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Discussion
Seventh Heaven
I've done it! I have discovered Nirvana. I was always under the impression you had to strive to reach it, but apparently you can just drive there.
To start at the beginning, my parents winter in the Palm Springs area and my wife and I usually travel down from the frigid wastelands for a week during Jan/Feb. Last year I'd started flying outside with a Slo-V down there, and this year I planned on picking up a Parkzone Trojan to cruise the desert with. So after a couple of false starts, a schedule change, crappy weather and a bus(!) ride from LAX to Palm Springs airport I finally ended up at a nice little LHS called Uncle Don's Hobbies. One of the fellows there knew my father, and suggested that I head out to their field some morning as it wasn't too far away. And that's how I found Nirvana. The Coachella Valley RC Club is as sweet as it gets. And by sweet I mean totally cool. Great layout, shaded pits, huge runway, big heli pad, fantastic view of the valley, no wind and really nice folks have pretty much sold me on retiring somewhere near there. Assuming I can ever actually retire of course. And if you're ever in the area, the Palm Springs Air Museum is great also, with a nice layout, lots of displays and some very nice (most flying) full scale warbirds to see. So between finding a flat spot in the desert and flying at the CVRC Club I put about 25 flights on the Trojan, and am more than impressed with it. It was the RTF version that I added a ParkBec and Spektrum AR6000 Rx to, and I found it to be a great model that'll do anything I ask. Although most definitely not Alfa quality in a static display, it looks pretty good in the air and flies wonderfully. Nice power, very forgiving and easy to fly fast or slowly will probably make this my "trunk plane" as hangar rash isn't much of a concern. With this addition my fleet has expanded again to the point where the Chief Financial Officer has started to notice, and I might have to scale down a wee bit come spring. But that's for another day... |
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Glad you like the place. I and at least one other user here are members. I used to fly off of an abandoned turf farm before joining up. Without the club, there'd be no way that I could have gone to bigger, more complex planes than I'd been flying.
You made my day! |
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If there was a better way I could really convey my enthusiasm about the field I would! Granted I haven't been to very many different R/C and/or AMA locations, but I can't see how anything could be better than yours. I might have to stay two weeks down there next year and buy a membership (and enough batteries/chargers for a full day). You didn't happen to be flying there the morning of Thursday the 31st? I'd forgotten my coffee mug on a bench, and when I returned for it there was a very nice P-51 similar to the one in your blog in the air. |
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You know, I think I was! If it was a blue, silver and yellow .46 then yup. 'Twas I. That model has been reviewed for this site's RC Power online magazine; the review should be up any day now.
For that matter, I think I saw your coffee mug. I assume it was an aluminum travel mug...? |
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