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

First, the wonderful–The beautiful weather was unparalleled, with a light southwest breeze that sometimes dropped to nothing. It was more of an electric day than any we have had in a while. Dan showed us how to fly 3D with a large electric ship that had enough motor sound to even please Bob. Dan bought it from his neighbor and really put it to good use. Ron took a break from rocketry and “plank-flying” to do perform several really smooth patterns with an electric heli—proving he hasn’t lost his touch with the whirlies.

Gene brought his newly finished “B-70” sheet balsa canard powered by a small Super Tiger pusher electric. Paul flew it in a most competent manner as always, and it proved to have a most unusual profile in the air. I flew my “Mini-Drake”, “Radian”, foam “Ugly Stick”, and “Twin Star” electrics to the point of using up all the batteries I brought. Sean got some good flights on his foam “Ugly Stick” with Bob’s help on the buddy-box, and his daughter Caitlin got to buddy-box Bob’s nitro “Stick” while making good progress.

Corky was the hit of the show, flying a control line “Midwest P-39” in a most competent manner, given a 40-year lay-off. It was the first time a control line ship had ever been flown at Elkins Field. After the cheers died down, Steve flew his repaired “Ultra Sport”, and Don flew his newly-repaired high wing ship with good success. Mike Hervy’s “Ugly Stick”, with its tuned pipe, crackled overhead while making many passes up and down the runway and flying impressively. Corky followed up on his control line performance with his electric “F-22” making many strafing passes with the flat-foamy, and then rolling up and out of them going both directions.

Now for the weird—Tapping into the mantra that “no good deed goes unpunished”, Bob was rewarded for his time spent buddy-boxing by his veteran yellow “Four Star 60” going straight in when it didn’t recover on the bottom of a Cuban Eight. The plane was totaled. The only reason that seemed to be evident for the disaster was that the elevator clevis and control horn had become disconnected when the plane was closely examined after the crash. That fact jibed with Bob saying he had no elevator when he tried to bring the plane out of the maneuver. More on the damage to the engine and radio after the post mortem is finished.

The final weird event was seeing Paul’s great-flying “Hog Bipe” coasting the length of the runway, motor at just above idle, and not coming down until if flew into the tall grass at the south end of the field, where it flipped over. Paul literally had a tiger by the tail and no way to let loose when his throttle stick simply broke off of his transmitter! The motor was just above idle, and the plane flew along serenely until the wheels caught in the tall grass as Paul flared it to try to land. The good news was that the plane was totally undamaged, and while we urged Paul to “do it again”, he decided against such questionable advice.

In short, save for Bob’s debacle, a good time was had by all.

— Larry