Ever Have one of those days that makes it all worth while?

[RCFlybry]

On my third handlaunch with my Skimmer this morning I climbed to about 100 feet and whamo! The left wing goes up like a piano had dropped on the right one. After quickly cutting the throttle and turning into it, the lift was abundant and my plane was getting smaller and smaller on each circuit. At speck height I would fly upwind and out of it cruising around and having a blast until I was low enough to start searching for lift again. I kept going back to the same area over and over and specking out off of it each time. It was so easy! After about 15 min. Everyone else hurried up to meet me in the air and join in on the good stuff.
I flew until my neck just couldn't take it anymore and bugged out of the thermal. A quick look at my stopwatch upon touching the ground showed 36min. 18seconds. This is my best time to date, if I'd had a lawnchair it would have been longer.
I guess if it was this easy all the time it wouldn't be a challenge, but this morning sure made it all worth while.

Bryan

[Superman]

Those are the best days ever! Unfortunatly, they dont come very often for me... But when they do, for me, it always seems to be the day I forget my lawn chair, but those are so much fun. Even more fun when you were the first one there and everyone else followed YOU... Good job,

-Superman

[kingbee]

Bryan,
I had a day like that a couple weeks ago. I had my trusty old Astro Challenger at the limits of vision, then came back over the field and picked up another thermal and did it again. Time from motor shut off was about 22 minutes. Then high started my 2M Prophet and skied out again. My 16 yr. old son was with me, who I've been trying to get into the hobby for some time, and I let him take over; he kept it aloft for close to 15 minutes! It was a perfect day, warm, light breeze, sky full of cu's.

Son was inspired to get back to work on his Gentle Lady that evening.

Alas, I haven't had time to fly since, despite perfect weather. Just too busy :(

Cheers,
Dave

[RCFlybry]

Thanks for the replies guys.
Yeah.. It was just one of those days that seemed as though you could do no wrong. I've been working on my first pure sailplane which is a Bird of Time and happened to notice the one in your Avatar Superman. I guess my only complaint was that I didn't have it ready for yesterday. Kingbee, That must have been great to speck out an Astro Challenger! I've looked at the one from Skybench.. They're Huge! Gotta love those Nostalgic RES ships!
Hopefully I can see more of those days that have you staying up until you're ready to come down.

Bryan

[portfoxdesign]

Bryan
Yes it gives the neck a bit of a work out, i have a beach towel handy through it round my neck and just start lying on the ground. That's if the ground is adequate. I have done this in the past and have flown alot longer. It takes a little to get used to and i'm not sure what on lookers have been thinking, as my plane has sometimes been just a spec like your flight, so a body lying on the ground for half hour or so has prompted people to ask 'hey mate, you OK' .
Anyway give it a go!

Steve

[fprintf]

Sounds awesome. Longest flight for me on a pure glider is 5 minutes, and even then it was totally awesome. I can't wait to actually find a thermal and stay in it on purpose! :)

[RCFlybry]

portfoxdesign,
Love the plane in your Avatar! Is that the Boomerang or Sorcerer?
Very unique looking and I'll bet thermals like the dickens.
fprintf,
keep at it, when you do hit one of those hat lifters it just puts a smile on your face all day long.

Bryan

[Ollie]

I started teaching my self to fly in 1970. I had my first over-one-hour flight in 1977. I was flying an Aquila alone out of a highschool athletic field one late afternoon after work. I remember the details quite clearly. I launched by histart and immediately hit lift and worked it as it drifted downwind. After about ten minutes, it was near the limits of my vision so I penetrated back into the wind, ending up at about launch height where I caught another thermal in the same place. I repeated the cycle six times, working six different thermals that were popping off on a nine or ten minute cycle from the same source. It was a thrill that was almost as intense as my first successful solo flight. It was a thrill that has echoed more frequently in subsequent years.

[mgardner]

this last Sunday we had a day like that in Austin...great lift...tossed the DLG up, float it around a little and start riding it up for a 30 min flight...bring it down just to rest the eyes and neck for a while, decide to take the open class plane up, and fly it for 45 minutes...rarely is the day when both planes fly so well, and they do make it all worthwhile. One thing to note...be very careful when lying or sitting down while flying...to do so generally requires taking your eyes off the plane, and at speck height it is easily lost. I have a buddy take the controls for a second while I set up my chair, get comfy, reacquire my plane, then take the radio back....of course I'm paranoid about flyaways...

later guys...blue skies

[MTT]

I had one of those days, just 2 days ago.
Went out with my electric-assisted Cumulus e, launched, and after 50 sec motor run time, I was 600 ft. high according to my picolario vario.
Found lift almost immediately, which took me up to 1200 ft., at this point I brought her down somewhat, because it was getting very hard to make out the attitude of the model.
And so it went on for more than an hour, up to 1000 or 1100 ft, back down to 500-600.
After an hour I had enough and brought her down total time was 1:17 .

However, I went out again yesterday afternoon, and for the life of me, could not grab a thermal, although conditions were identical to the previous day ! Could not manage more then 12 min. per motor run....

Goes to show you never quit flying when you have conditions like the above mentioned, you never know when it will happen again.... :)

Michael

[JimNM]

I have had a "house" thermal in the field behind my house - and boy is that fun. I was flying an e-glider and launched downwind to try to find the thermal ASAP. I got the lift and took it up to about 800 ft , then jumped out.

The "feeder" winds would blow hot for 5-6 min. and then cool off for 3-4 min. - and then died off. I would take a few laps around the field, snooping out where I've had lift before... and the feeder winds would start up again - Hey what do you know - another thermal just where the last one had been. I stayed up for over 68 min. on that flight - but was getting sunburned and I had some chores to do so I had to call it a day.

Another time, I was flying with RLoose and we both sunburned our chins from looking into the sky all day long. I had almost 100 minutes of flight on less than 50% of the battery pack capacity, normally about 4:30 to esc cut off. Rich put three planes up while I was in the air - the first was the plane that took my Avatar picture - thanks Rloose!

Fly'em high - and being lucky is just as important as being good!
JimNM

[kingbee]

Bryan,
I WISH it were the Challenger from Skybench, but it was just a lowly Astro Challenger, a 6 foot span electric boosted sailplane as kitted by Astro-Flight back in the mid '80s. Here's a picture of it, being displayed by the lovely and talented Elizabeth. The plane is about three times her age ;)

This has been a fun thread to read; it makes me want to get out and fly. Maybe this weekend...

Cheers,
Dave

[RCFlybry]

Very nice looking Sailplane Kingbee and in great shape for how long it's been in service. Nothing lowly about it at all, especially when it gives great performance.

Bryan

[Flint]

Last Friday was like that for me, thermaled my FVK Absolute easily, there was another guy there who packup up his 4 metre moulded ship and went back to work in disgust, no challenge for him at all, he said he did not even have to try.

Cheers

[R. Carver]

Just got back from the field and it was "one of those days" :)

Light, variable breezes, lots of big puffy clouds..Put the wing on my trusty GL, and on the 2nd launch hooked into a bit of lift and worked it up. A couple of other guys (Eckel and Kiburis) soon joined up, and we worked it to the point where the whole sky was up air!! Set the trims, put the radio down and laid back in the grass, watching my now free-flight plane circle the field for quite a bit of time. It doesn't get any better than that :D

[Flint]

That's cool, never thought of setting the trims and letting do its own thing before! Will have to give it a go.

Cheers