Tatamgouche Fly-in May 2014

[JohnOSullivan]

Today( May 29th) we had a fantastic soar-in at Walter Hacker's place in Balfron,south of Tatamagouche. After many days and nights scanning the weather, we picked today as the most favourable day. We were not disappointed. I arrived at 9 am and Andrew Smith about 20 minutes later. NO wind and a perfectly groomed flying field, with a sailplane winch already set up. Andrew Curran and Steve Ryan were delayed a bit but Walter, Andrew and I kept the Thermal Gods happy until they arrived. Wind conditions were light throughout the day mostly less than 5 kph from the north but occasionally veering through east,west just to keep things interesting. Steve Ryan as usual brought out a variety of intriguing aircraft which in spite of their unconventional designs flew flawlessly. Andrew Curran had his Fun Jet and Fun Cub and he maidened his beautiful Bird of time. Walter flew a variety of high class sailplanes including a beautiful state of the art fully moulded Icon 3 metre model. Andrew Smith had his ElioE and 3.2m Pulsar. I had a variety of models, including a couple of Free Flight Electric duration competition models.
Thermals were present through most of the day, mostly broad gentle ones. We followed hawks and eagles into thermals and they followed us also. Excellent conditions persisted up to 4:30 by which time we were sun weary and "flied out". Andrew Curran had a great time with his Bird of Time getting some good thermals. I got some video with my Hexacopter too.
Between the five of us we had 14 sailplanes and some power planes making a total of 22 models.

[JohnOSullivan]

another few Pics

[retiredVTT]

Excellent "road trip" guys.....models look great..!

Bill

[rhyneheimer]

thanks for the report john, a great day - the winch was amazing!

[Ghost Flyer]

It was truly a fantastic and humbling day for me, for sure! Being surrounded and helped by thermal masters, Walter, John, Steve, and Andrew S, I was kid again, learning important things from my mentors.

Andrew S configured my Bird of Time (rudder/elev/throttle/spoilers) to have rudder on both sticks, just like in Real Flight RC sim, which is cool. I finally caught some lift and before I knew it, my BOT was flying high. All excited about that, I yelled to everyone, "I think I caught a thermal!"

There was plenty of smiles and laughter. It was a good day, indeed.

Thanks Walter, John, Steve, and Andrew S.
Andrew
Ps. I'll add some pictures later, after I finish dealing with replacing my electric hot water tank. When I went to unload my car very early this morning, I discovered that my basement had turned into a giant puddle.

[AndrewS]

Fantastic day all round.
My thanks to Andrew C, Steve, and John and Walter for the fun and camaraderie and most especially to Walter for hosting us.
My thanks also to Walter's wife Heike (apologies if I spelled it wrong) for letting him out for the day to play with us folks from the city, and for the apres-soaring chocolate mousse with strawberries.
Sorry AC and Steve that you guys had to leave and missed it (was very good).

AC, we will have to get your spoilers working in case you find a boomer next time. Did you tell Christine you killed her battery?

John, maybe you AC and I could look into getting a glider day setup this summer at the sod farm in Lantz. I'm sure Walter could be talked into attending.
Andrew

[JohnOSullivan]

Video from yesterday's fly-in.
It is mostly of Ground views.Ever try and video a 500 ft altitude sailplane with a hexacopter?
Anyways here it is
https://vimeo.com/96910239

John O'S

[Ghost Flyer]

Very COOL, John! Watching Steve's plane fly from a bird's eye vantage point is very cool, indeed. Here is the picture of our gang, yesterday, taken with the timer.

AC

[Ghost Flyer]

Here is Walter's nice write up with a bunch of pictures.

http://foresthaveninn.com/wordpress/?p=900

Thank you for having us, Walter!

[AndrewS]

Here's a shot of me and my pal Hawkie. He and a bird buddy followed me in my thermal for a good 5-10 minutes...and they're supposed to be able find them on their own. Lol
Pretty neat to have two birds of prey in a thermal with you without them bothering the plane. And I tried not to bother them either. Chris says it may be an immature Eagle, and not a hawk. I sent him a pic to find out for sure.

Thanks to Walter's friend Sue for the great shot.

Andrew