Windy Sock Contest Reports - June/July 2010

June 26th...So we headed for the Seguin site, with complaints about the shoulder-high weeds at Shamu Field still echoing in our ears. And we found the flying field at Seguin in ideal condition, with no wind at all until about 90 minutes after sunrise and the grass and summer flowers just right for model flying. But whoa! Where is everybody? Only Dick Adams, Allen Shields, and your editor showed up. Perfect flying conditions after a siege of discouraging weather, a wasted opportunity for the club to get caught up on its trimming problems and kanone-chasing. Undaunted, we decided to hold a Goulash event; after all, this home-brew contest idea was meant to accommodate situations like this. Of course, no kanone can be awarded, and because this was not a regular meeting day, it was agreed that the traditional free lunch for the winner would not be given either. Following are the results of the morning's flying.

First: Dick Adams - L65 Stick - 70 points (70 seconds times 1.00). Second: Joe Joseph - Curtiss A-3 - 52 points (28 seconds times 1.89). Third: Allen Shields - Sparky - 40 points (40 seconds times 1.00).

There was some nice flying in addition to the above. Joe flew his Embryo Skyscraper, Stratoplane, Eaglet, and Fokker E-3. Also, the complete absence of wind allowed some trimming flights of his Sopwith Triplane, the outcome of which indicated there was too much decalage in the middle wing. - bad news, requiring a messy job of resetting the incidence.

July 10th....Our regular monthly meeting faced shoulder-high weeds (an array of wild flowers, actually) and heavy dew at Shamu Field and a closed site at Seguin because of activity related to Storm Alex (it is now available to us). There was a small area at Shamu with growth only about a foot high, and calm conditions made it possible for ye editor to do some flight trimming of his Sopwith Triplane (from Skylake Models). I finally got it to make a reasonably controlled circular flight before the wind came up, after I learned for the first time that the adjustable thrust button had a mean little gremlin: adjusting it for more side thrust could upset the down thrust setting in the process; you have to hold on to the thrust adjustment with the special little wrench while you turned the smaller nut for the desired side thrust. I find that two wrench sockets of the proper size are very handy in the adjustment process. More about this later herein. There was no flying other than this but fellowship later was more successful. It will be possible to fly at Seguin in coming weekends, and hopefully the Shamu site will see a successful harvesting of the weeds as well; it is hard to imagine such impenetrably thick foliage.


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2010 SCHEDULE OF MEETS

Mike Midkiff has provided this schedule of meets for your planning purposes. His phone number is 817-428-8151. E-mail is mmid149421@sbcglobal.net:
September 5-6: "Mountain Men" at ? Colorado. Don DeLoach is CD.
September 11-12: "FAC Outdoor Champs" at Muncie, IN. Ralph Kuenz is CD.
September 25-26: "Texas Scale Champs" at Gainesville, TX. Rich Adams is CD.
October 9-11: "Gather da Turkeys" at Pensacola, FL. George White is CD.
October 23-24: "Texas Cloud Climber Champs" at Sendera, TX. S. Spence is CD.
November 6-7: "Alamo Scramble" at San Antonio, TX. Dick Adams is CD.