wider one
    epoxied in; the original fiberglass did not bond well to the wood, and
    only a part of the break occurred at the boundary.

    Now I'm obliged to fly today no matter what the weather.  If I remember
    correctly, AMA rules require that all contest planes be flown before
    the contest.  I don't remember any exceptions for gliders.

    Good luck with it Al. I did verify that it was my battery dumping
    yesterday. I got a minute 13 seconds on the cycler before it beeped
    after sitting, resting in the plane all afternoon. I'll have to be more
    aware of the "on" time of the packs at the contest. I'll probably swap
    packs half way through the rounds just to be safe.

    We flew it at lunch today..  After a couple of hand launches, we tried 
    hand towing...  Hey, that works pretty well!!
    
    Much too windy for such a light plane..
    
    cheers,
    jeff
    

    Went out at lunch today with Lamar, George Mills, Kay, and Al Ryder. I
    managed to fly my Cloud Bound 99 and actually ALMOST had fun. The other
    side of that almost, is almost disaster. My initial flight was exciting
    since I discovered half way up that my rudder control was reversed. I
    managed to figure it out and recover and get the reverse switch thrown
    before too much happened but it made it very interesting. Once I threw
    the switch, my trims were backwards but I managed to land it in one
    piece in the tall grass. After I stopped shaking I got in another trim
    flight and found that I needed some left trim. Since my flaps are
    independent (I intend to have flaperons in the future) I trimmed it with
    "aileron". After this I got in several good flights with the wind
    greatly helping the launch. Final changes have been:
    
    More precisely balanced the plane.
    
    Washout in the wings (the plans don't call for any)
    
    Tighter ball link sockets and less elevator servo movement. The V-tail
    mixer doesn't like too much movement. It pops the sockets off. I
    increased the elevator throw at the ruddervator horns.
    
    I flew it today with my (son's 8^) JR Max4 FM with no fancy mixing and
    it seems content making flat lazy thermal turns and I did find some
    lift during all the trimming. I may actually be able to fly it at the
    Simsbury contest if I get some more practice time in on it.

>   <<< Note 929.227 by ZENDIA::REITH "Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02" >>>
>                       -< Cloud Bound 99 has a good day >-
>
>    Went out at lunch today with Lamar, George Mills, Kay, and Al Ryder. I
>    managed to fly my Cloud Bound 99 and actually ALMOST had fun. The other
>    side of that almost, is almost disaster. My initial flight was exciting
>    since I discovered half way up that my rudder control was reversed. I
>    managed to figure it out and recover and get the reverse switch thrown
>    before too much happened but it made it very interesting. Once I threw
>    the switch, my trims were backwards but I managed to land it in one
>    piece in the tall grass. After I stopped shaking I got in another trim

Lamar and I were watching his launch since for us (me anyway) it was the
first time we got to see the Cloud Bound 99 fly.

After a couple of wild gyrations at the beginning of the launch I yelled
to Lamar - "You think he's having fun yet?".  I didn't know at the time that
he was troubleshooting the servo reverse switch on launch.  I'm sure I would
have crashed in a similar situation.  And with a V-tail yet!

Hmmmmmmmmm - there was this other fellow who showed up to fly with us.
Al Ryder.  First he popped off.  Second launch was much nicer except...



He forgot to turn the radio on.

I think we should form a club of "I've launched without my radio on!"
members.  Course since we'd almost all be in it maybe we could just
call the club DECRCM?

Fortunately the plane (a wanderer) wasn't damaged very much.

Perhaps he will try again today?

Oh yeh - I caught a nice thermal with the Chuperosa and tried an outside
loop as an altitude loosing maneuver - works great!

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

    Well, that was an interesting lunch!
    
    First, I take the repaired Drifter out.  I flew it about 4 flights last
    Sunday, so I knew that it was basically intact and able to take 
    Hi-Start launches.
    
    The wind was right in our faces, so I gave it a couple of more clicks
    of up and gave it a toss...  The plane leveled out and took off like a
    shot!  Although the wings were starting to flutter, I carefully pulled
    back on the stick, but with the wings flapping, it really didn't have
    much of an effect...  Or maybe it did...  SNAP, there goes the wing 
    again..
    
    The fuse is better off than last time as is the wing.  Hell, I wanted
    to recover the wing anyways!  I think for now though, it will join the
    pile of broken planes in the corner...  I'm not a happy camper though!
    
    What is the right action to take in that situation??  I knew I was
    going too fast, but to slow down, I shed the wings...  Should I have
    tried to maintain level flight??  (When I think about it, I was pretty
    close to 0 pull when the wing went...)
    
    ----
    
    So, Al Ryder took his repaired Wanderer out...  He could have been up 
    all afternoon but he broke out of a good thermal, never to find it
    again.  
    
    After a couple of more flights from Al, I take the Wanderer up...  With
    his loose hook I just managed to get off the line..  It was a lousy 
    launch but I made the best of it!!  I was maintaining height along a
    tree line when this hawk flew out into the middle of our field and 
    started circling...  Guess where I went!  The hawk and I circled up
    downwind of the field...  At about 8:30 I started worrying about making
    it back, so I broke out and headed back for the field...  I caught
    another thermal over the field...  Al was REALLY itching to get back up
    (and afterall, it was his plane!) so I tried to fly it inverted (not
    too successful) and did some loops and brought it in for a 12:20 flight
    (personal best off a high start!).  
    
    Al, never did find that thermal!!  
    
    Thank you Mr/Ms Hawk!
    jeff
    

    Must have been a day for flutter. I decided to take a couple of
    pictures of the CB99 before starting today. With those out of the way I
    decided to push my luck. I gave about half the reflex of my flaps and
    all the down trim and launched. I was pleased to discover that the
    plane really likes to groove around at a much higher speed than I
    typically fly. I managed to get a few good turns in and really covered
    some ground. On the second launch I fluttered the wings and decided to
    fly the Gentle Lady again. I pushed some down and that stopped the
    flutter. I'm not sure what to do either but that seemed to help in this
    case.
    
    I got in a few so so 1:30 flights with the GL and then decided to
    remove the ballast I had put in for the Biddeford contest. Sure enough,
    7:12 on the next flight. A good afternoon with no damage.
    
    I'm going to go ahead with the 120" set of bagged wings and see how
    they react.

The unprepared meet the unexpected.

Yesterday started out bad.  As I put the Chup in the car I notice
the receiver is on.  Great.  All morning I'm concerned about this
because I know when I charged it that both lights were on the Airtronics
charger.  When I get to the field I tested the battery with an ESV.
Looked great.  Additionally I could switch the Rx on and off and
not effect the ESV.  In other words the Airtronics switch harness
sends battery to charge jack all the time.  I'm used to Futaba where
if the Rx is on you can't light up the charger because there is no path.
Hmmmmmm - also it appears if you don't have any servos stalled that
the 50 ma charger can overcome the Rx load and you actually gain charge
through the night. 

Anyway the proof is in the pudding so I hand launched it several times.
I caught a small thermal that headed right for the trees so I chickened
out right away - my longest being 45 seconds.  

Lamar Phillips, Jim Reith and George Mills arrive shortly.
Jim has a new fuselage for his Gnome and a really floppy pull pull
rudder linkage.  He could shake the plane and the rudder would flop
from side to side like a fish tail.  But amazingly it seemed to fly OK.

Sooooooo - first launch off Jim's hi-start and I catch a nice thermal.
I'm starting to day dream about actually making that LSF 1/2 hour flight.
When I'm forced to bail out of that thermal because I'm too high and too
far down wind I loose a lot of altitude coming back to the field.  But
by then Lamar has found a new one for me so I had for Lamar and I'm
about a 100 feet under him and I try to get slightly up wind.  This wasn't
easy because the wind was almost gone and I couldn't be sure which way was
up wind.  After floundering around for quite some time I finally get the
up elevator.  

By now Lamar, Jim, and I are all in 1 or 2 thermals and George is putting
around with his electric Mirage.  Jim is trying to re-create a beer
commercial with the "It don't get any better than this" kinda talk.

Things are looking pretty good for silent flight when all of a sudden
the silence is broken.

I hear a lot of cursing going on.

GOD DAMN!
SON OF A B%%%%!
SH%%!
GOD DAMN!

George is a little upset.  But I'm way up by now and don't dare look
around.  But I see this arrow go by then hear a fuselage hitting
the trees.  Meanwhile.

GOD DAMN!
SON OF A B%%%%!
SH%%!
GOD DAMN!

Now I'm trying real hard to concentrate on the Chup but I can't help
but glance over a few times to watch this wing flipping over and over
and over and over...
Meanwhile

GOD DAMN!
SON OF A B%%%%!
SH%%!
GOD DAMN!

As George goes off into the woods.

Then a few minutes later I hear Jim yelling - "I LOST MY TAIL!".

Sheeze - "Can you land it!".

"I don't know."

Next thing you know Jim is off into the woods.

But I'm still up there.

A few minutes later Lamar lands and comes over to give me moral
support and help me keep an eye on the Chup.  So with his help
I stay up till the timer goes past 30 minutes then I start trying to
bring it down - trying various techniques.  Looping doesn't seem
to do the trick because after a few loops it seems to fall into a
purpose mode and spends too much time not having the bottom (dark blue)
visible to me.  So we try outside loops but again it finds a stable
state and likes to just fly inverted after 1 or two poor loops.  But
simple spins work great and it goes around so fast that the visible side
is flashing enough to make visibility much easier.  Finally land
after 33 minutes and 15 seconds and get Jim and Lamar to sign off
the LSF form.  Oh yah - I had to catch the landing just for icing
but I must admit to a poor catch.

Who knows how long I could have kept it up - thermals were straight up
by then and the air seemed to be going up everywhere.  But I was concerned
about the receiver battery since I charged it turned on and I had to go
help Jim and George find their airplane.

George had already found his fuselage and said he didn't want to talk
about the amount of damage, but he was still looking for his wing.
Lamar, Jim, Jim's wife Rose and I looked for Jim's plane for a half
hour or so and finally Rose went back for the Transmitter to see if
we could here it.  Jim heard it right away and I think the only
damage was the tail break which may have happened in flight.

As we walked back to the car they were marking the soccer field and
some kid was trying to see how bad he could tangle up Jim's hi-start.

But I had to cut and run back to work before George found his wing.

He did find it - no damage to the wing.

I wonder if George is done cursing?

Hope he fixes the Mirage cause I really like the way it flys.

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

    Well, the pull-pull rudder didn't start out that way but the dacron
    line I used must have kept slipping the knots a little with each
    flight. I originally thought that one side had broken. I was amazed
    that the plane would still thermal without the fin. It has a natural
    tendancy to thermal turn counter clockwise. The real problem was that
    in diving and flying inverted to get out of the thermal, I had
    fluttered the rudder and it fractured the fin right off the plane. The
    dacron line still held on both sides so the rudder and fin were
    trailing along behind. I was very lucky that the wind wasn't stronger
    and blowing me away from the field. My main objective was to dive
    towards the field as I can around. I ended up short of the field,
    behind some trees at the edge and it disappeared for about 5 seconds
    before we heard it hit. The only damage was the fin pulled loose (the
    base actually split with my glue joint still intact). The 5 missing
    seconds caused the plane to cross the access road where we couldn't see
    it and land on the opposite side from where we thought it was.
    Surprisingly, i was close enough to it to hear the servos when Rose
    brought the radio back out (I turned it off and put it in the car. I
    won't next time). I picked up some stainless steel fishing leader last
    night which will crimp and hold better for the repairs. I'll drag it to
    Simsbury this weekend to fool around with afterwards.

    Just the thing to liven up a thursday morning, he says, picking
    himself off the floor.
    
    Congrats on your 33 min. flight,Kay.
    
    There is something funny with your charger. Both my Airtronics
    chargers turn off the leds when the rcvr. or xmtr. is switched on.
    The only thing I can think of is that the leads on the switch are
    reversed, ie, the lead that is supposed to go to the rcvr. is actually
    going to the battery and the batt. lead is going to the rcvr.
    I know this condition causes the switch positions to be reversed,
    but everthing still works okay. I'm not sure how it affects the
    charge mode.
    
    Jim, the only safe way to use dacron as pull-pull cables is to
    glue the knots with CA. I'm replacing the dacron cables in the Legend
    kit with kevlar partly for this reason, and also for abrasion
    resistance. 
    Good save though.
    
    Terry
    

    Terry,
    
    I had CA'd the knots. That's why I thought I was safe. The CA did bead
    up somewhat on the line so there might have been some kind of coating
    on the line. I used 1/2A flight line (CG brand I think). The line did
    stiffen so I thought I had used enough. I'll go back to the wire lines
    for now. The uncoated kevlar line I used back on my Panic frayed at the
    exits but the cable replacements worked fine. Go with what you're
    comfortable with. The plane will be back in the air this weekend.
    
    Kay was one happy Sonofagun once he was back on the ground. You could
    tell he was trying not to grin too much around us less fortunate types.

    CONGRATS AGAIN, Kay-the-Fisherman errr... Kay-Soarer. Maybe you ought
    to get that sticker I have on my car bumper that says
    
    "I'd rather be Soaring"
    
    that I picked up at the National Soaring museum at Harris Hill, NY!
    
    Geeze! A 33 minute flight! If you are gonna keep up this winning
    streak, I better define a "CONGRATS TO KAY" key that I simply push
    every time I read one of your delightful notes! Keep up the good work,
    and transfer some of your soaring technology to us third-worlders,
    perhaps at the next DECRCM meeting...
    
    OK, now about your switch/battery/charger problem...
    
    The switch is a double pole double throw switch, and you got the
    harness going from your switch to the battery and charger interchanged!
    As a result, you charger is either connected to your radio [light on],
    or the battery [light on] depending on what the switch position is. 
    Conversely, your battery is either hooked up to the radio, 
    or left floating.
    
    Soo, if you interchanged your charger and battery harnesses at the
    switch, you have the battery connected either to the radio, or the
    charger, depending on switch position. And again, from the Charger's
    perspective, the charger is either hooked up to the battery [light on], 
    or left floating [light off].
    
    
    
                       o-------+
                     /       CHARGER  
                    /  o-------+
          +-------o  / 
       BATTERY      /
          +-------o
    
                       o-------+
                             RADIO
                       o-------+
                       
    
           Diagram showing correct hookup
           ------------------------------
    
           (You have Battery and Charger swapped)
    
    Hope this helps
    
    ajai
    
    

    RE: Airtronics harness. I think there is more to it than that.
    I admit your diagram makes sense but... If according to your
    diagram and if batt/charge are swapped then how could he turn on
    his PLANE !!!
    
    To get the behavior he's getting Batt and charge must always
    be together and the radio is a single throw into the circuit.
    This would allow him to run in this bad mode.

    
    I think that it's more likely that the charger  and switch are
    functioning correctly and that the RX switch was just bumped into
    an "ON" position.  The RX requires a very minimal amount of power
    to function and there is no other drain unless a servo is in motion
    or stalled.  If the RX didn't recieve any signal from another
    source chances are there was very little power drain.  Hence the
    batteries checked out find with a volt meter.
    
    
    Tom

    I think Ajai is right. I tried this last night with my Airtronics
    system.
    With the rcvr. and charger leads reversed, the on/off positions on
    the switch become reversed but everything works okay.
    I've done this before, so no surprises.
    
    However, when plugging in the charger to what is supposed to be
    the charge plug to the battery you are actually going to the rcvr.
    The rcvr. draws current, causing the leds to light on the charger.
    Everything looks ok, but when the switch is flipped, now the path
    is to the batt. , current still flows, and the leds don't turn off.
    This is the condition that Kay was seeing.
    
    I finally got it through my head that the single harness out of
    the switch is the rcvr. side, and the dual harness is the batt./charger
    side. 
    
    Terry
    
    s

>         <<< Note 929.243 by ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH "A Fistful of Epoxy" >>>
>
>    I think Ajai is right. I tried this last night with my Airtronics
>    system.
>    With the rcvr. and charger leads reversed, the on/off positions on
>    the switch become reversed but everything works okay.
>    I've done this before, so no surprises.

Me too several times - I didn't realize that there was any other side effect.
    
>    However, when plugging in the charger to what is supposed to be
>    the charge plug to the battery you are actually going to the rcvr.
>    The rcvr. draws current, causing the leds to light on the charger.
>    Everything looks ok, but when the switch is flipped, now the path
>    is to the batt. , current still flows, and the leds don't turn off.
>    This is the condition that Kay was seeing.

Not quite - when I plug in an expanded scale volt meter to the charge jack
I see battery voltage with the switch either ON or OFF.  Hence I can charge
the pack with the Rx on.
    
I checked my other systems and this is the only one currently working like
this but probably it is the only current one that I have the switch label
reversed on.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

    The Super Sportster 20 is ready to go!
    
    I won't be able to fly at lunch on Thursday, although possibly at
    4:00 or 4:30 (will anybody else be there?).
    
    Friday for sure. Who's taking an expanded lunch hour on Friday?
    
    Dave

    as the commercial says, "Oh what a feeling!"
    
    I got in a good day with the Gnome. I managed several ~1 minute flights
    and then got a 2 minute one all from hand launches. If I could have
    stayed with the 2 minute thermal I could have kept going up but I know
    I couldn't have gotten back upwind from much farther out. Flew into the
    side of a soccer goal to end the day. Crushed the leading edge and
    cracked the radio area of the fuselage. I tossed it anyway and flew it
    back to the car so it isn't too bad 8^)

Yesterday at lunch time I was in Acton.  It was clouded over all morning
but started to break up just at lunch and almost dead calm.  The kinda
day when it's easy to find the lift because any wiggle of the plane
is caused by thermals - no ground turbulence.  So after a few hand throws
I take out the hi-start.  I'm the only one there and don't find anything
for a couple of flights but get about 2 minutes of glide time in each one.

Perfect time to make any trim changes - but things seem pretty good.  On the
3rd launch I catch a nice thermal that takes me over the industrial park and
I manage 9 minutes out of that one.  By now some spectators are arriving
and a guy from the industrial park shows up with an Oly II.  So he shares
my hi-start but it is so old and lost so much of it's elasticity that it
barely gets him air borne.  So then another fellow arrives with a Gemini
(or Paragon (I keep getting them mixed up)) and a big hi-start.  Next thing
you know we're all airborne.

Things are looking pretty good but I have another couple of short flights
and on the last one I'm coming back to the field and as I pass over the
soccer field about 20 feet high it refuses to sink.  So I start circling.
Slowly I'm drifting down wind towards the power line so I'm trying as
best as I can to make nice efficient turns hoping that I can get up over
the power lines.  Then the Oly II is coming in from the South.  I know
we're going to be close so I'm trying to time my circle with his pass.
As he approaches from the South and I turn South I'm right in front of him
then I circle around and as I'm going North we just miss as we pass
Port to Port.  Then as I complete my circle I come in around behind this
big slow Oly II and pop.  My leading edge hit his trailing edge.  He wiggles
a bit and keeps lumbering on and my nylon wing bolt shears off and it the
fuselage arrows down to the ground.  

I ended up with a 4 inch byte out of my leading edge and the vortex eliminator
tip is broke loose from the wing spiraling down to the ground.  When the 
fuselage hit the whip-lash snapped some longerons and longeron braces in the
tail.  The owner of the Oly can't find any damage.  

I managed to hit him at the trailing edge right where the polyhedral break
is and the gussets reinforcement.  If I had any up or down vector I'm sure
the Chuperosa would have ate his wing or if I had hit the trailing edge
anyplace else it would have damaged the Oly II.

Whose fault was it?  Clearly mine - he may have been unaware of the
closeness but I know he was coming and I was too greedy and trying to
save that last thermal.

Well - I'm glad his plane was OK and after two hours last night the 
Chup is flight worthy and ready to go.

I had a mid air with Dave Walter a few weeks ago but then we just tangled
up and parted without damage.  This is my first mid air that resulted in
a total shoot down and I lost.  I had this mental picture of two planes
just bumping and since we were both going in the same direction at very
slow speeds I thought there was no real danger.

Fly a little, learn a little.

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

Too bad about the damage Kay. I don't know what it is about these little
planes, but they seem to attract airborne obstacles. I've had 4 mid-air 
collisions with my Predator now, one of which did major damage to the 
fuse and wing. Seems that one season of use is the best you can expect
from a handlaunch glider.

Dave

>fuse and wing. Seems that one season of use is the best you can expect
>from a handlaunch glider.

My Chup was a year old in April - tho I must admit it weights more
with every new layer of paint.  But it flew today at lunch time today!

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

    What could cause a reasonably sane person to go to Bose, only put in
    three flights, stand at the lip of the hill alone for the entire time,
    and leave an hour and three quarters later with an intact airplane and
    a big smile? Perfect conditions!
    
    Nobody was there when I arrived about 4:20 yesterday. The wind was
    directly at the face at 10-15mph. I decided the ballasted Gnome would
    be a better choice so I clicked my stopwatch and tossed off the edge.
    Gee, this is nice... boy this is great... gee, the wind isn't dying at
    all... Well, after getting bored with zooming back and forth and up and
    down I started doing aerobatics (rudder/elevator) and managed to get
    behind the lip on a rudder roll so I decided to land and relaunch
    (28:29 flight!) The next launch I fumbled with the stop watch after the
    toss and managed 44 seconds of fighting the rotor to try to get back
    out in front. The next launch I waited until I was well established in
    front of the slope and clicked the stopwatch. I flew, I looped, I
    rolled, I chased birds, I checked the edges of the field, I sat down
    and flew some more. Then I got concerned about my batteries (just a
    250ma pack) I ended up flying 1:02:06 which is a new personal best! But
    nobody was there and there were no witnesses for LSF. You guys missed a
    perfect night.
    
    Dave was back home last night and seems in good spirits but won't be
    back to work until monday. He's had days like that at Bose when
    nobody's been there and it's really great.

    Kay Fisher, Jim Reith, Steve Smith, Dave Walter, Dan Miner, Al Ryder,
    and [from Colorado] Mark Antry showed up at Acton after work with two
    Chups, a Predator, a Gnome, a Spirit, and two hi-starts to demonstrate
    for Mark an Eastern specialty, the one minute duration event.

    Dan Miner wanted to fit in and socialize with the other glider guiders,
    so he brought along the wing of a scratch built HLG he is working on
    --- about a meter long and very low aspect ratio --- some sort of
    aileron slope ship?  (It doesn't look like a Stylus, and I didn't
    recognize the airfoil; on the wing it said, "Gremlin".)  Like most of
    the other glider guiders, he was soon discussing the merits of various
    wing construction techniques.  Since he was clearly one of us, a rather
    new Chuperosa was loaned to him, and he tried to fly it the way we hear
    he intends to fly the "Gremlin" --- a vertical launch shortly followed
    by a vertical landing.  The servos needed to be repositioned anyway.

    A good BSing session followed at the local pizza place including a
    demonstration of spandex as a covering material. It was interesting to
    get back into napkin lecture mode and discuss pull-pull linkage, vacuum
    bagging, hinging and F3B construction. The pen kept being passed around
    the table and it was 9:30 before we ran out of napkins.
    
    1 minute duration is about what we had it seemed. Times seemed to vary
    only 15 seconds each flight. It was interesting to practice flat
    turning in the pre-storm calm air.

    Jeff, Jim Reith, and I had a ball with the Chuperosa, a short hi-start,
    and the strong wind yesterday noon.  And the plane survived.  Down-wind
    passes were fast enough to kick up the adrenalin.

    Last Friday my oldest son joined me to practice for a joint effort at
    Biddeford on the 13th.  He doesn't fly, but he does play volleyball
    year around, and with a height of 6-4, this 32 year old lad should be
    able to rival the launches of Roelke and Walter.  It's the orangutan
    ancestry [from his mother's side].  Before Friday he had never seen a
    HLG fly, but after several beautiful tosses, he got the hang of it and
    put some power into it.  Threw the fuselage right out from under the
    wing!  The wing fluttered down, and the fuselage speared the sod.  The
    fingerhole bulkhead had cracked, and the wing hold-down block had torn
    out.  I believe the toss had been perfectly straight without twist.

Alton, who wishes he could guide as well as Peter can toss

    p.s.  For those who aren't aware, the AMA rules and the Biddeford rules
    allow for someone else to launch a glider, including a hand launch toss.

    It was nice to sneak away from my ZKO meetings to fly a different 
    field. The wind was a little higher than HLG testing velocity but it
    made things more "interesting". I built a Dave Walter Predator last
    week and monday was the maiden flights. Yesterday proved that I didn't
    have enough rudder throw and then a rotor near the edge of the field
    put me down hard enough to pop my bolt plate. I didn't have any CA so I
    proceeded to bum flights off Al. Flying the Chup with a more effective
    rudder made me go home and do some adjustments.
    
    I'm flying mine with my X-347 (overkill) which has allowed me to try
    some interesting things. I've got plenty of elevator so I cut my up
    elevator down to 50% but I increased my down travel to 120%. I'm also
    using 50% exponetial throw. Since most of my flying is feeding in up
    elevator with a possible blip of down, this works out fine. The high
    deflection down elevator gives me nice square corners at the top of my
    launches. I moved the rudder horn pull-pull wires inward to increase my
    throw and I hope to give it a few more heaves at lunch today.

    With the hunting season closing two of our local power fields during
    the week, I guess its time to break out the gliders. Acton was busy 
    today and we christened another A.S.S. member, Mike Pitoniak. Mike got 
    some stick time on his Spirit and did his first, successful, intentional 
    landing. I managed a 1:48 flight from a handlaunch with my fixed Predator. 
    Kay and Lamar were there enjoying the wind also.

This goes under the category of "It don't get any better than this!"

In Acton today at lunch time...

1st the Weatherman said it would be raining.  It was sunny
with puffy clouds and a gentle breeze.  I managed my safety/trim
flights on the Lovesong and Jim Reith and Dave Walter were
catching thermals with hand launch.  I managed to catch one and get
up high enough to due a few rolls and a loop.  After 5 weeks of repair
the Lovesong is once again flight worthy.

Two young ladies came by to spend their lunch (cigarette) break watching.
As they arrived I was just starting to disassemble the Lovesong and
they were watching Dave and Jim hand launch the Predators.

They looked at my love song and...

Girl_1:  Wow - they sure are a lot bigger close up!

Girl_2:  Yeah!

I didn't say a word - why spoil their illusion of Dave chucking my
6 pound 136 inch span Lovesong up into a loop and thermaling out!

Thanks again Ed and Jim for helping with the hi-start.  It sure
made it a lot safer to launch and trim.  

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

    You probably couldn't hear it with the Thermal Sniffer running but you
    did get some flutter on your speed/roll run. Very similar to the loud
    HMmMmMmMmMMM you got at that first Biddeford contest when you came
    screaming back. I have new respect for those guys that stall the
    winches on launch. My arm is sore from three hi-start launches (and
    several HLG flights 8^) It was awesome air out there today. Dave Walter
    outclimbed me in several thermals today. Practice, practice,
    practice...

	Yep, actually a nice day at Acton, in spite of the warnings from the
	weather man. George was executing very nice take offs from grass
	with his electric Mirage. It's the first time I've seen this plane;
	it reminds me of the PT Electric.

	After handlaunching Jim's Predator just twice, I realized how much God-
	awful weight has been added to mine due to various midair and ground
	zero collisions. And I will have to add yet more weight, because the 
	rear of the fuse is still breaking when the stab drags in the grass.
	But Anker's contest tomorrow will absolutely be the LAST official
	flight of this airplane... then on to building a new fuse... I promise..
	really.

	Dave

    Word has it that the overweight Predator took 1st place in the Saturday
    contest. Congratulations Dave.

    Acton was buzzing today. Dan Miner was allowed to leave the nursery and
    brought another flier. Lamar convinced Dave Walter to come down. Steve
    Smith showed up and Lamar, Kay and myself were there. We had several
    cars stop to spectate. Dan Miner got in a real good flight (18+
    minutes) and we were all buzzing around (4 different hi/up-starts were
    in use). I managed to take the stab off my Rude B*tch on the top wire
    trying to cross the road (I don't know how I managed to not break
    anything else). I guess I shouldn't have mentioned to a coworker that I
    hadn't had to do any repairs this week 8^)
    
    All in all it was a killer week. People were flying every lunchtime
    this week (I did four myself) and flighttimes above 10 minutes were
    regular events. Boy do I like spring and fall weather.
    
    Question of the week:
    
    What's old and blue, covered with tape and goes CLANG?
    
    Tune in Monday to find out 8^)

>    All in all it was a killer week. People were flying every lunchtime
>    this week (I did four myself) and flighttimes above 10 minutes were
>    regular events. Boy do I like spring and fall weather.



     Oh shut up will ya!!!!!   8^)





                     Jim (who's got the 'Hunting season blues!")

Wow!!! What a day we had in Acton today! I not sure how hard the wind was
blowing today, but it was pretty damn fast. Only Jim Reith, Steve Smith,
Peter Orford(a non-DECie), and myself braved the wind. Steve even put in
his maiden flight(off the highstart) on his Intimadator.  

The wind was blowing so hard that you could stay up all day as long as you
were still attached to the tow line. I also think this was the first time
that I couldn't get the Spirit to penetrate. Peter was having a little trouble
with his Oly II(even with lots of ballast) and ended up getting too far down
wind(and too low behind the power lines near the swamp.) He ended up smacking
one the telephone poles and crunching a section of leading edge about 6" out
from the fuse. The rest were lucky enough to bring the planes home intact.
It was a blast and the rest of you A.S.S's missed a great time!

-Lamar

    It was a good day for kite flying. Seems the only one that didn't have
    penetration trouble was Steve (he'll have a "ball" with that
    statement). His Intimidator moved up wind with authority and handled
    well in "hover" mode. I think it's going to be a real killer ship on
    the slope too. The wind was a bit excessive, BUT WE FLEW (backwards).
    Peter broke Lamar's upstart and Steve and I chased it several backyards
    downwind. Once we got back to the field, Peter put together about 20'
    of rubber and a long line and the wind stretched it back further when
    we launched. Peter was the first to use it and got about half way up
    and popped off behind the telephone lines. He seemed to be making it
    back to the field when the wind blew him sideways and he hit the pole.
    Inspection showed that he had broken his tow hook on launch causing the
    popoff.
    
    It was fun doing some dynamic soaring and I was able to get a 4 minute
    flight (including two turns 8^) just flying up wind. I didn't use any
    ballast but by reflexing my flaps I could penetrate whenever I needed
    too. The flight times have been getting increasingly better with the
    ship and it really seems to be coming into it's own. I let a couple of
    others try it this weekend and it was plain to see that it more my
    familiarity with the plane than the actual tweaking I've been doing.
    I've got it tuned to my style of control reaction and now the season is
    ending 8^) At least I'm ready for Biddeford on saturday.

    Went out to the Acton field Monday (yesterday) looking forward to
    seeing what the Intimidator would do in less than gale force winds.
    
    When I got there, I met up with Lamar, Dick Bissen, Pete, and Tom
    Deloriea. First launch off of the high start and the trim was off
    again, causing porpoising. Recovered from that, got the trim
    straightened out, and flew into a thermal with Tom. It looked like we
    had a combat session going for awhile, but we both managed to miss
    each other and get about 5 minute flights. It was all down hill from
    there thermal wise.
    
    I was happy with the way the Intimidator flew. It's fast and will 
    cover ground quickly, but will also slow down to a resonable speed
    for landing. You just need to make a long approach. As an example,
    I was standing about 50 feet from the side road along the soccer
    field. I could make an approach from out over the clover maybe
    50 yards out and 15 feet up. If I didn't intentionally slow it down,
    I still could have flown right by myself. So from a 15 foot altitude,
    I would cover at least 100 yards cross wind.
    
    Anyway, it flew real well and will be my 2 meter ship for next years
    contests. Everyone left about 1 o'clock, and Lamar left me the high
    start. I flew for about another hour with the sun constantly 
    threatening to come out, but never did. I managed to catch one more
    thermal that took me out over Rte. 2 toward the end of the swamp.
    Made it back from there no problem and packed it up for the day.
    
    I think the only thing the Intimidator needs is a good dynamic
    balancing. Right now, I have it balanced on the spar which is probably
    about 28% or cord. It still acts like it's a little nose heavy in that
    an increase in speed lifts the nose. Unfortunately, I have all the nose
    weight burried in the nose block so rather than doing a "leadectomy"
    I'll try adding some weight aft of the CG. With a wing loading of just 
    over 7 ounces per square foot, I can affort an ounce or two.
    
    
    Steve

It was my first time flying a glider (SIG Riser) and I
really had a great time. 

My first flight of the upstart I was finding lift all 
over the place. I was thinking, boy this is too easy.
Where is the challenge? From one thermal to the next.

My hands started to get chilled so I started thinking 
about landing. I headed over towards Rt2 and the clover,
flew back towards myself for the approach and landed
at my feet.

The Riser flew really good in the mild air and needed 
very little trim.

The next few flights were not the same. Sink was 
everywhere. Everyone was waiting for their turn at the 
upstart. It seemed everytime someone was launching 
the previous person that launched was landing. 

I was glad I had the first flight in or else I might 
have thought this glider business is for the birds.
I did stick around waiting for one last ride on some 
warm air and I found some with help from Dick who was
already in the lift. 

I was under Dick and circling when I must have come out
of the thermal and hit sink. DOWN went the nose like
someone grabbed it and pulled it down. I must have
stalled it as it came out of the thermal. 

Now that I'm hooked is there anyone flying gliders 
closer to SHR?


Tom 237-6902 NEMAIL::DELORIEA

I now have my own up-start. I'm looking for local places to fly
my Riser. I went to SAC park today and flew off of the soccer 
field. 

Nice place very much like the Acton field. (soccer goals
that you can fly into ;-)

I noticed how nice the weather was right up until I headed out 
for lunch. It was overcast and periods of gusty winds when I was
setting up the up-start.  :-(  What happened to that sunshine?

Well, after a dozen 2 minute flights, I finally caught a thermal
that must of been the warm air in front of the cold front that
was finally comming through. I was getting blown downwind pretty
fast so time to out the nose down and head back to the field.
I must of gotten at least a 5 minute flight.
 
I did get this terrible launch that scared the heck out of me.
I was getting a bit of cross wind on a few launches and this one
time it caused the plane to kite on the up-start right over 
the top and back toward the ground. Yikes! I fed a lot of down 
and it came off the ring. Whew...

Tom

  Just got this one from my friend at Hewlett Packard!


                             Jim


                And the Twelve Bugs of Christmas
                --------------------------------
  
    For the first bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the second bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the third bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the fourth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the fifth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the sixth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Reinstall the software
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the seventh bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Say they need an upgrade
         Reinstall the software
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the eighth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Find a way around it
         Say they need an upgrade
         Reinstall the software
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the ninth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Blame it on the hardware
         Find a way around it
         Say they need an upgrade
         Reinstall the software
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the tenth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Change the documentation
         Blame it on the hardware
         Find a way around it
         Say they need an upgrade
         Reinstall the software
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the eleventh bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Say it's not supported
         Change the documentation
         Blame it on the hardware
         Find a way around it
         Say they need an upgrade
         Reinstall the software
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
    
    For the twelfth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
         Tell them it's a feature
         Say it's not supported
         Change the documentation
         Blame it on the hardware
         Find a way around it
         Say they need an upgrade
         Reinstall the software
         Ask for a dump
         Run with the debugger
         Try to reproduce it
         Ask them how they did it and
         See if they can do it again.
  
  

    Due to having to work this past weekend, I had yesterday off and
    decided to head out the the CMRCM field about noontime to do some
    flying. I brought the Predator and the Goblin.
    
    It was a little on the windy side and the wind was blowing in directly
    at the pits, so the "rotor" effect coming off of the trees was pretty
    wicked at times. But, one of the things I wanted to do was see how
    the Predator handled in the wind.
    
    The Goblin needed to be charged up, so while that was going on in the
    van, I flew the HLG. It got tossed around quite a bit but overall,
    handled very well. The 7037 section does much better in the wind than
    it does in calm conditions. The only problem is, I have to keep telling
    myself "don't make low down wind turns"....."don't make low down wind
    turns"....."don't make low down wind turns".
    
    I ended up dorking it and cracking the fuse behind the wing. Actually,
    just behind the finger hole. Tried to make a turn going down wind and
    got caught in some rotor effect at the same time. The predator came
    down like a brick. It's a quick fix though and it'll be back in no
    time.
    
    By now, the Goblin was charged up and ready to go. it's been several
    months since it's flown and the low end needle was a little on the lean
    side. But I figured I'd fly a tank through it anyway and clean it out
    before messing with the settings. Shortly after I took off, the engine
    leaned out a little so I throttled back and flew around some more.
    After about half a tank, I landed and reset the high end needle. Took
    off again and everything was fine. Landing was a chore with the wind
    being what it was and being the only one at the filed, I took some
    liberties with the rules and made my approach from over the corn field,
    over the hedge's, over the road, and onto the left corner of the field.
    
    Just as I was coming over the hedge row, the engine quit. The goblin
    settled in very gently and slide down the outside of the hedges and
    landed very gently on the road. Trouble is, this "hedge row" is nothing
    but massive PRICKER BUSHES. Anyone care to guess what the bottom of my
    wing looks like???????????? Can you say SHREADED??????
    
    So much for yesterdays flying session.......8^)

    
    
      Steve,
    
          How is the road / parking area at the CMRCM field? I was almost
       tempted to go down SUnday, but not knowing the driving/parking
       conditions, I decided not to take the risk

    Road is fine. Parking area is roped off. Some deep ruts just as you
    come over the crest of the hill that goes down to the pits. Meant
    to bring a shovel and do some work, but forgot.
    
    Field is still a little soft on the right side, but not real "wet" like
    it usually is. Pits are dry. Naturally, the field is very bumpy and will 
    stay that way till it's rolled. All in all, perfectly flyable although 
    we're supposed to get a couple of days of rain which will probably change 
    things. New frequency board is up, but we're missing a wind sock.