Category Archives: General Discussion

Hi guys, I just received an official flyer from Bill Staley about their Sailplane Fun fly Saturday May 14th at 9 am, bill would like the Buzzards to come out in force to intruduce sailplane flying to their club members, also to intruduce the Buzzards to their flying field. I will set up a winch and retreiver, Bill will have several scale gliders and a tug for hands on aerotowing, yes thats right you could experience the thrill of being towed up behind a power plane! Feel free to bring whatever type of sailplane, from GL to the red competetion sailplane, there will be food for $6. Gordon will post this info and the flyer on the web site? Thanks I will email it to you.
Raed

Fun Fly Sailplane Flyer
ROCKET CITY RC CLUB FIELD-CHRISTMAS, FL

MAY 14^TH, 2011, 9 AM ‘till ???

 Come out and enjoy some sailplane flying at our field in Christmas. We will we doing some aero towing, electric flying and the Orlando Buzzards will bring a winch for some winch launching! This event is designed to introduce flyers to several aspects of sailplane flying from easy to fly electrics to some more advanced scale, aero tow and competition models!

No entry fee!

Lunch will be available for $6-hamburger, hot dog, chips and a drink

AMA license required to fly your model

 For info: Bill Staley, 407-695-0893, bstaley24@cfl.rr.com

              Art Marubbio, 407-302-0463, amarubbio@yahoo.com

Found this online, $26.36, we have to order atleast 20 to waive the “digitize” fee for the logo. I am sure there is a charge for shipping also.
I went to a local store, their shirts are $25.10 with a digitize fee of $65 which is waived if we buy atleast 36 shirts. A hat like Jody was wearing today is $21.65, a regular baseball cap is $14.99 both with the logo.
Let me know what you guys think, how many would you buy. These are really nice cotten polo shirts (not cheapees)

Don and Pat Grisham hosted the Buzzards Christmas Party at their home in WinterHaven on Saturday evening. A very enjoyable evening was had by all who attended and it was great to see some of our wives really geting to know each other better. The assortment of hors d’oeuvres and wine and beer was fabulous as was the excellent meal enjoyed later. We were all very envious of Don’s fine toy shop with lots of space and many beautiful models on the wall. If you are looking to adopt anybody there are about 10 mature age blokes waiting in line. 🙂
We really didn’t know what to expect with your special gift give away but it got lots of hearty laughter and was a really fun exercise. Funny how the random No. 1 draw went to the new Pres. And funny how that nose skeg became so popular too. The whole night was such a success that I do hope we do something similar again soon. Thanks for putting the evening together Don and thankyou for your excellent hospitality Pat.
Gordon
PS. Sorry I broke your wreath hanger. 🙁

A small but dedicated group of glider guiders arrived in Alachua this morning to contest DLG style and test the new equipment and scoring in preparation for the big February event. The San Felasco venue is a great site for soaring and always seems to provide challenging conditions for pilots no matter what the season. Today was no different with wind around 8 mph most of the day with gusts sometimes well above that. Lift was available in regular cycles but was always fairly small tight bubbles that required considerable finesse to take out high enough quickly enough not to be too far downwind too low. Pretty common problem with RC soaring in general and the decision always has to be made when to break and get home. A couple of times today that decision wasn’t made early enough and pilots found themselves hopelessly downwind and low and going backwards as the strong wind swept them into the rotor behind the trees. Made for a very interesting day.
We flew 5 rounds of casual competition and all the equipment worked very well. Ed was very pleased with the new software for scoring and did a great job as always managing the business end of the contest. At one point during the AULD round the volume was too low on the PA and 2 pilots missed the launch. Eventually it was decided to re-fly the round and the volume was fixed so all could hear the count-down.
Tom Shupe’s better half once again organised a great Sonny’s BBQ lunch for all and I must say the the San Felasco guys just do a super job of organising their contests and making every participant feel very welcome and taken care of.
The final results were determined after 5 rounds with everyone dropping their worst score. It was with great surprise that I learned I had won my first DLG contest with a score of 3872 flying my tired old Vixen. Wasn’t a win against a huge field but it was a win and I think it made me more happy than any other RC Soaring win has before. Thank you to my timers today who were a terrific help – Tom Shupe, Ray Alonzo and Ed White. Thanks guys. 2nd place was Ed White on 3844 flying a Taboo GT and third was Tom Shupe close behind on 3831 also flying a slightly battered Vixen. I think the most consistent flyer for the day was “never say die” Ed White. If it wasn’t for the dropped round he would easily have won the contest and I had the pleasure of timing for him and watching him do some magic things with his Taboo GT. That included one period in AULD where everyone was down and Ed was trying to bury them from 20 feet up. He spent nearly a full minute surfing the “wave” off the bodies of rest of us standing there, at no more than 15 to 20 feet above the landing zone. Fantastic stuff and rewarded him with a great score. Tom Shupe also flew really well today and I really enjoyed working with him in the first 2 rounds. He is a great pilot and I think will be hard to beat when he gets his new Vixen. Ray Alonzo flew consistently all day and it is just amazing how well the Blaster 2 flys. The only real blot on his copy book was an “out landing” beyond the trees which zeroed a round for him. Dave Forbes – the father of our beautiful Vixens scored well in every round bar one when he in-explicably got caught way downwind and had to go fetch beyond the treeline for a zero. Raed Elazzawi – as always supporting RC DLG Soaring, flew his Falken today and like all of us found the conditions very challenging. I am sure he would have faired much better if it wasn’t for a broken fin mounting he suffered in the first round. Everytime I go DLG flying with this great buch of guys I have a good time. It is just soooo much fun. Some of you other RC pilots should try it. DLG is just awesome. When I crank that little craft over and yank back on that elevator and she rockets up in a tight corkscrew it still always gives me such a fantastic thrill because I know I threw it up there. No better feeling …………… in soaring that is!
Thanks for a great day guys.
Looking forward to the next one.
Gordon

Jody and I went to the field late this afternoon so Jody could maiden his new bird and get her in trim. What a beautiful thing a brand new sailplane is! Jody has done a superb job of fitting her out and with just a quick sanity check of the radio and control surfaces, I gave her her first toss. Well – Jody kept her going out and out as he adjusted his elevator trim and when he finally decided to add some flap and bring the test flight to a stop she was about 120 yards away. Next throw Jody turned her through 180 degrees and flew her back near where we were setup. 🙂 A couple more tosses and Jody was ready to put her on the winch. First launch was zero camber and I threw her while Jody pedalled her up. A gorgeous site as his new Xplorer was finally airborne where she belongs. I flew my High End also and we flew a few man on man tasks of 8 and then 7 minutes which we were accomplishing easily even with a setting sun. Jody’s landings with the new bird were a bit wayward to start with as he got used to the incredible increase in performance he now has to play with. We finally finished flying as it got dark and packed the winch up. No doubt Jody Miller is going to be a force to be reckoned with in 2010 contests in Fl. See you on the 30th for Buzzards Appreciation day.
Gordon

Update;

Thanks to Donald Fourson, the IRKS will reschedule their contest to a different date. So we are still on for May 1st.

Raed

Original post:

Due to a scheduling conflict with the IRKS “sailplane contest #2”  I am considering moving the contest to Sat May 22nd. If anybody has an issue with the new date please let me know within a couple of days before I submit the change to the AMA sanction.

Raed

raed5@yahoo.com

The Gainesville Gang is holding a warm up contest for their big event in Feb.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1160919

Raed

Wow,  this is exciting.  I’m really stoked on this new web site.  Gordon has really hit one out of the park with this one!   And I don’t think he’s done yet….

If this is the first time you have visited you have a lot to see and do.  The site should continue to accumulate interesting information and more of those great Gordon Reports.   I’ve got to figure out how this new site works so that I can get in on the action too!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year! 

Rick