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Friday’s sailing (28-Oct-2016)

The forecasts of marginal wind conditions were correct—except instead of the 9-14 mph prognosticated by several weather centers, the wind speed at 9 a.m. was nada—zip—zero! About 10 o’clock or so breezes started to come and go and permitted some nice runs across the lake; however, the wind did not become steady until just before I left about 11:00. (more…)

Liberty Lake sailing this morning.

Six intrepid sailors showed up at Liberty Lake this morning and had a fine session with all six boats in the water at one time. Everyone had a great time, even when figuring out how to get a snared boat off of the fountain buoy by bumping it with other boats. Don Haines’ custom 17 ft. pole with its “shepherd’s crook” proved very useful for putting boats in the water at an acceptable depth and retrieving them so they didn’t bang against the concrete footings of the little dock at the south end of the lake. It was also just the ticket for shoving boats back into deeper water when they ventured close enough to the shore to get their keels mired in the muck.... Read More

Wingz-n-Dawgz 2016

This year’s “Wingz-n-Dawgz” is now history with 32 club members and relatives who came to the event.  We managed to duck under the rain that came as far west as Lowes along Cache Road, but nary a drop on Elkins Field!  The cloud cover provided a bit of a challenge in the air, as did the wind as it increased down the runway throughout the morning.... Read More

Landing a Taildragger by Clem Wehner

The objective in landing a taildragger is to get the aircraft on the ground without bouncing while maintaining directional control. With this in mind, there are generally two methods to land a taildragger—the 3-point landing and the wheel landing.

THREE POINT (FULL STALL) LANDINGS: In the 3-point landing, the aircraft is slowed to stall or near stall by holding the aircraft off the ground by gradually coming back on the stick (up elevator), attempting to hold the aircraft just inches off the ground until the airspeed depletes and the aircraft settles onto the ground. At this slowest possible flying speed the nose will be very high, the tail will be low, and all three wheels will touch down at the same time, or the tailwheel may actually touchdown first. Touching down at near stall is the desired method because it means the aircraft is barely still flying, is out of energy, and is unable to bounce back into the air. It is also at its slowest airspeed and the landing roll will be very short. It is the right type landing for a short field and for the RC model pilot to show off his skill at flying a taildragger. (more…)

LAFFS REPORT- Indoor Flying- 17 Sep 2016

There was flying, crashing, at least one midair, rubber-band winding, super glueing, BS’n, retrieving from the basketball net, bouncing off the ceiling, round-n-rounding, and much more. There were about 9 flyers there, which is a nice turnout for indoor. We covered our expense and then a little–perfect.... Read More

LAFFS Report- 15 Sep 2016

It was another nice day for the LAFFS gang at the VA Lake. Steve & Tom flew their Tidewater seaplanes and Don flew his Apprentice seaplane. It was perfect—calm winds and glassy water. Landings were all perfection, just sliding on to the surface. There were a bunch of active duty military guys and several resident vets out today who watched us for a while. There were also boats there as usual. Ray sailed his new sailboat, along with Steve’s Surmount, Clem’s Nirvana and Paul’s Surmount sailboats. The wind was lighter than we would have liked, but as I’ve said before, sailing is an aerodynamic experience and light winds teach you how to get the most from a sailboat’s airfoil. Larry ran his Rescue/Fire boat and squirted water at us all with the water cannon. He really likes doing that! He also blasted around with a little Rio, a really fast small boat. Clem ran his ski boat around and got so interested in watching the sailboats, he forgot about his boat until he heard yelling from the shoreline. The ski boat had crashed into the reeds near the dock. More entertainment for the spectators. Steve even drove his recovery boat around the lake for a while to demonstrate its capability.... Read More

Sunday morning at the VA Center

The real world interfered with me getting there early enough to get some airplane flight shots, but apparently there were three planes in the air at the same time, attesting to good conditions before the wind picked up. Attached are some shots of the boating activities, highlighted by Paul joining the sailboat brigade. Also are shots of Ron’s great tug, my new Rio Off Shore boat, Clem’s two airboats, Dan’s swamp buggy, and Dan’s “Skipper” heading to the dock after experiencing a quirky aileron during flight.... Read More

Oh, what a beautiful morning…

They just don’t get much better than this as far as light winds and no surface chop at the VA Center lake. This is the first time we’ve been able to put up over a dozen flights (sometimes as many as three “Tidewaters” in the air at the same time!) with great take-offs and landings and no real retrieval issues that cropped up. Dan flew his “Skipper” (sorry, I got there after it flew), Don his “Apprentice”, and Steve, Tom and I our “Tidewaters”. Ron ran his airboat, Dan his swamp buggy, and I floated my Chris-Craft look-alike several times during the morning. Steve is sneaking up on the motor problems that he is having with his glow-powered boat, but it seems to be getting closer to a fix.... Read More

Today’s flying. 16-AUG-2016

My apologies for not having my camera with me on what would prove to be a memorably weird and wonderful day in several respects. ... Read More

Flying and floating at the VA Center this morning

The chop on the lake was a bit heavier than it was for our first session at the VA Center back in late July. Nonetheless, intrepid flyers and floaters took to the lake to test the waters.

Dan tried out his new swamp-buggy airboat, manned by an armed GI Joe, and managed to overcome some “dead-in-the-water” issues that proved troublesome early on. Steve’s new PVC/pool noodle rescue craft came to the rescue the first time and then ran out of juice and had to be rescued itself the second time.
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