Hopeful Rebirth of a Slopey
Posted by Jeff Covert on Dec 4, 2005, 20:55
Slope infancy
Back in the early 80’s I finely had enough money to buy an RC plane. After several weeks of lessons from my local club I was doing loops, split S’s and Immelmann’s like a pro. Then came the Army, my first school was in Monterey, California.
The wind there was so bad I could not fly, so an army friend told me about slope soaring and I was hooked. Being a lowly Privet I had no expendable income for new planes. Bumming around I found a newbie to our unit that had three dead 2X4’s. I talked him in to giving me one on the promise that I would make one flight worthy for him. Next weekend I was on the dunes tearing up the sky.
Soon it stated to get boring, I would lie on the sand and watch as the planes go back and forth. Then came an idea, if we attached surveyors ribbon to the tail and wing tips of our planes we could play tag. Remember this is in the 80’s, no one knew of EPP. Polypropylene was a new wonder fiber for hiking and rock climbing weekends, not flying. My 2X4 had an oak dowel on the leading edge of the wing and it was almost indestructible. I always had a bottle of CA to put the tail feathers back on after a mid-air. We started to keep score on our hits. Each ribbon had a different point value and the part of your plane that touched the ribbon (nose, wing, tail) would be a different multiplier. We now had something to hone our skills. Life was grand.
Then came Texas. What a place. I could fly power in the mornings and slope the afternoons and then power in the late evenings after school. Never got to slope much though, they did not like us up on the dams. After Texas I was shipped out to Nippon (Japan), on an air force base no less. There was a lot of power stuff to do but no slope. I would spend weekends searching. But found nothing in a reasonable range. So I spent most of my time climbing, sneaking in to rich people’s gardens to take pictures of their Koi and flying power. The army does not like its enlisted folks (or the officers) to have too much fun so I headed back to the states. Louisiana was the biggest culture shock for my family. The Army kept me busy so not much flying there. Then came Deutschland (that is Germany for the rest of us Americans). I bought a new radio on the ham band (50Mhz) because I finely got my license. Off I went, knowing that I could get a German license to use my new Ham radios. But the German clubs did not think this was a good idea. “You vill not use dat radio on dis field”. I was going to use it anyway on the slope but after the Radio police (with guns) came to retrieve my German license (did not pay the yearly fee) I did not think it was a good idea to have them meet me on a lonely hillside and take my radio and plane at gunpoint. But this was OK, the little time I had to do fun things was spent with my family. We had to keep the free would free. No time for playing around. The only time I saw anything of Europe was when the mission called for us to go. I saw a lot of Germany, France and England from the window of a train or bus. At least I can say I have traveled as fast on land as the DS’ers in the air. 300KMH is really not that thrilling with in the comfort of the ICE. It is in a 15 year old BMW.
So much for my back-ground, now to slope rebirth…
The last place the army sent me is in South Eastern Arizona. Back-in-the-middle of nowhere (again). I did my usual looking around for places to do fun things. The Power club is right next to a huge scrap mental yard and every one looses a play every day. Yes I said every day, most of the club members are retired military and they are out there every morning boring holes in the sky. One of them they say is a famous pattern competitor. Chuck somebody? Sometimes I see him in his back yard flying his pattern plane.
So I have sold off all my power planes that anyone would want. And my 2X4 did not survive the trip back to the states (remember the CA glue in CA). I did have a Dynaflight Talon that I order from Tower Hobby when I was in Japan hoping to find a good slope. So I needed to find a slope.
Slope found
Last year my youngest sons scout troop went on a hike. I had to go just to see what was to be seen. I found the perfect slope. Right off of a nice sized parking lot so I don’t have to trudge too far, a 3000-foot slope on a north south ridge. We have usually westerly winds here and when they are not, they are out of the east so I was set. Did I mention that I have been in Arizona for more than five years. The last one was spent trying to get my Talon flying and trying to get a Rocketry club going as well. Not the little Estes ones, I’m talking motors big enough to lift your minivan up to 2000 feet.
Long story longer, I got my plane ready to fly, talked a power buddy into coming to witness the phenomenal awesome power of the slope, and there I was… No wind, none to be found. Luckily, my family came along with lunch. So we stuffed ourselves and waited. Finely the flaps of our sunshade started to move. You could feel the static electricity in the dry Arizona air. Unknown to us the monsoon season was starting on the north side of the mountain thus sucking the wind from the valley below. I tossed the plane into the wind and it went straight out and slowly lifted in to the clear sky. I had not flown anything other then a free flight rocket for over ten years. The adrenalin was rushing through my body like the waves at Big Sur. The plane was moving flawlessly, I started to feed control on the stick. The last adrenalin rush was small compared to what was going through me as the plane responded. Too much elevator not enough aileron, I had too much horn on the servo. I fed only little on the elevator and it was all coming back.
Several fast fly-bys and everyone cheered. I spent at least 20 minutes flying and then the thunderhead came over the mountain. We would not have noticed it if it were not for the near by lightning strikes. I had a long metal object in my hand and only three seconds of flash to bang on the lightning. Then, remembering my first lesson on slope I realized I had not looked for, and planed for, the landing. At the Beach we had miles of sand to drop our birds in to. There was a nice juniper next to the parking lot that would do for a safety net. The Talon obeyed and came in from the lee straight in to the tree. The soft balsa holding the nylon bolt that held the wing let loose and the plane turn and hit the ground with a thud.
We quickly gathered everything and left the mountain ridge before we became Arizona monsoon barbeque. This was Memorial Day weekend (2005). Last Friday (the day after Thanksgiving 2005) my wife said, “Our two sons are down from ASU and they would like to see you fly, your slope glider is ready so lets go and see if you can do it again..” And we did. The forecast on NOAA’s wind site said it would be out of the west at 5MPH, for a slope of over 3000-feet this would be more then enough to fly.
Once again I launched without a plan, and to make life more interesting, I did not charge the batteries the night before. I needed to fly and nothing was going to get in the way. Keeping my cool and not telling anyone what was really going on, I pretended to do some fancy flying. In reality I was looking for a good approach to land in the parking lot.
I have a short-term memory loss (lovingly given to my by the Army) and quickly forgot what needed to be done. I started to do my evading maneuvers from our old game of tag. Pic Talon01 is slow into the wind because my brain hurts, Talon 02 is the same but up after a 50 foot lift, Pic Talon03 is the one I call head-on fly-by. This is when the other guy is on my tail, so I run out do a split S dive in to the slope pull up straight in front of us at high speed. The plane makes a cool noise as it goes by and anyone who has not felt this will jump back. Notice that my kids are not amused. 20 years ago this was something, after computer games, nothing.
Talon 01
Talon 02
Talon 03
In one of my low and fast fly-bys I clipped the bottom of the wing on the balsivorus* juniper tree that saved my but last time. The noise reminded me that a landing plan was needed and that I had wasted 15 good minutes playing around. I looked down at my radio, the meter needle was at “just before I give up the ghost”. I have never belly-landed a plane in high wind so I just dumped it in the sand on the lee of the hill. This is Arizona, the only sand is out in the flat, not much up here at 7000feet. I tried to go to the back of the ridge and land into the wind on the parking lot but there was a lot of wind and lift even 40 feet back for the edge. I was thinking spoilers would be good. I tried long ways at 90 degrees to the wind, this was much to fast. The juniper was looking good but I had CA’ed a nylon nut into the wing and that balsivore would have the wing for lunch.
On the last pass back over the parking lot I got too far back and the rotor grab my Talon out of the sky. I did not see the landing for all the trees, there was a dead balsivore that must have saved the plane. The only damage was where the battery jammed in to the nose and a rip in the wing covering that must have been from the earlier close encounter.
I have been in E-mail contact with some Slope’es in Tucson, they tell me that balsa is not a good way to go here. I have learned the hard truth that EP is not he same as EPP. I bought some cheep so-called slope foamy’s that are polystyrene (EP) and the have been falling apart in my hands as I build them. Now the NCSM Moth EPP foamy I have been working on is very study. Though this is my first foam plane and I have not been as confident in the build as I have with balsa buildups. I guess you have to keep up with the new or you’ll be left behind. Or is it you will lose your left behind?
