The First Flight of 2004?

LAST EDITED ON Dec-31-03 AT 02:31 PM (CDT)
 
O.K., who is going to make the first C/L flight of 2004? Tell us about it. Where is it going to take place and what plane, engine combination are you going to use? Of course, we know when it will take place....midnight, tonight....right. On the other hand, there are 6 time zone..... Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaskan, Hawaiian. This muddies the water a little bit too. Will it be the Topeka, KS guys who beat us all into the air at midnight? How about it? Good luck flying in the dark, not to mention in the crowd if it is a mass fly. I am too old and allergic to cold weather for this myself so I am not a contender for the title........TD

Well we didn't get to do the first flight of 2004, but Johnny Paris and I did manage to get the last flight of 2003. We went to a R/C Fun Fly about 11AM this morning. Seen several guys huddling inside the canopy, but no one was flying. Johnny was first with a Combat ship Fox 36 for power. And I was second with the Ukey 35 Fox 35 for power. Forgot to mention that there was a 26 mph gusting wind so that might of kept the RC guys grounded. We both did 2 flights or should I say 1 1/2 for me. I got caught inverted with slack lines and the wind pushed it down.
One funny thing was that when Johnny launched me I was doing a Heli take off. I couldn't get the plane to lever out for about 1/4 lap. Sure looked interesting, but not a good feeling. Looking forward to flying tomorrow again as our first flight for 2004. Any takers out there?

Jay

Jay, where are you engaging in this midnight madness? ...TD

Nah I couldn't get anyone to launch for me after Midnight. Instead Johnny Paris and I went to a R/C fun fly and flew at about 10am. It was a lot less windy than yesterday, but it was also colder. John Paris was first with his Super Clown Fox 35 powered and I was second with the Ukey Fox 35 again. I had a new plane but it wasn't quite ready to be flown since the tank was not staying in one place. The crowd was amazed that we flew with "strings" and really enjoyed it. I was amazed about those helicopter guys. Two of them flew like I never seen before. No need to worry about me crossing over as both Heli's were over a grand each just for the bird. Way too much money for me.

Jay

All,

I think that possibly Isky could have already won. I don't think that he's very far over the date line and it's already 2004 there!

Our club has its annual POLAR FUN FLY at the “Jim Walker Memorial Flying Circle” every January 1st at NOON.
SUN, RAIN, COLD, and WE have SNOW this year! It’s fun, and a meeting afterwards.
So be there……

Scott(bi-slob weather)Riese

Hi Scot. It looks like you americans are a bunch of woosies waiting till noon down there in the tropics of Seattle , Up here where men are men we are supposes to start at 10.AM Most years some wise ass gets it up at 9 AM. Last year it was Al Resinger I believe. This year we are asked to take our snow shovels so Ill be there at 9 i guess. Thats the ROYAL CANADIAN STUNT TEAM for you, leaders all the way Keith(royal as hell) Varley

> Hi Scot. It looks like you americans are a bunch of
>woosies waiting till noon down there in the tropics of
>Seattle , Up here where men are men we are supposes to start
>at 10.AM Most years some wise ass gets it up at 9 AM.
>Last year it was Al Resinger I believe. This year we are
>asked to take our snow shovels so Ill be there at 9 i
>guess. Thats the ROYAL CANADIAN STUNT TEAM for you, leaders
>all the way Keith(royal as hell) Varley

HAY or EY KEITH.

AH I live in Portland. but your right about the woosies in SEATTLE.

Scott(just telling the Truth)Riese

Excuse me, EXCUSE ME!

Hey, rain is fine, but these nuts around here can't drive in the snow. And we now have about 4 inches outside my door. And it's snowing like crazy.

And to think I moved here to get away from snow.

Sheesh!

>Excuse me, EXCUSE ME!
>
>Hey, rain is fine, but these nuts around here can't drive in
>the snow. And we now have about 4 inches outside my door.
>And it's snowing like crazy.
>
>And to think I moved here to get away from snow.
>
>Sheesh!
>
>

Randy Powell

We have over a foot from two snowfalls over the last few days. The weather guesser says we get more.

We obviously won't be the first but our club has a rat race event scheduled for Jan 4th. The temperature is predicted to be below zero degrees F so it should be real interesting. Hand launches will likely be permitted and a retriever dog may be necesary to find the models buried in the snow.

Our club Prez recently told me that the coldest day he flew on was 44 degrees below F. I'd say it must have been a quick flight.

Here and I thought Terrance was gonna at least ride along with us.

John Bender and I will be leaving for Topeka at 10:30 tonight and will be flying through the new year. You can't beat us, but you can join us.

Time zones is tricky things, makes everything even for us all.

Be there or be square, wherever there is.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-01-04 AT 00:22 AM (CDT)
 
Hey WR,

I am going to be there for the Topeka thing. Not a crazy eoungh to be a dark flyer, but I can offer moral support....as if anyone there is really going to need it.

I could probably hear it, even if I didn't go as we live just about a mile from the circle. See Ya at Midnight!

Well, guys...I didn't make to the circle tonight. Been fighting off the flu and just decided I'd better stay home. Hope you all did it up right and had fun!

If it wasn't so darn hot (I'm sweating my sweet Brazilian butt off) I'd get some guys and go to the field.

The place has good lighting, and if your plane ain't black or navy blue you can see it.

Last year some guys did an all-nighter, and I was told they used some little lamps on the ships.

Ion (10:30 PM here) muniz

Actually, it will probably be one of the Kiwis.

11.35 am in Sydney on New Year's Day it is hot, humid and dead still but I don't have a set of lines to use. I will lay the claim next year by flying just after midnight if there is a reasonable moon.

How about an unreasonable moon? Steve

LAST EDITED ON Jan-01-04 AT 03:38 AM (CDT)
 
Waited for you as long as we could Terrance, then went to Topeka, missed ya. Tom Franklin and Gerald showed up there. We had 6 in the air at midnight, a 7th had control surface problems and didn't fly. Went without a hitch. All up by 3 till, all down by 7 after.

Pictured by the way are, l-r John Bender, William Crane (me), Jim Lee, DJ Parr and Melvin Schutte. DJ must have had a gallon of fuel on that Ringmaster. He was up at 5 till and didn't come down till 7 after, that and he was so rich he was barely flying most of the flight. I set John's needle this afternoon so by tonight when it was cooler he was a little leaner. He was 2nd up and 2nd last down. Jim went up then me and then Melvin. Come to think of it, we are missing one, though I can't remember who. He isn't pictured here for some reason.

Top Classs!

>Waited for you as long as we could Terrance, then went to
>Topeka, missed ya. Tom Franklin and Gerald showed up there.
> We had 6 in the air at midnight, a 7th had control surface
>problems and didn't fly. Went without a hitch. All up by 3
>till, all down by 7 after.
>
>Pictured by the way are, l-r John Bender, William Crane
>(me), Jim Lee, DJ Parr and Melvin Schutte. (snip)

Hey, guys, between you and the three quarter million who crowded into Times Square knowing that anyone who came in after 4 in the afternoon couldn't leave again (even to use the restroom) without losing his spot just to wait for a ball to drop 8 hours later, I don't know who qualifies best for the "Eye Dee Ten Tee" award. (Letters and numbers, write it down on paper.)

You know Leonard, Jealousy isn't your strongest suit.

We're not snobby, come fly with us next time.

I know you are not snobby, Bill. Just staying up that late to fly in the dark in the middle of winter strikes me as...well...OK, if that's what you you want to do. I'll wait 'till spring and daylight.

That looked like allot of fun William.Wish I could have been there with you.It was -22 deg last night here and about -25 deg and windy this morning so building only.Happy New Year to you all.Dennis from the frozen North.

Hi Geoff. Happy New Year to you and everyone else.

If anyone at the NZ Nats was in the air before 9am their time then they may have beaten me. I was in the air just on 7am here in Melbourne - that's before the darned wind creeps up.

If I have my time zones right, that's still 5 hours before US East Coast midnight. I didn't put the Date Line where it is either.

No flights today......snowing and freezing rain
PORTLAND CLOSED GO HOME

Scott(Not GOV. Tom McCall)Riese

One of the fall-outs from this thread is that after showing it to my wife...she now thinks I'm normal!!
Way to go all you u control fanatics!

Our group in Southern Florida put up with a 65 degree morning and started flying today around 8 AM.
Roy Thranthom
Chuck Feldman
Toby Acierno
Cory Acierno
Robert Compton

Robert,

I hate you guys!

Looks like you had a glorious day there. It was cold and windy in Virginia as usual. I hope you guys can bottle up some of that weather for KOI!

>No flights today......snowing and freezing rain
>PORTLAND CLOSED GO HOME

And you wanted me to drive 179 miles (in the snow) to come fly with you!!! Oh, the meeting at the field--did you have hot chocolate around the fire?
>Scott(Not GOV. Tom McCall)Riese
Foot note--for you people out of state--"NOT GOV. Tom Mccall" This really happened. Gov. McCall had a LARGE sign on the freeway--to the effect--"Welcome to our state, stay a while (and spend your money) BUT GO HOME AFTERWORDS"!!!!Did that ever cause a flap--it was crisis managment for years after that.

>If anyone at the NZ Nats was in the air before 9am their
>time then they may have beaten me. I was in the air just on
>7am here in Melbourne

Actually, we started F2A competition at 9am!

Happy New Year to all!

Its traditional to fly a pulse jet speed model at the NZ Nationals as the clock ticks into the New Year. At about 12:04am 1/1/2004 Andrew Robinson (Known to some as a World Champs NZ team manager and F2C flier) got a couple of short jet flights before a crowd of about 100 in Clareville, NZ.

An interesting trick would be to send up the last flight of the old year, then as the clock ticks put up the first flight of the new year and engage in combat between them!

So, I think Andrew was first again as I doubt that there are any fliers in the Kermadec Islands! One of our guys also flew possibly the southernmost CL flight when he put up a diesel combat model at Scott Base, Antarctica in 2003...

A.

The prize had to go to someone in this part of the world.

In the absence of a comment from any of the Kiwis, Ken D in Melbourne gets the prize.

Now what was the prize? Steve's Homer Simpson Moon?

It wouldn't have been the first flight, but maybe the coldest flights. It was -15 degrees celcius with a 15 km wind out of the north. Thats about a zillion american degrees below zero. Bruce and Allanna Perry, Rob Duckering and Ken Halliday from the Alberta control line flying club. www.acfc.com

Dang that looks a little cold.

I noticed a imprint or arc in the snow as if your plane skated on top of the snow while landing?

>Dang that looks a little cold.
>
>I noticed a imprint or arc in the snow as if your plane
>skated on top of the snow while landing?

Thems the ski's....eh!

LAST EDITED ON Jan-02-04 AT 04:49 AM (CDT)
 
Did this a couple weeks ago, got out in the snow and flew around. Didn't get anyone to go out with me though.

It's different but kinda cool watching the powder blow up with the rest of the exhaust. And there is no problem with the snarling Foxes heating up.

Good job getting out on New Years day. Spent the day hitting the RC clubs. They're a little wussie, only going out during the day, but they do have a pretty good pot of chili, so I cut em some slack and payed my dues.

The Chicagoland circle cutters had a great day at Ned Brown Meadow with 30 degree record warmth. I got in 9 flights in air that was still and thick with fog. Forcast is for 6 inches of snow tommrow, it was fun while it lasted.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-03-04 AT 01:02 AM (CDT)
 
well my flight wasnt as late or early as some but i got to fly some on tuesday in between customers comming to the fireworks stand me and the family was running for newyears sales i use a 35 size ukey with a os 40 la and a 11-4 prop no worry about being underpowered with it lol
and since im still learning i did my first inverted flying at that time because i lost it in the sun while trying to pull a loop. i got about 3/4 of a lap done and i was so frazzled at what was happening my thoughts were what the heck do i do now but i collected my wits and just gave it some down elevator and brought it back to right side up flying. the wind was even blowing about 15-25 that day and my lines went kinda slack and thats what really got my heart to pounding like a big bass drum being pounded hard i was really surprized that i didnt fly it in the ground like i did my sons ringmaster a month or 2 back guess i might get brave enough to try to do some inverted flying this weekend at the club field and see what kinda reaction i get from the guys hopefuly i wont crash and burn lol

steve

the superglue fool

Well, I managed to get in one flight at approximately 3:30 pm eastern time New Years Day with the ole Magician. It was overcast to foggy and about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. We were at Wyrflyrs home for an open house and I took advantage of his open field while other club members hovered next to the coffee pot inside. Come on summer!

John S.

The Garden State Circle Burners continued a great tradition..... we flew "Cheap Carrier" as well as just greeted the New Year with smiles and flights. I counted 30 people there at around 1:00 p.m. Lots of fun and the weather did us a big favor!

Some pics: http://www.richpeabody.com/photo.htm

See Ya