If you ever have the chance you need to check out "Mac Hodges's" field down in Andersonville GA. What a incredible place.

We had four of our local club members take the trip and another from District 2. I arrived Friday night. Got two practice shakedown flights in. By the time I was done the sun was starting to set and the bugs and Knats were unbearable!!!!! We finished grilling some burgers and enjoying some company.

The next day started at 6:30. Down for a quick breakfast then off to the field. My buddy Tim was entered in Advance, one club member was entered in Sportsman, the guy from North Carolina was entered into Masters, and the other club member and myself were competing in a Intermediate.

We had 6 pilots in Intermediate. Of course I was the first pilot to fly. About the third maneuver I was shaking like a leaf! And you could see it in my flying. We had winds less than 5 mph.

As I watched the others I noticed one other guy who looked really good. I finished taking 90.4% of possible points. But just wasn't enough. Ed took that round. I had a 967 normalized score to his 1000. This was what I was hoping for. Some tough close competition.

Onto the second round. This time I was last. Again Ed looked real good. I thought my second flight felt better. I still have issues with wing checking. Took 85.4% of total points. Still not enough. Ed won this round and I had a normalized score of 972. Improvement...Continue Reading

Well its been just about a year since my last post. Last summer I bought a 2m Vanquish down at Nall really cheap. Had it completely setup trimmed and ready to fly. Then unexpectedly had to sell in order to help my family out. So my flying season was done. Fast forward to Thanksgiving 2016. When my wife and great friend Tim surprised me with a used 2m Integral as an early Christmas gift. So the work had to start for this coming season. After numerous flights of what seemed like I was fighting a nose heavy plane. My friend Tim bought a new prop for his plane and gave me his old prop. This means a weight savings of almost 60 grams. Going from the APC prop to a falcon carbon fiber prop. Huge difference in balance. Completely different. So much better. Now fast forward to this past weekend May 6. First contest I am able to make this year.

I arrived early Saturday morning. Winds were gusting strong out of the west. 3 intermediate pilots were there. After the pilots meeting one of them decided to drop out due to wind. First round started at 10 a.m. Masters flew first, then advanced, then us. No sportsman pilots showed up for the contest. Not a good thing to see at all. We were finally up. Steve, the other pilot in intermediate, flew first. He flew two maneuvers and his plane died. So I was up next. The winds have now picked up even more than before. A lot of other pilots before me had all kinds of problems. Seemed that...Continue Reading

Tim and myself left Friday afternoon and drove 7 hours north to Harrisonburg VA. We stayed with some of Tims wonderful friends for the weekend. After arriving Friday around 730pm we spent some time with friends and settled in for the night.

We both woke around 7am or so. Had batteries charged and ready to go. After an awesome home cooked breakfast we were on our way to the field about 815. It would take about 20 minutes to get there. We found the club and started down the drive way and to our surprise, had to actually cross through a creek that was about 8" deep. This was a first for both of us going to any flying event. Ha. After Tim navigated the dangerous rapids, we decided to settle in on the end of the flight line.

Before unpacking we walked down the flight line catching up with friends and registering. Of course everyone was there. Including Gene Hood, who is Tims main competition.

The field faces east so we were looking right into the sun. I81 was also in that direction only about 500 yards out. To the right end was a tree line. It was tight. They decided to let the FAI guys fly first. It wasn't until about 1100 or so before our first round. We would fly two rounds in a row. One on flight line A and one on flight line B. Tim was not able to call for me on round 1, however Archie Stafford stepped up and helped me out. When I landed he gave me some great advice. On my down wind maneuvers I was using the same amount of...Continue Reading

So onto my second contest of the year. April 30 the Charlotte Aeromodelers hosted their spring Pattern contest. We left the house at 6am and arrived around 830 am. Unpacked registered and socialized a little.

There were 5 pilots flying intermediate and a total of about 30 pilots I believe.

I am still flying the Eflite Splendor. And like usual am at a disadvantage of over 20 inches of wing span.

Weather was good. In he low 70's to start the day and a slight cross wind. The field faced towards the North and we were flying a pattern from left to right.

First round went pretty good. After the round was complete I was sitting in 3rd.

As the day went on the wind picked up and clouds came about. After second round I dropped down to 4th.

Third round I did not move at all. And at this point they had dropped my lowest round which happen to have been 877.89. The guy in 4th had a dropped round of 798.34.

Fourth round went really good as the wind really picked up but I managed very well with the smaller plane. At the end of the day I was sitting in 3rd. That would be it for me. As I had commitments and would not be able to make it Sunday.

My friend Tim made the trip the next day but the event was called due to rain and weather. So I ended up 3rd.

All in all not bad at all. I am looking forward to getting the Vanquish 2m flying.

Do this is really my first year in the pattern scene. It was a 4 hour trek for me from Spartanburg area. Left at 4:30 am and arrived around 8:45. My good friend Tim and his wife were there already. So unpacked and spent about an hour meeting people and talking. At this time the only thing I have to fly is an Eflite Splendor. Tim and I have spent a lot of time working on this plane to get it to fly the way I feel it should fly. After a brief pilot meeting at 9:30 it was time for the pressure. I have decided to start out with the intermediate sequence. Today we had 8 pilots in this class. There were 20+ pilots today.

The event was run by Marvin Marozas. He did a great job along with many club members.

The first round I was the 7th flyer. After watching others fly it was time to do the work. First round went really well. We had a pretty stiff cross wind coming out of the NE. Basically right in our face. I was able to make that little plane present pretty well in the sky. Making sure I tried to keep maneuvers big and use the sky as much as possible. When I finished one judge had told me it looked really good but need to work on positioning and try to center the maneuvers more. He also mentioned to watch the box ends and try to keep the plane in the box. End of round and was sitting in 4th.

Second round came up. Completely different story. Did a lot of second guessing for corrections and fought myself the whole time. But...Continue Reading