Miami Mike (Mike Naylor) sent me a note this past week about the FSS contest #1 held at the Christmas, FL field. I see the Pompano Hill boys did well on Saturday and also for the end of year awards (2015), which are awarded at the first contest of the year. Mike also sent me a few pics. Here's some highlights of the note he sent me:

"Jeff Duval got his Xplorer stuck in a tree and came up with a clever method to get it down using several sections of PVC pipe. I made a video of the whole thing but it'll take me a while to edit it.

The Christmas field is now officially the Orlando Buzzard's field. It's much nicer than their old field on Red Ember Road.

Mike Naylor"

Coverage of the event is listed in RCGroups thread at:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=2603802

Carlos sent me some pictures and information about the plane he has been flying on the hill. I had seen the plane showing up in Kit's pics and I couldn't identify it as any commercial kit. Here's some pics of the Avanti flying in Venezuela with Carlos's note:

"Hello there Mike...
Just wanted to share a few pictures I found earlier today. This is the Avanti, my design and build from 2005. This pictures where taken on August 2006 down in Venezuela where I used to fly. A great place with loads of lift everywhere...
Hope everything is good up there...

Cheers,
Carlos"

Got my first taste of slope flying in middle Tennessee last week. With predictions of a 15-20mph South wind, Poh and I headed off to one of the several dams to test fly some birds. I brought my Zulu, Triffic and Gulp. Poh brought his new Ridge Rider and a Radian. Flying was a bit difficult with very rough air and lots of "dead spots". I soon learned that air spilling over the hill sides with lots of trees below the dam were disturbing the air. With a few bad flights, Poh and I made our way out toward the center of the dam and found much calmer air. After dialing in Poh's Wind Rider and cartwheeling my Zulu too many times, we called it a day. Still wind burned and tired from walking the length of the dam, we headed to the "backside" of the dam for Poh to catch up on some fishing time. With the fish not cooperating, we decided to head into town for a late Mexican lunch at Alfonso's.

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Kit sent his pics from flying on the East side last Saturday. Here's Kit's description and pics:

"Hello Mike, It was a fair day flying and that's why only a few pictures as I spent a lot of time flying my planes instead of taking pictures. I included a Mascot picture at the end I think you'll like it. Without this mascot I wouldn't know where to fly sometimes, he or she leads me to the promise skies. See ya, Kit "

Thanks again, great pics Kit.
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This Wednesday the weather cleared and the temps reached the mid 50's. So Poh and I wandered over to Eagleville to squeeze in some RC flight time. Poh flew his Explorer and his E-Shadow. I of course relied on my trusty Shadow. Flying was pretty good, but I couldn't seem to get many long flights in. Poh 's flights seemed to always be about twice as long as mine. Finally, on my last flight of the day, I pulled over a 30 min flight after initially coming down to tree level. That alone, made my day. So with both of us feeling lucky, we packed up our planes and headed off the field as the sun set.
Another great day in Tennessee!

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Kit sent me some great pictures from last week. I see several interesting planes are up. Amadeo has his new composite Zulu on the slope. Jamie has his Shooter F3B out, he kept it far out from the normal slope traffic (no chances for a mid-air). Also, new guy Carlos has a cool looking little v-tailed sloper. I also understand we had a large crowd up on the NE bowl with 20+ people flying.
Miami Mike sent me an email with a link to a short video he had shot. Here's his note and link to video:
"We had a big turnout on 2/27 and I made a video of the cars lined up at the Northeast Bowl:

Clew Cam (0 min 9 sec)

Mike N"

Enjoy Guys
Mike...Continue Reading

Here's Kit's photos from 2-20. Looks like a windy day on the East Slope. Plenty of slopers (read heavy planes) in the air. I can see that several times they tried to get a formation of foamies together. Also, I see some slope combat going on. Looks like a great Saturday. As always, great pics Kit!

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Still trying to get out all three weekends of pics I've received from Kit. Here's the 2nd set, from Saturday 2-13. Looks like lots of lift on the North side. One of the best sides IMHO. The North side is longer than any of the other 4 sides and tends to be steeper.
Thanks again Kit, great pictures.

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Kit's been very busy with work and family health issues. I have just reeived some photos at the end of this last week. So here's the first set. I'll try to get all three sets out by the end of this week (2-13-16 and 2-20-16 will follow).
Enjoy!
Thanks Kit for all your hard work!
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Friday, for the first time, I flew with the Coffee Foilers, at their field in Tullahoma. Poh and I met down at Tullahoma (about a 50 min drive South of Murfreesboro). It wasn't exactly a warm day, I think the high was about 50 F. The club setup their main winch and retriever. Poh and I were the only fliers. We had a few club members stop by and shoot the breeze. I few my Shadow, while Poh flew his Shadow and BOT.
Don Cleveland joined us for some DHLG as the day wore on. They finally packed the winch away at 4PM and we hit the local BBQ place for a late lunch. Good lift, no crashes and no snow. It was a great day.
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Just received another round of pictures from Kit. Air was a little light last Saturday. More electrics and DHLG's than slopers. I see some new aircraft are up. Looks like Mark has an E-Flite Extra 540. DJ got my Falco-franken-Bat flying. Also looks like Amadeo has debuted his Spin. And someone (DJ) got himself a new Veloster?
Great pictures guys. Hoping everyone is having a great time down in Sunny South Florida.

Mike
Who just got clear of 6 inches of snow!...Continue Reading

Finally had a break in the weather. We had 6 inches of snow, Nashville had more that 8. By Friday the snow had melted off and the temps reached the 50's. Poh rang me up and I met him over at Eagleville for some winching. The field was a little wet from the snow, but not too muddy. He brought his red Shadow and I of course had my yellow Shadow.
We both had spectacular flights. Almost every flight was over 20 minutes. Finally, we decided to park our planes after the receiver battery testers showed us we were very close to “empty”. In the meantime one other hardy soul joined us. Local guy, Gary, with his e-BOT. Poh took one more risky flight (his Li-Fe was getting critical at this point) to fly with Gary. Fortunately, his Shadow had a short flight and made it back without incident.
Poh and I talked about our Oregon slope trip for this year. Trying to decide if the last week in May or the first week in June would be best. Lots of interest in flyers wanting to join up and setting a firm date. It looks like the first week in June would be best (the mid-south is the last week in May at Triple Tree and Poh would like to go).
After a brief discussion, I had to bow out early, without lunch. The wife had some furniture I had to pick up in the other end of the county by 4PM and I had to roll.

Mike
carpe remissas!...Continue Reading

I didn't receive any report from last Saturday. I don't know if anyone had shot any pics or video. Miami Mike sent me some videos from this week, 1-23-16. Looks like they had strong winds on the Westside. Flying looks extremely turbulent when getting low, which is to be expected when winds hit 30+mph

Here's Mike's videos:

"Amadeo cartwheels his Electron 60 .
The nose broke loose, but he should be able to replace the carbon fiber rod that goes from the nose back to the v-tail."

Amadeo Cartwheels His Electron 60 (0 min 16 sec)

"Dan flying his JW on the Westside.

Dan Flying on West Side (1 min 43 sec)

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Went over to Eagleville this Thursday. It's coincidence, but it seems that Thursdays are the only clear day to fly on. Poh brought his Explorer and E-Shadow. I brought my Shadow. The weather was not good. At least a 20 mph wind coming crosswise over the field. We didn't set up the winch. Poh flew his E-Shadow since it's wing loading was better for this than our TD birds. I didn't bring any electrics since I hadn't unpacked any yet (bad Mike, bad Mike!).
Poh also called up some flying buddies from Tullahoma to see if they wanted to fly at Tullahoma or at the Normandy Dam. Everyone had made other plans. Additionally Poh was unsure if the wind was coming the proper direction for Normandy Dam (South/North).
After flying for a couple hours we broke down and headed into Eagleville for lunch. There was a new café/restaurant we tried out. It was very good and they gave us very large portions.

Until next week!
Mike
enjoying the snow in...Continue Reading

Here's Kit's report from last Saturday:
"Happy New Year! Another mild day but it turned out to be pretty good, except for my Falco getting caught up in the rebar Christmas decoration on the West slope. Bummer, but I have a new one just waiting to be completed. now I have a reason to do it.
Miss you Mike, Have fun!
Kit"

Bummer on your Falco catching a rebar on landing. I can see a few below either Miami Mike's or Paul's Zulu in one of your shots.

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Poh Khaw and I met over at Eagleville this Thursday. I had my trusty Shadow and Poh had his new Explorer V. We spent about 2-1/2 hours winching on the Eagleville runway. The power flyers flew off the North end of the runway while we winched from the South end.
Wasn't the best weather, at least from a South Floridian resident. Temp was in the low 50's, cloudy and a few spits of rain. Surprisingly, we both had some great flights. On my first launch, I pulled a 15 min flight, which astounded me. Both because of the conditions and I hadn't winched in 7 months. I pulled about 5 flights and Poh pulled 7 flights. By 2:30 PM we had too much fun. We were the last guys on the field, so we packed up and headed to beautiful downtown Eagleville to our favorite Mexican restaurant for a late lunch and some Southern sweet tea.

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Kit is getting pretty good at his photography. Here's his shots from last week from the NE bowl. He gave me a quick synopsis of the conditions:
"Well last week was not that great, very light winds and not much lift, and not many people flying. But here's a few shots of the few flyers."

Thanks for the photos and the work involved, Kit.
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Kit sent in another set of photos. Wind wasn't as strong as last week. I understand it was more like 10-15mph. Nothing to sneeze about. Looks like we had a good sized crew. I see Bruce had gotten my old Raider combat wing flying. Also looks like Charlie had performed another miracle paint job. This time on DJ's rebuilt Energic. Hope you guys are having a great time down in sunny South Florida. It was 26 deg F overnight here in Nashville. I'm missing that 80 deg weather now!

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Just finished editing Kit's pictures from last week's flying on the hill.
I didn't get a report from anyone about the flying, but I can tell from the pictures that it was rocking! Ed's anemometer shows 28mph gust in one picture. I know that wind like that in the NE bowl is awesome.
Thanks for the pics Kit.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Mike

PS I'm loving Nashville/Murfreesboro, except for the tornados and week of constant rain. My backyard is turning into a lake....Continue Reading

My first week in Nashville and I get a chance to do some RC flying. Well actually, I helped setup the winch, so I didn't technically fly. But I jumped at getting any RC time. I hooked up with a former FSS flying buddy, Poh Khaw. Poh had moved up here a couple of years ago and invited me over to the Eagleville Soaring club, (http://eaglevillesoaring.org/) for some TD flying.
Eagleville is a full scale glider club located SE of Nashville. They have an unusual arrangement where they fly RC from M-F and full size planes on Sat and Sun.
Had a great time assisting Poh and watching the power guys wring out their planes.
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