Flying (or not)

When I was a young teen, I spent gobs of time and what to me at the time a horrible pile of money (all made on my own) on model airplanes, which I would build, then with a gang of friends, we would go to the edge of the municipal golf course at Audubon Park, claim three or four flying circles, and fly our airplanes from noon until just before sunset. The planes were magnificent, each one the product of three to four weeks of labor, brightly colored, striking in design. Most were Topflight Flight Streaks, I do remember, and a few profile P-51 Mustangs. My first was a smaller Fokker Eindekker, but the favorite was a Shoestring, painted teal and red. No one else had a Shoestring! Those were good days, long days. We were busy, and our time and money went to legitimate pursuits, not drugs and gangs like so many young people today.

So here I ma, many years later, and I am looking for something to fill my hours while I have to endure a temporary situation of stagnation. And, voila! I once again find that I can get involved in my old hobby, except some things have changed: the planes are less expensive, the materials are different, and there are no cables anymore, its all radio controlled. I think, 'Outstanding! I can so do this!'

The materials are now foam, the same styrofoam type material that the trays which hold your fresh chicken the meat from the grocery are made of. I know this because when I had to make a recent repair to one of my planes (I have had to make many), I used one such tray, and you can't tell the difference. It makes for a very light, but also easy to break, plane.

And I have a reputation for breaking them. I build them, often in just a day or two, as it doesn't take that long to build a kit. Then I try to fly them. Or maybe I don't try to fly them. I do not have a clue what the problem is. I try hard to cover all the bases, to make sure I am doing everything just right. I even bought a simulator to practice flying on the computer.

This morning was the best of all examples. I got up at 5:30 am, and loaded the car with two planes, one that I had worked on for a week, and was really looking forward to flying, the other was a kit that I knew I could fly, and I was taking as a back-up in case something happened to the first plane, at least I would have something to fly. I made sure I had a couple of spare propellers, just so a broken propeller wouldn't ruin my flying day. I packed a hat, a bottle of water, etc. Then off to Panera for a bagel and cinnamon roll, then to the flying site, 10 miles away,

When I got there, it was quiet, the sun was just coming up, no one else was around. THe site has a piece of road, then open field. I was ready!

I hooked up the battery on my Eindekker, the big plane I had built from scratch, and it synced with the radio, all was ready! I tested the elevators and rudder - they were backwards! Hmmm... I had to stop, open up the plan, and move the plugs for the elevator and rudder servos to the other connections, about five minutes, then button it back up - now ready!

Power up, plane begins to move, lifts off the ground, starts to veer off to the left, I try right rudder - not enough - POW!

The plane hit the car. The motor mount on the plane gave way, so did the rudder. Every thing else is fine - except the pilot, of course, is steaming. She will get rebuilt to try and fly again.

So out with plane number two, a little bright red number, a Fokker D7, nice model, I expect I can at least get some fun out of this one. I put it down, and taxi out on the road, it hits a pebble and careens into the curb, where it lays quiet, no longer responding to any throttle commands. On closer inspection, when it hit the curb, it knocked the motor off its mount, and pulled a wire out of the motor somewhere - end of my flying day.

I have a timer that I use, which is suppose to time the flight so you don't overdraw the lithium-polymer battery. It is set for twelve minutes. Today's total was 6 seconds.

Usually I go flying, and I come home an hour later, my significant other asks, 'So, how many did you crash?' Hmmm. Okay, two. Both repairable.

One of these days I am going to get one up for 12 seconds. Then it will be a minute. And finally, I will have the whole 12 minutes. It may take the rest of my natural lifetime to do so, but many who know me know I am persistent, if I am anything.

And anyway, it keeps me off the streets, and keeps me from buying drugs, joining a gang, etc.