It’s been 5 months since I last flew. Which was the last Northwest slope trip from June.
In the meantime I kept making excuses for not flying. A couple day trips with the wife. A niece’s wedding. Friends coming to visit, etc. At least that’s how I rationalized it to myself.
But basically, I hadn’t unpacked the planes (yes, most of my planes were still packed from the trip) and of course, plain old laziness was the main factor.
Doc Khaw had been pushing me for the last month to get out and fly. So in a moment of weakness I gave in.
Of course he had to throw in the offer of a lunch at the Spring Hill Indian Buffet. That sealed the deal.
So last Sunday Doc Poh and I headed over to Spring Hill for lunch. After filling our faces with some fine Indian food. It was over to Chickasaw Trace Park to get our RC fix.
Chickasaw Trace is a quiet little park on the NW side of Columbia with an RC airfield, boat ramp, RC car track and bike trails.
When we arrived there was only two RC pilots flying. One with a small FPV drone and the other with a Bixler clone of some type. Neither were having good luck. I don’t think I saw a successful landing out of the bunch.

Poh Khaw was the first to go up. He had only brought his electrified Shadow 1. So it was a quick setup and launch for him. He was into some great lift on the West side of the field and was having a great time.
In the meantime, I had brought 4 planes to fly. So I spent about ½ an hour assembling and checking all...Continue Reading

A member from eons ago sent me these photos from the early 90's. Thought I'd post them to bring back memories.
Also, the very last photo is from this weekend. Our Paul Mittendorff sent a photo of the newly created Northwest bowl on the hill.
Enjoy, Mike

Sorry for this delayed entry for the final NW blog. I didn’t have time to complete the blog on Friday night with an early Saturday flight. So here goes the final entry:

Yea! Another day with white caps on the Columbia. We called up MtnGoat and conferred on best site for our last full day in the Northwest.
Final consensus was Diamond Ridge. It should have some decent wind getting funneled up from the Gorge to it’s slope bowl.
We crossed the river at The Dalles bridge and headed straight down the Washington side of the river until we passed Bingen. Then headed straight North into the hills.
Upon reaching Diamond Ridge, we found MtnGoat (Chris) had already beaten us and had set up camp.
We had to clear some overgrowth to get Tom’s truck into the little clearing beside the slope for setup.
On arrival, the wind was coming onto the slope at a 45-60deg angle, which made for some exciting launches before we figured out where the deadband\rotor existed.
Because of Diamond’s small landing area, which has quite a few rocks, foamies were the name of the game.
The only “crunchies” going out were MtnGoat’s glass RnR Genesis and Mark’s plastic Caracara.
Both were impressive in their own ways.
MtnGoat ranged the 3M Genesis way out over the valley and specked that big bird to sight limit.
On the flipside, Mark brought the 35” Caracara in fast and low. Probably one of the fastest planes I have ever seen. Especially considering an 8oz weight.
As the day rolled on, the...Continue Reading

With 15-25mph out of the WNW, our merry band decided to make our way to Lumber.
After the obligatory 1/2 mile hike up the back side of Lumber, we were rewarded with truly great vistas.
The wind was as advertised, but very gusty. Also, it had lots of “negative lift”. But more on that later.
We had a bit of haze, from some of the forest fires in Canada.
The haze built up over the course of the day and made for a fairly hazy sky by the time we left.
We got some great flying in. However, tragedy struck us twice.
First misfortune was Tom’s Gulp getting caught in some down lift (negative lift?) over on the furthest left side of the slope. His plane just seemed to fall out of the sky and crashed into a pine tree thicket.
Tom gave up on finding it, but after three of us scoured the woods on that corner of the slope we found it halfway up a fir tree. Only damage was a broken servo arm and cover.
2nd tragedy was Jamie’s Rabbit Hotliner. Like Tom, he caught another bad air cycle and tried to fly it out. Eventually he went in on the far right of the slope. Actually, the same spot that Ingo had lost his plane many years ago. Fortunately Jamie’s damage was limited to a broken wing retainer bolt.
After flying 90% of the planes we brought up, we shut down about 3:30pm.
Since we were in Hood, we decided to head to a local restaurant, rather than driving all the way back to The Dales. We went to the local Thai restaurant. It used to be our favorite in Hood.
It...Continue Reading

High hopes for today, with initial weather reports of 12-15mph out of the WNW.
As we left the motel this morning the Columbia had white caps forming, so it was looking good.
We decided to try our luck at a new slope site outside of Stevenson, WA.
Three corners rock, a former fire watchtower site.
This required us to take a run down I-84 to Cascade Locks and cross the bridge of the gods.
So far, so good.
Unfortunately, it required transitioning several unmarked lumber roads (trails?). And to make matters worse, one of the cutoffs we were required to make had a broken branch partially obscuring it.
If that wasn’t enough, Mark and Jamie’s Jeep was flashing low fuel as we searched for the site.
And we were miles from the nearest gas station.
We probably drove MtnGoat crazy, calling and texting for additional info as we tried to find the correct road to the site. Just seemed that each side road we took lead off the wrong way or dead ended.
When we finally reached the trail into 3 corners rock we had been on road for 4 hours.
The last mile to the site was a brutal 4 wheel drive trail. And I truly mean brutal.
Toms’ Ford HD F250 and Mark’s Jeep couldn’t proceed faster than walking speed. And I know I left my kidneys there somewhere.
The view, however, was worth it. Ranier, Adams and Mt St Helens were all prominent on the horizon.
And the climb to the top of the 3 corners rock was fun and not too difficult.
To our dismay, we found the wind has dissipated...Continue Reading

Tuesday appeared to be a crappy day. Wind was very light. It didn’t seem to come from any distinct direction. And we couldn’t identify a good slope site for the available wind.
I’m not quite sure how, but we ended up at Grayback Mtn.
Grayback surprisingly turned out to be the right decision.
There was no slope lift, so we had to rely on the alpine lift roaring up out of the valley below.
And boy was it roaring. Throw your planes out, head at over the valley and hook up.
There were strong, large thermals literally boiling up.
You could do no wrong.
Obviously, we couldn’t slope, so we only flew our electrics (Explorer/Lightning 1500’s and a Volantex ASW28).
We flew until 5:00pm, when the dreaded “retina burn” started to rear it’s ugly head.
Heading back to The Dalles, we found many restaurants closed on Tuesday (what the heck?). And others closing at 8pm. So we finally found the Rivertap Pub was open and tried it out.
The food was good and the staff was super friendly. So we may go back there again.
Tomorrow, we haven’t decided on where we will go. Conditions look better for sloping with 12mph out of the NW and that opens up several possible sites.
...Continue Reading

Today was a total bust. They wind was non-existent. We took a short jaunt over to The Dalles Dam slope. Tom tried to fly his Ahi on small thermals passing through. But it was useless. A group decision was made to go back to the motel (and air conditioning) and hang out till any wind at all appeared.
After spending most of of the day in the motel we headed over to Hood River to check out Hood River Hobbies.
We had noted earlier in the week, that they had a couple combat wings in stock. Actually Combat Models XR and XE2. Which have probably been out of production for 15+ years. Since combat wings are hard to come by anymore, Tom and Mark jumped on picking them up.
We capped off a fairly boring day with dinner at our favorite Hood River pub, Double Mountain.
And of course a visit to Mike's ice cream.
Hoping for better conditions tomorrow.
Mike

Sunday was our first “full day” in the NorthWest. Weather predictions showed the wind at 5-8mph.
We were quite surprised when we the wind at 12-15mph. After a brief discussion we picked Klickitat as our choice for the day. It was a pretty uneventful ride over to “Klick” and we were flying by 10:30.
The lift was pretty good and consistent with only a few dropouts. We flew our Gulps and combat wings, since Klick is a moldie unfriendly slope. When their was some low lift/wind cycles, Mark and Tom pulled out their Ahi’s and showed us some great aerobatics.
As always, landings were a little tight. We landed mostly on the terrace on the right. Although Jamie landed on the paved road once, surprisingly with minimal asphalt scuffing.
The one crash of the day was Mark’s bad landing, which caused a gash in his leading edge of this combat wing. But with the miracles of strapping tape he was back up in no time.
We were burned out by 4pm and headed back to The Dalles for a shower and dinner.
Tonight we tried out a local Mexican restaurant called Casa El Mirador.
Several of us tried out the Salmon Tacos, they were pretty good. Plus ,they were the Sunday night special.
...Continue Reading

Tom, Mark, Jamie and I headed out to the NW for our annual slope trip on Saturday.
We arrived in Portland about noon. First stop, before heading out to Hood River\The Dalles, was Tammie’s hobbies in Beaverton. Picked up some odds and ends for planes building and then scooted out to our motel.
Once we reached our motel, we settled in and assembled our slope fleets. With everything organized it was time to head to the flying area above The Dalles dam, which was about a mile from our motel.
We flew for about an hour. Had to call it quits since the sun was setting directly in front of us.
The evening was ended with a stop at the Clock Tower restaurant for some delicious food and some micro brews.
...Continue Reading

It’s been a century since I’ve added anything to my blog. A thread that Jason started last week caught my eye and got me thinking about traveling with sailplanes:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...ble-Sailplanes

Jason was prepping to build an Argon for a packable 3D printed sailplane. I recommended the Caracara since I had popped out one for a member of our club to bring to our annual North West slope trip. That lead me off to another train of thought. Since we travel from all over the US to our annual North West slope trip. What do we do for transporting and hauling our precious toys out there and around once we get there.
Here’s a small synopsis of what I have and what works for me.
--Most RC travel savvy fliers will use a sport tube. And that’s great. But retail, they run $200-$250. I prefer hard golf travel cases. You can generally find many more of them used and available since there are more people traveling with golf clubs then skis. Thanks to my wife’s Goodwill shopping obsession, I come across the golf cases about once a month in their housewares section. The current one I have was marked $20 at a Goodwill and I talked the manager into a $5 discount, since the middle latch was slightly damaged. Original retail was ~$225 for a new model.
I usually make a hinged panel to separate the lower and upper half of the case. That allows me to stack items in the upper and lower sections of the case to max capacity. The 3D printer has come in very handy...Continue Reading

Today started out light. We hoped the incoming front would boost our chances for some good flying on our last day.
After breakfast at the Comfort, we loaded drinks and snacks from Safeway and headed out across the river. With the incoming low coming out of the West we looked for a good West slope.
Since we hadn’t been to Grayback on this trip. And Mark had never flown at our “new” slope area at Grayback. So that’s where we went.
It was a washout! We could see the low coming in over Mt Adams with some great lenticular cloud formations. Also smoke from Eastern Oregon/Washington forest fires was thick.
We received a few bursts of wind/lift and Tom got his Ahi up for a few minutes.
But no joy. Mark and I resorted to the propeller power of our Explorer/Lightnings to feel out the valley.
After lunch under our favorite tree, we had to make a tactical decision. Klickitat or Diamond Ridge?
Either one was closer to the Columbia gorge and had to have more wind.
The vote was for “Klick”.
When we reached Klick, we were vindicated. The wind was full on!
Of course, being Klickitat, it was foamies only. So it was combat wings, Gulps and Erasers.
We flew from 4pm till 6pm non-stop. The only issues being the thick smoke (which you can see in the pictures) and being forced to fly directly into the setting sun.
Finally, with the sun disappearing over the ridge, we surrendered our last flying day and week long adventure to the sloping gods. And off we headed through the...Continue Reading

So this is the forth day without any good lift. Very unusual for the gorge.
We decided to reconnoiter today, since top wind speed was projected as 3mph.
First stop was Lumber. Rumor was it might be closed, because of wildfire threat levels.
It was open. However, Tom noted the “shortcut” trail off to the side was pretty overgrown.
By this time we were ready for food. So we headed down to Bettie’s in Hood River for a late lunch.
After grabbing an excellent meal, we scored some scones for later.
Next stop was Hood River Hobbies, which had quite an odd assortment of RC parts.
Tom scored with a discovery of an Ahi kit for a great price.
Final stop was to Courtney Lane on the WA side of the Columbia.
No wind, but the landing area was great.
So we booted up our electrics. Ben had his Explorer 1500 and I maidened my Volantex ASW28.
The air was smooth and only a few thermals came through, we we did get a little flight time in.
Unfortunately Ben had some elevator issues and his plane went straight in hard on 2nd flight.
I had better luck, but still had a few problems with extreme throws on my elevator and prop brake not engaging.
Tomorrow, we should get some great air. With a low coming in for this weekend.
We’re planning on going to Grayback since we should get a 10-15mph West wind.
Finger crossed!

...Continue Reading

After a filling breakfast at our Comfort Inn. We loaded up the trucks and headed over the just reopened Dalles bridge. First stop Klickitat and as it turned out, our only stop. Probably our lightest day ever. Usually “Klick” works with the any direction wind. So we hoped a 1-3 mph wind in the gorge would translate to to some lift on Klicks face. Not so much. Mark and Tom eked out some light thermals with their Ahi’s. But, spent more time waiting for passing thermals then actually flying in them.
Mark did fly his Explorer 1500. He actually got a lot of flight time with the sailplane, since it was powered.
We did hear some good news while we were there. A local stopped by to watch. We pressed him for info concerning the guy across the road, who would harass us about flying at the site.
He believed the gentleman had sold the property. The new owners were in the process of building a fairly large house across the street. Also the gate to his property was no longer there and part of the property fence had been removed.
After enough flying and gabbing with the locals, we headed to Hood River for dinner.
Our favorite Thai restaurant was still in business. So we made a beeline there.
The restaurant had new owners, but the food seemed to be good.
Tomorrow’s weather looks similar to today. So we’re not sure where we’ll end up as of yet.
...Continue Reading

Another light day in the gorge. We made a group decision to try out the new site of Indian Springs.
It was kinda of a bust. Wind was barely 5 mph out of the East.
Unfortunately, the slope is oriented to the West.
We did find a side on the peak that has an Eastern orientation.
It turned out to be pretty weak. Tom’s Ahi could only make 3 passes before landing.
Mark’s Explorer 1500 had better luck, but he had to run power to keep it up for any amount of time.
Eventually we gave up and headed back into Hood River.
We soothed our egos with some Mike’s ice cream, before heading back to The Dalles for the day.
Tomorrow’s plan is to check out Klickitat, since it seems to work with all wind directions.
...Continue Reading

Today was kinda a bust. No wind down in the gorge. So we lulled around the motel room.
Kept looking at the local wind reports, but nothing was encouraging. All were 5mph or less.
Basically, we performed plane repairs and took a nap most of the afternoon.
We go off our butts about 3:30pm, and headed out to Rowena overlook, since windfinder showed a slight breeze out of the East.
We found Rowena had about 7mph breeze on it’s East face.
It was also crowded with people and photographers. Seemed several groups were having family and wedding pictures. Apparently Rowena is a popular place for that sort of thing.
Mark and Tom whipped out their Ahi’s and tried out the East face.
Ben and I had brought heavier powered gliders. We decided against flying, because A) so many people mulling about and B) recovery would have been a bear if we lost them off.
Mark and Tom spent at least an hour flying. Attracting plenty of interest from the locals as they performed all the 3D maneuvers the Ahi is known for.
We finally shut down and crawled into The Dalles at 6pm.
We hit the Clock Tower Ales for supper and then actually made back to the hotel at a decent hour.
Till tomorrow.

...Continue Reading

For Saturday, on MtnGoats advice we headed out for Richland. The predictions were for 10mph out of the North. So it looked like the Kiona or SDR slopes were best.
After a hearty breakfast at our Comfort Inn we proceeded Eastbound for two hours, arriving at 11am.
We found Kiona loaded up with paragliders, so we headed SE along the ridge and reached MtnGoat and friends camped out on SDR proper. I know I always say it was one of our best days. It truly was.
We flew most of our planes and only had one damaged plane (Tom’s Merlin had a rough landing, and broke off his control horns). Even among the other flyers I only observed one crash. Chris’s Duo Discus had a tough landing (very repairable).
By the way, the weather predictions were way off. 10mph my arse! I think our meter showed 23mph with gusts of 27mph. I know I used two bars of lead in my Gulp. Lots of high speed screaming passes from moldies to foamies. Of course the moldies really actually screamed.
As the sun set (rather spectacularly thanks to forest fire smoke). We realized it was time to beat it out for dinner and back to The Dalles before we turned into pumpkins.
All in all a great day for our first “flying” in the NW.

Mike and the Florida...Continue Reading

First day back in the Northwest. After 4 years Tom Tubridy, Mark Atzel, Ben Carroll and I finally returned back to Oregon/Washington. With the pandemic over or close to over we took the risk and planned a short slope safari to our favorite places.
On the first day, we spent the entire day traveling to Portland, then the drive out to Hood River.
Well, actually, The Dalles this year, since Hood River hotels were booked with multiple events.
Tomorrow we plan to head out to SDR and Kiona. The wind predictions are “decent”, there’s supposed to be a crew of flyers out there already and it’s only a two hour drive from The Dalles.

Wish us luck. Mike

It’s been over a year since I added anything to my blog. And now two entries in less than 3 weeks.
What the heck is happening to me? Whatever the reason it’s good I’m getting some flight hours under my belt. I am way too rusty.
Don’t laugh, but I’ve had my Shadow 2 for over 2 years now and I just maidened it Tuesday.
Can you say slow builder?
The Coffee Airfoilers sent out an email about a week ago that they were planning a winch day on Tuesday. They kinda spurred me on to complete the last 10% of my build on the TD version of the Shadow. I tried to have the F5J Shadow completed too, so I could maiden both at once. But no go.
I actually worked late into the night and then several hours after work (I worked ½ day that morning) to get the plane programmed properly. I used Mike Shellims excellent e-soar plus Ethos template which worked out great. Just modified it for TD/F3J use.
My arrival at the field was cutting it close. I pulled in at 3:45pm (flying had started at 2pm) and Charlie (Blair) was starting to pack up the winch trailer. Once Charlie heard it was first flight for my new bird, he graciously offered to keep it setup as long as needed.
All I can say is what an awesome flier the Shadow 2 is. First untrimmed launch was a 20 minute flight on a moderate launch. It just seems to float. Probably a result of it’s 60oz weight and almost 4m wingspan. I had three more flights, none as long as the first. The last one could have been much longer, but I specked out and bailed in panic mode as she started to disappear. I then ended up in sink and brought it home early.
It seems to be setup almost perfect, although a little tweaking with differential and crow compensation need to be fleshed out to give it a 10 out of 10.
Before I go. I added a couple pictures of my 3D printer and the gauges I ran off for control surface setup. Came in very helpful for setting the throws on the Shadow’s flaps and ailerons.

Mike

Seems like it’s been a century since I flew. Been picking away on my Shadow 2/Shadow 2E for some upcoming F5J contests. Thought I might try a test flight this Saturday. But when I saw the wind was going to be 18mph, with gusts to 25mph, I said heck with that, time to charge some slope weapons.
I started to call up a couple of the guys and see if they wanted to join in. But I kinda made a spontaneous decision on Friday night to go. Plus the wind report kept changing. So I just charged my usual suspects, kept my fingers crossed and headed out on my own.
As usual for me I got out late and then stopped at Mickey D’s for a $1 ice tea (when did the $1 large ice tea go to $1.29?) for the long drive.
When I got the to the dam, lordy, was it busy. Lots of boaters in the lake and in the parking lot.
But the dam itself was basically empty. Although surprisingly, when I first arrived, a quinceanera photo shoot was just completing. Interesting, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. It looks like a great spot for a wedding, a prom or even a quinceanera photo session.
I walked about 1/3 out on the dam. First flying the AH Falco for about an hour and then my FVK Gillette for about the same amount of time. Nothing of note to report. It was pretty bouncy air, especially when running low and close to the slope lip. I did try to take some remote pics by mounting my camera to the tripod and using it’s infrared remote. But couldn’t get things to work right. Hence no in-...Continue Reading

Saturday was another South Wind, 12-15mph. So off I went to the dam. Only a few sprinkles as I left the house. And for once the weather accommodated. No more rain. I was able to get three planes up and tested. Didn’t quite get the results I wanted. There’s a strange rotor on the slope that’s caused by the a group of trees below the dam. Chris had warned me about them last year, but that was in the summer, with full foliage. I stupidly assumed that leave-less trees would not be an issue. No so. The only solution around it would be to go much further out on the dam. After all three planes were thrown down in rough landings, a light bulb went off.
So, I ended up flying a shorter pattern a race course about 100’ one way and 200’ down wind the other. That way I avoided the mid-slope rotor. Then it got to be fun. I was able to pull some awesome half-pipes as I went ripping back and forth with a big grin on my face. After a ½ hour of this I had to give up. The wind had picked up and it was getting awfully cold.
Looking to warm up, I packed up all my planes. Then headed over to Tullahoma where my wife had called in a BBQ order for pickup. Couldn’t wait to get home and curl up in front of the fireplace while having some southern BBQ.

All in all. Not a bad day. Just a shame it wasn’t a little warmer.

Mike