I sure do love a good day flying!

Great sounds, great flight Rusty. Thanks for sharing.

Looks like another good day of flying. Glad to see you are able to get out for some practice.

Also looks like the Magnum, is working well for you. Have you replaced the bearings yet?

I am ordering the bearings for the 46fx tonight. They sound pretty rough. I think it's straining to turn them. I sure don't want to lock up and spin one. That was a full 6 ounces of Powermaster 10/22 and a 12x4 Zinger. While I did about 3 or 4 extra laps to re-do the hourglass and the square 8, that's cutting it too close. I'm glad I didn't redo my wingovers, they were awful. I must have tried turning up too quickly and bleeding off my momentum. I try to turn it like a 35 ounce plane. Maybe new bearings will help that. Wayne thinks I should run it leaner, which would help that, but my shoulder prefers richer. I wonder if the high fuel usage has to do with the bearings.

Anyway a couple of my stunts were pretty good, I was happy with the second try at the hourglass. My cloverleaf wasn't bad. Others, well not so much. My OH8s are always terrible. I would not have gotten the pattern points for that flight. I hope I get better, but sooner or later some people just have to accept that they're just not great pilots. I could live with that if it comes to it, but I'm hoping someday it starts to click. I'm just happy that I can fly a full pattern.

Ken, what do you mean about Larry, are you talking about fuel management? He can probably outfly me with ease, but he pulled his name out of Intermediate at the Criterium. I don't know why. I hope it wasn't just to be a good sport so as not to beat Shug and me. Beating Shug would be a challenge though.

Flying makes me feel good. I'll work on some more videos later. That's the only one of me. Unfortunately the Yak footage is not on the camera, and that was one of my primary objectives today. I thought I was recording a full pattern on it, but so it goes.
I'm rambling now, that's my leftover flying buzz. Flying makes me feel good!
Rusty

Thanks Rusty , Always a pleasure to see you fly !! Eric

getback wrote:Thanks Rusty , Always a pleasure to see you fly !! Eric

Thanks, it's even better to see me land!

Rusty,

I do enjoy your flying videos.

The "beat" as the plane circles reminds me of the motion of the steam trains and the sound of the wheels on the fish plates.

You maintaining level flight is almost soporific, I find it very relaxing watching these. The patterns may not be perfect, I am no judge, but you do seem at ease.

ian1954 wrote:Rusty,

I do enjoy your flying videos.

The "beat" as the plane circles reminds me of the motion of the steam trains and the sound of the wheels on the fish plates.

You maintaining level flight is almost soporific, I find it very relaxing watching these. The patterns may not be perfect, I am no judge, but you do seem at ease.

Thanks Ian. I ordered new bearings for the 46fx so it might have a smoother sound soon.

As for level laps being soporific, I'll take that as a compliment, because the pilot must constantly give up and down input as the plane transitions from upwind, through crosswinds and around into downwind requiring maddening concentration. Then when I fly the inverted laps, the muscle memory for elevator is reversed and staying focused on your geographical points of reference. Those flat laps are scored quite critically by the judges from 10-40 points just like all of the maneuvers. Actually the Yak-9 with it's thin wing and less lift is the easiest plane I have to maintain constant altitude during the scoring laps.

Here is a video of Wayne flying the plane. Notice how much softer his corners are, especially in the triangles that come right after the outside square loops. And then also the square 8s. In fact from the position of the camera, which is not where the judges would be, it's hard to identify some of his stunts. My sharper corners are more distinctive, but they lead to bobbling pullouts and sudden stalling in the midst of some maneuvers; note my aborted hourglass. From the judges' perspective, his pattern would appear much neater than my less trained hand, though my banging corners make mine easier to identify from that pov.

https://youtu.be/TaMBUBYdGCc

Okay here's something funny. Start both videos at the same time. It's amazing how synchronized we are.