Flight Report: Behind Harvard Stadium - 3/19/2010

Artie, Don and I had a super afternoon today flying over the field behind the Harvard Stadium. This field is right next to the Soldier Field Road. I arrived first at around 5:15pm. There wasn't anyone on the field except a guy flying his Blade 400 helicopter. His name was Dan and he seemed like a nice guy. I introduced myself and told him about AeroJunkies. We will see if he decides joining our group. Anyway, he was on his last battery, and he left shortly afterwards.

 

I quickly pulled out my trusty old ParkZone T-28 Trojan and took off. It was a tad breeze, but nothing an AJ cannot handle. The sun on the other hand was annoying, since the wind was almost due west. While I was halfway through my battery Artie and Donovan shoed up, and a couple minutes later Artie's Mini Ultra Stick and Don's ParkZone Super Cub joined the party. After I landed the Trojan, I decided to make some noise, so I prepped my ElectriFly Synapse EDF jet and took off. After about six minutes of being on edge with shaky legs and making many low passes, I made a fast but successful (read: no damage!) landing. Synapse loves to fly fast (of course according to my standards, not Billy's) but It doesn't want to come down when I cut off power and keeps gliding merrily. I need to get used to this little shit.

 

After two flights on Synapse, I had my adrenaline fix. Meanwhile, Artie and Don have switched to their ElectriFly ElectroStick and Multiplex Easy Star, respectively. I joined them with my Trojan. We had easy relaxing fligts in the next twenty minutes while the sun was setting, creating a beautiful panorama. Artie even caught some thermals with his 'Stick. We also had some spectators: two teenage kids stopped by on their bicycles. They seemed to be knowledgeable so I asked "What do you guys fly?" I expected them to say "Air Hogs" or "Mini Super Cub", but one of them answered "I have a Sukhoi Su-47 jet and my friend has a SR-71 Blackbird. We got them from Banana Hobby." My jaw hit my feet; I mean these are middle school kids. So I asked "What did you fly before?". The other one answered "We started with Air Hogs jets and then moved on to Su-47 and SR-71." Now I am thinking that these little guys are pulling our legs. So I ask "Do you have simulators" to test if they are bullshitting or not, and they say "yeah, we use the ones that came with our jets". They were referrring to FMS. Anyway, I wrote down our website on a piece of paper and invited them to Mitre. They looked very excited. I am not sure if they will be able to convince their parents to drive all the way to Mitre, but if they do it will be fun to watch them fly their EDF jets.

 

My fifth and final flight was with my "elite" plane: Great Planes Edge 540. I took off from the grass, and it left its tail skid on the ground. Now I am thinking "Shit, it is going to land on its big rudder, I hope it won't break." Well, it did not. I was able to land it softly enough. I just need to glue it back before tomorrow. It was 6:45pm when Don and I were leaving. We promised to meet tomorrow at Mitre. Artie said "one last flight" and took off with his 'Stick into the sunset while I pulled off... thinking "What a wonderful way to and a busy work week!"

 

Hope to see you all tomorrow at Mitre. With some luck there won't be too many "other activities" occupying "our field".

 

Fettah

 

 

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