Memorial Day Flying

 

Vera found the folding stool on Amazon that is in the middle of the matt, it is just the right height for working at the charging station.  It fits perfectly in the rear compartment with the table, airplane stand and my flying chair.

Not long after we got to the field Brian flew his C-130.  It has a ninety one inch wingspan and weighs seventeen pounds and seeing it fly makes me want to build mine.

Joel was flying his Taylorcraft with a smoke system today, the smoke sure showed up nicely against the blue sky.

It was blowing pretty good and a gust has just upset the Taylorcraft as Joel was landing.  He got it leveled out and made a good landing.  There was a small turnout today only seven flyers showed up.  About two when it was getting pretty warm I started loading up and we headed home as I had five hours of flying in by then.

Sunday

 

After breakfast I started my day by watering the new plants.  Then I washed the half of the motor home that was shaded.  After a short break I cleared around the new lilacs and the shop with the string trimmer.  Mowing the lawn was next on my list, I ran over the trails when I was done with the lawn.  After dinner and a short nap I washed the other half of the motor home.  I also got most of the repairs done on the Trex 500 after bending the tail boom Saturday.  I didn't take any pictures today so I went looking back and this is the oldest picture I could find that was taken on May 30th, it was taken in 1999 when James was at the Goble OR flying field with me.  The plane belonged to my friend Dick Evans.

Flying

It was a beautiful day for flying this morning.  The wind came up in the afternoon and got pretty strong.  I had a new 4K video camera to try and this is one of the frames I captured with Print Screen.  I had it mounted in the Recruit and it is much clearer than the 2K camera I had been using.  I used them both today and I could really see the difference.  About three the wind was getting pretty strong so I made one more flight with the Skylane and we headed home.

Trex 700 and a Butterfly

 

This morning I finished a couple of things on the Trex 700 and took it out for a test flight.  It was a short one as the tail rotor setup was backwards so it was back to the shop to hook it up to the computer again.  It took a few minutes but I found a step I had missed in the setup of the controller.  Then it was back out to try again, and everything was great.  Vera got home from bible study about then and volunteered to take this picture of it flying which turned out awesome.

Later I took the Trex 500 out and put a flight on it to check a change I had made to the transmitter.  On the way back in I saw this butterfly feeding on the phlox by my shop.  I had my camera in the shop so I got several pictures of it before it flew away.

Anniversary and the Trex 700

 
Sunday was our Fifty-seventh wedding anniversary.  We had talked about taking the motor home to the coast but decided a quiet day at home would be just as nice.  We watched TV, surfed the web and ordered Polo Loco from El Compadre.  We both feel that we have had a great marriage.  Today I worked on the Trex 700 and it is ready for a test flight.  We are also excited because the new lilac border is putting on new leaves.  We go out and talk to it every day.

Jordon's T-Ball game

We met Debbie, Jordon and Jacob this afternoon to watch Jordon's final T-Ball game of the year.

 

The coach has markers set up with the players names for them to line up on.

Most of the team is lined up in this picture.

Jordon played right field during the first inning.

Jordon had a pretty good sized rooting section.  On the left is his buddy Paxton's parents, Debbie, Vera, Great Grandma Anita and Grandma holding Jacob.

This is his buddy Paxton batting.

Jordon got a good hit his second time at bat.

He gave the second base cone a good checking out.

All the kids seem to enjoy running home from third base.  We had a great time watching the game.  Afterwards we had lunch at Arby's.  Then we dropped off an item to Mik and had a nice visit with him.  My helicopter parts came in the mail so I installed them this evening.

A new plane to fly

 

This how it looked at eight thirty when we headed out this morning.

I can have things set up like this and be ready to fly in about fifteen minutes.

There were six of us flying today.

I ended up flying four of my planes today, the Edge didn't get into the picture.

This is my new flying wing the Recruit.  It is all EPP foam and set up to carry cameras.  It came with a stabilizer built in and it works great!  As bad as my first couple of hand launches were it recovered from them and ended up in straight and level flight.  I can switch it off in flight, the plane is pretty good at loops, rolls and flying inverted.

It sure didn't feel like shorts weather to me but several of the jumpers had them on.  I had a great day, Vera fixed an awesome sandwich for lunch and my new plane is a keeper.

The Trex 500 is flying again

 5-16-2021

Sunday was a day of rest for me after the busy day Saturday.  As I was watering the plants today I stopped and took this picture of the rhododendron by the motor home.

It was calm this evening so I took the Trex 500 out to the backyard and did a short test flight.  It flew great so I put it on the table and went in to tell Vera.

5-17-2021

Monday was the last day without rain in the forecast for awhile so we went flying at Toledo.  I flew my favorite the Skylane first and shot a bunch of touch and goes.  Then I got out a couple that I have not flown for a while.  I was surprised how well the littlest one handled the wind.  The Ultrix only has a thirteen inch wing span but has a great stabilization system that makes it fly like a much bigger plane.  It never did warm up much so we headed home about one.

It was warmer at home so I got the 500 out for another flight in the backyard.

The first thing I did was check the trims while it is in hover.

Then I took it up a little higher and flew around a little.  I flew for six minutes and I still had 58% left in the battery when I checked back at the shop.

Jacob is Two

 

We were up early and drove up to the Mount Rainier Radio Control Society field a little East of McKenna.  This is their club house, there is a refrigerator, gas range, wood stove, tables and chairs enough to hold their meetings there.

This is looking at the runway with Mt Rainier in the background.  The runway is blacktop and about three hundred feet long.

Half their pit area is covered and has electrical outlets at each table.  In the green shirt is the club president Karl Hibbs who is a nephew of Nadra's.  I joined the club so we would have a little different place to go fly occasionally as they have RV sites with 30 Amp hook ups. 

As soon as the meeting was over at MRRCS we headed home for Jacob's birthday party.  His great grandma Anita made the cake.

They had special cookies made for the kids.

Debbie is serving up hot dogs to the kids, then the adults got theirs, they were Costco dogs so they were good.

Jacob had lots of presents to open.

Opening the presents came to a halt when he got the new electric car.

After a test drive he opened the rest of the presents in the car with some help from the other kids and mom.

They had a tough time getting him to wear the hat like Mickey had on.

He is riding on the pirate ship we got him.

Debbie had home made ice cream to go with the cake and it was great!

Jacob was playing on the slide and must have gone down it four or five times while Vera and I watched him.

Jordon got out his hopped up Jeep and gave us a demonstration.  It really goes after being modified so it uses cordless tool batteries.  It was a busy day, we met some new people, had some great food and had a good time.

Josie Swinging

Vera and I were out looking at the flowers when Dianne came along with Josie in the stroller.  She had gone up and got her from Laury.  After we visited with her for a few minutes she headed over to the play fort where they had installed a new baby swing.  I went back to watering the new lilacs when I saw the swing going and little feet kicking I went over to watch the action for a couple of minutes.  She is actually swinging but the camera stopped the motion.  She did a little talking and even a little raspberry so she was really enjoying it.

Flying with James

 

James came up and flew with me today.  He hadn't flown in two years but took off with my HK P-51 and had no problems at all.  This picture is while he is flying his second flight with his Yak 55P..

He shot a bunch of touch and goes with both planes, this is a landing with the Yak 55P.

There was a bunch of military action today, James said he counted seven military jets that went by heading towards Eastern Washington.

We had a great time visiting, reminiscing and flying all afternoon.  The wind got pretty strong about two but we made a couple more flights.  James helped me load up and we headed home about three.  That five hours with James sure went by fast, it was a great day.

A visit from Laury and Josie

 

We had a visit from Laury and Josie today.  Josie played with the car and trucks we have for Jordon and Jacob.

Of course everything goes in her mouth so we had to hide the Hot Wheels because of their small wheels.  She really liked the truck with light up wheels.

When they got ready to go Sam and the cat had waited patiently for them.  It is hard to believe that Sam is ten years old already, he sure doesn't act like it.  She didn't seem too shy around us and we really enjoyed the visit.