Poh rang me up Thursday and let me know that conditions on Friday would be great for sloping at Normandy Dam. Wind was supposed to be 10 mph out of the South. Additionally, the forecast for the remainder of the week showed lots of rain. So I charged my Zulu, Weasel Evo and Falco for the South bound drive toward Tullahoma. I arrived about 11:15 and found Poh unloading his planes at the boat ramp parking lot. He suggested we go toward the center of the dam to avoid turbulence on the sides either from trees or air spilling over the valley walls. As usual he was right on.
There was tons of great lift. It was a mix of strong thermals getting pushed up the Duck River valley and a steady 10mph wind. At times, this “slermal” combo reached over 20+ mph and we found it very difficult to penetrate with any of our foamies. Twice, I was blown back over onto the rocks on the Dam’s North face. No real damage, outside of my Evo Weasel’s canopy getting cracked. For once, Poh and I flew everything we brought. Bill Jenkins, from the Coffee Airfoilers, showed up about 1pm to watch and get some pictures. By 2:30 pm Poh and I had enough wind/sun and called it a “good day”. As our usual custom, we headed out for a late lunch. This time we stopped in the tourist town of Bell Buckle for some good old country cooking at the Bell Buckle Cafe.

Mike W

PS I’d like to thank Bill Jenkins. Bill has graciously sent me his photos from the Dam and allowed me to use them in the...Continue Reading

I haven't been flying for over a month. So when Poh said they be flying Wednesday at Tullahoma, I jumped at it.
I brought my Shadow, Poh brought his Electric Skybird and Shadow, Charlie Bair and Chuck Anderson were flying Lilan's (Chuck's design that he has an ongoing article in RCSD on) and the other guys were all flying Electric BOT's (or Electric Skybirds?).
Don Cleveland was fresh back from the NATS, but was thwarted in his flying by a loose flap servo on his Explorer. We spent a couple hours flying off the winch and electric flights. The lift seemed very erratic. It was very strong at times (I had one 30 min flight) and other times it was non-existant. By noon the temps had reached the high 80's and only two of us were still using the winch. So Charlie packed up the winch trailer about 12:30 and we called it a day. Poh and I then headed to Shelbyville for some Mexican at Alfonso's.
Flying and Chimichanga's made for a great day!

Mike...Continue Reading