2018 New England Aerotow - Salem, Connecticut - May 17-18-19-20

[lenb]

Yeah,
That was a bummer. Scot has been so perfect in flying that plane for so long, in any condition thrown at him. I just happened that today was a perfect combinations of happenstance.
Simple explanation is on turn to final, low and slow ( which is typically never an issue, at least for the last 140+ hours of flying the plane) the right wing got blasted by a hard gust/turbulence/wind sheer and being in a left turn, the left wing was slower than the right ( outside wing) so when the wind blasted it and pushed it straight up, the inside wing just completely stopped flying and tucked under. Quick thinking and ultra fast stick movement, especially on the throttle, almost saved the plane. Instead of a straight in pile it was a glancing blow off the front gear and canisters, along with the left wing down.
Kudos goes out to Scot for all the towing in the last couple days as well as being such a good sport when things went south. I'm sure he already has the new one ready to go.........

[Al_M]

Bummer. Sorry, Scot. The wind gods weren’t very kind to you today. Hope to see you back up and flying and towing soon.

[TomTerrific?]

Wow- what an aerotow event!
For what was predicted to be questionable to poor weather, it was fantastic for the days we flew.

I arrived Thursday afternoon- after the morning rain. There was no wind and the group had a great many flights. I think i’ve never flown my Ventus so much. There were scratchy thermals around to be had and some of my best ever landings were achieved!

Friday was supposed to be too windy, but it turned out great too. I’m sure the ASW-20 had over 20 tows, many over 2,000 feet too. There was some thermal or ridge type activity that could be found with lots of hunting. While i did my share of one or two ground-pounding landings, overall some skill improvements were had... with no damage to plane or others(known) reported(other than occasionally bruised ego).

Thanks again for our GREAT Tow Pilots: Mike, Scot, Steve & Kevin, Steve P. & Lenny.

[gunny11]

Thursday was good 2-33 1/4 scale flying weather. Don and I had many formation flights even one from a dual tow to dual landings.
Friday I spent time with Mark and helped him and his new, "used" Bidule get a total brake job. Gaskets, o ring and new pads. I never saw someone have so much fun towing up sailplanes. I personally think he just liked landing the plane and using the brakes. Anyway, he got the excellence in towing award. Great job Mark. Saturday was a rain out kinda wet day. Lots of servo swapping going on with the Pawnee and trailer tires. After all the morning maintainence was done, It felt like all we did was eat the rest of the day.... Flanders for dinner the night before, The Shack for lunch, few hours later we went back out for dinner at the Outback followed by a stop at Dairy Queen on the way back.

[stevekremer]

Great Event despite the weather. Towed with the Porter, which is always fun, Helped Mark get ready for towing duty, you would think he has been towing for years the way he towed. Flew both the Blanik and the ASH 26. Got over half hour flights with the ASH. Kevin dodged a bullet as a servo burned out and we discovered he was using a high voltage set up with low voltage servos, that could have been bad. Len had servos and the weather gave us time to get them all swapped. Kevin's Pawnee is ready! Looking forward to seeing everyone at Windy ridge in two weeks!

Steve K

[stevekremer]

Let me rephrase _ windy Ridge in 11 days!

[lenb]

It was a pretty darn good event despite the weather challenge thrown at us. I really need to acknowledge this group of guys who have the never give up attitude. This community sticks with the plan regardless of the forecast, waiting and working until its clear, which sometimes doesn't happen. In the end, it was great to spend time with friends and fly when we could. Getting flights in when possible makes them more memorable anyway!

Thursday and Friday were pretty good aerotow days, many flights were made and a few maiden flights were accomplished too. The Smelly Yak made a debut and did exceptionally well, and did my new 7.4m Quintus. Scot graciously assembled the plane, along with his over the last month or so and delivered it complete with a fresh waxing to the event on Thursday. About an hour later we were circling with the birds. Its worth mentioning the maiden flight required on click of down trim. Thank you Scot.

Saturday and Sunday were non flying days due to the weather but we kept going. As mentioned above we did tasks and worked on planes, even getting in an afternoon BS session in the Kramer Condo.

Thank you to all who attended and he who didn't but generously sent in the registration money anyway to support the club. ( Mr Dolly ) class act

Also, a huge welcome to our newest transplant, Bill Liscomb, who hails from the West Coast and is now living in Boston MA. Not only did Bill attend EVERY day of the event even though he had not planes to fly, after giving him some stick time on my 6m Shark, showing me how to properly fly it, he liked it so much he bought the darn thing from me! Now he has a plane!! I'm looking forward to spending some time flying with him and learning some tricks. Great guys and fits in very well with this group.
Another new gentleman from the RI soaring club, Peter Leveillee, attended the rainy weekend but still decided he would join our club and fly with us locally as well as at events. Now to set him up with a nice plane...
Ed DeRossi brought an interested friend along for the event as well, Mike, who also had some stick time on my Shark Friday afternoon. Good pilot and will also be a natural fit with this group.I'm sure there were other first time attendees, I just didn't get a chance to spend a ton of time with them.

So we're certainly growing the events and happily accepting more enthusiastic members to fly with us any chance they get. Its a blast and we're not looking to keep it a secret any longer.

Lastly, thank you to the RC Propbusters Club and its dedicated members who show up to cook, clean and run tow lines, as well as all the other chores I didn't mention. You guys are the best.

Announcement.
For those that are not already aware, Hanger 9 will be introducing a new sailplane to the market this Thursday. Its bigger than 6.3M and smaller than some other size, The plane is white and orange and has very hard wings, tail and fuse, VERY HARD..... Totally HARD......

The wood its named after is also like a three day old fire pit remains and Mike Piazza, Donnie Shell and Greg Maddux would be very proud of this plane.
It has been in development for close to three years, with a bunch of refinements along the way, only now being released after ALI MACHINCHY was totally happy with it. I feel very certain it will be a game changer in the sailplane community.
I ask everyone who likes the offeering and has the means to own one to please consider purchasing the plane. It will go a LONG ways to showing the Horizon Hobby brass it is worth investing in the sailplane community. We need planes like this, along with manufacturing support, for the US market to thrive.



Thank you again, you guys rock.

[Swiss1]

And please remember, you can purchase this new sailplane through The Model Box, I have already accepted orders from people who have no idea what it is!! That's my shameless commercial out of the way until we start a thread on it later this week!

[Steve P]

Thanks to everyone for making a silk aerotow out of a pig’s forecast. You’re the best!

I got to re-maiden the 7m Salto, demonstrate its stall way too low and thereby nearly plow a field with it. Many fun flights. All trimmed now and a champ! On Friday I went through six tanks of fuel towing with the new Bidule 111. Loved sharing tow duties with Mark and sad for Scot’s three seconds of bad fortune. Between my tow sessions, there was the maiden and five great flights on the new 6.6m H Model Arcus. We capped Friday night with a group dinner at the fish market. Everything I brought to Salem came home in one perfect piece!!!

Sorry the weekend was a dud, but thems the breaks in this wonderful fickle hobby. Onward to Windy Ridge!

Steve

[Steve P]

Saltorific! A couple of mine, some really nice ones. Thanks to Alan Scuterud of shootsnaps for these photos and the ones that follow!

[Steve P]

Len's Scot-made Quintus. Again, photos from Alan...

[Steve P]

More gifts of beauty from Alan. HP's 5 meter scratch-build Petrel...

[Cliff Evans]

Steve, very nice build considering the problems you had.

[Steve P]

Conio performs the Fox. Alan's photos...

[Steve P]

Alan and the long lens. These are the sort of shots that remind us how much we love this hobby...

[DanR]

Thanks to Steve and Len for putting the event together! As always, big thanks to all the tow pilots. Mark was not the only new tow pilot. On Friday I got a couple tows up by an 85cc Porter. I have to apologize that I don't remember the pilots name but he did a great job. I think he even towed up one of Len's bigger gliders.

Thanks to the the folks in Salem and see you all at Windy Ridge.

Dan

[Sinkhappens86]

Thanks a ton to Len, Steve P and the rest of the Propbusters for hosting another great event. The weather didn't cooperate, but we still managed to get a bunch of flying in, including some incredible spins from my Blanik! Thanks Jeff for telling me to give it a try!

Also a big thanks to Len, Scot and my Dad for spending their morning helping me replace Every. Servo. in my Pawnee. Whoops.

Also another big shoutout to both our new tow pilots! Great job guys!

See everyone soon at Windy Ridge!