Great day at Watt Field... And my new plane hauler.

It's about time we got a break in the weather. Sorry, snowbirds, not meaninig to wave that in your face, but March is the month where we get great teaser days, and today was one. Low 60s and light winds... on the ground, but the wind in our overhead maneuvers was batting our planes around like flies. I don't have a decent stunter right now. The borrowed Ukey had technical difficulties and I only had the Yak-9.

The Magnum isn't good for situations like Watt's field where the MCLS meeting was today. Last time flew there I de-freakin-moished the best beater/stunt trainer I ever flew. It was horrible. So I was conservative, given the distractions associated with flying there. I took two Baby Streaks, the Li'l Satan and the Yak.

And this was the first ride for them in my new plane hauler

It's a Hyundai Santa Fe, a mid sized SUV. V-6 with 270hp and a 6 speed automatic. This sumbitch flat hauls ass. It is unbelievable. It corners tight enough to be scary. I'm used to my hot little Mazda P5, which sits low and tight. Never even thought of rolling it over with the steering wheel, it just goes where I point it at any speed. Anyway, I got all the stuff I wanted... until I drove a 2015 version while mine was being prepped. Mine is a 2011 with a 5 yr. additional 60k mile full warranty. 50k on the odometer now, so I'm covered until 110k miles. Sunroof, navigation, backup cam, bluetooth, etc. After I paired my phone with it I was punching buttons and the music from the phone in my pocket started feeding it the 5 hours of music I have on its SD card. Koool!. Today was it's first road trip and it tracks perfectly and has huge passing power.

Sorry that's the only pic I took. Will Davis got some video of me flying the Yak. I'll post it if he does. We elected him club president today. Lots of us flew today.. Don Jenkins has become a build and finish expert with beautiful hand created graphics. I'm talking 20 point planes at some big contests if he were to enter. I hope he takes them to Brodak in June.

Since it's been 6 weeks since I flew, I tuned up on the Li'l Satan. That plane is always a real jaw dropper with these CLPA Stunt guys. I got carried away and pumped Sig 35 into it until the bladder looked almost like a bratwurst, and let her rip.John Gibson launched for me. He's a CL Combat and RC Pylon guy, so his jaw didn't drop Lol. It flew so fast and so long I got really woozy. I lost it from view for too long once, and found it doing mini-loops straight over my head. I sure was glad when it ran out of gas. Howard Shenton, another combateer, told john it was a Norvel. That's what they thought it was until I came weaving back over and commented on how the Tee Dee ran. There was not one single wrap in the lines when I walked back down the lines.

The Yak/Fox Stunt-35 ran great too, didn't have to touch the needle. I flew all of the pattern that didn't involve overhead loops. I didn't want an October rerun. But I can forget that now, after a good day flying.

Watt gave me this. It's a fuselage and stab/elevator. 1/2" fuse, 34" long, and elevator/stab is 1/4" thick with 24-1/2" span. That's a big stab. Looks like it will take a nice fat wing. Anyone recognize the shape? I asked Watt what it was, and all he said was, "It's anything you want it to be." So, anyone have a guess? Great day. We'll call that the season Opener!
Rusty