FAR FLUNG FLYING 

By Pete Granger

 Friday, January 10  Russ and I went over to Bruce Pyles’ place and worked with him on the newsletter until late morning, then we all packed up and headed for a flying field that was new to me.  Rusty Tillman is a retired crop duster and is an accomplished R/C flyer and builder.  The field is actually his old crop dusting runway and has a dried mud surface that has a shallow drain more or less down its middle.  The flyers park their cars behind the cable spool of their choice, so it is easy to unload and setup.  Rusty has built plane holders on top of the 6 or so spools and has a frequency control arrangement.  The runway is about 200 feet wide and perhaps 300 yards long with power lines at the right (typically downwind side) hand end.  Pilot stations are right in front of your spool and Russ used his as a chair. 

 I put in 2 flights on each of my planes and found out how wobbly the cold had left me.  Russ and Bruce put in at least that many flights on Russ’s SPACE WALKER.  It was a perfect day, clear with a light breeze down the runway.  Flying here sure is nice!

 Sunday, January 12  The VDO Flyers put on a swap meet this morning.  I was disappointed as it was poorly attended and did not have many goodies.  In fact, I would characterize most of the stuff as junk and I already have a lot of that. I did take a picture of a BIG white and pink biplane that was nice.

 Monday, January 13  Russ and I went to Superstition Field and bored holes in a crystal clear sky.  He had his SPACE WALKER out and I had my venerable HOG WILD.  We had a great time until discipline started to fade and folks started doing crazy things.  In one case a flyer that claimed he knew how to fly took his trainer off, flew over the pits at low level, and crashed just beyond the cars.  I saw stuff fly at least 50 feet into the air from the impact! 

 Tuesday, January 14  Russ and his son joined me at Rusty Tillman’s air strip for a last (for me) day of flying for a while.  Russ had a nifty new little electric that was very acrobatic and son was flying an EXTRA that looked great and flew very well.  I had the HOG WILD along and enjoyed 3 more flights in that perfect Mesa weather.  I was home in time to have lunch by the pool.  It just does not get better than this and we plan to stay a lot longer in Mesa next year.

 Wednesday, January 22  I’m in S. Texas where the wind nearly always blows.  I connected with Ron Jans, a flyer from Wisconsin and got caught up on his activity and the local scene.  He did not have room in his car to bring down an airplane, but bought one at a local swap meet complete with radio and engine.  He does not have his flight box with him and is trying to put one together as cheaply as possible.  Off we went to Brownsville and John Alberg’s home.  John is a wealthy modeler who maintains an at cost hobby shop in his house.  I noticed he was stocking the LIL TRICKLER units and some good-looking covering irons.  In the end I spent more money than Ron did!