RC cross country---almost

[jetmex]

Space City RC Club in Houston scheduled their annual RC cross country event this past Sunday. And almost pulled it off.

The weather did not cooperate. The temps were in the low 50's, threatening rain with a 15 kt wind from the north. That's pretty cold for this part of the world, especially with the humidity. We arrived about 8AM and got registered. We have a new team and a new airplane (Dynaflite Decathalon with a US41 gasser) this year and were eager to see how it would all work. After we assembled the airplane did the runup/range checks, and bundled up against the cold, we waited.

And no one else showed up. A bunch of spectators and the barbeque cooks arrived just after we did, but no other teams or airplanes. The CD waited for about an hour or so before calling the event due to lack of interest. He was not happy, as the club had course workers scattered all over the hundred or so miles we were supposed to fly, and at the two fields we would have flown into. Hopefully, the event will be rescheduled so we can try again later.

It wasn't a total wash, as Bedford and I both got some stick time on the Decathalon before we packed up to leave. This turned out to be a good test of the aux fuel tank -- no leaks and it fed the engine just fine. The twenty minute flight burned about a third of the 48 ounces of fuel we had aboard, so we can realistically plan on 45-55 minutes of flying time.

Of course, thirty minutes after I got home, the sun came out and the rest of the day was clear and warm, but still windy.

Next year....... ;D ;D

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Little cool weather? Hmm....

Sounds too much of this-

and not enopugh of this -

[jetmex]

Little cool weather? Hmm....

Yeah, it was down to 48 degrees last night! Took me a few minutes to find my parka and mukluks this morning before I trudged off to work.... ;D

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

48? pfftt, it got down to 7 here last night. Thats too dang cold for this little roly summertime body, brrr.
The only good thing is the weeds are dead, so I can scrape off the runway and make the neighbors nervous.

[jetmex]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish it would get to 7 degrees here. The mosquitos are swarming after all the rain we've had the past few weeks. It seldom gets cold enough in winter to kill them off. And here it's November and I'm still mowing my damn grass!!

On the plus side, I found my mukluks!! ;D ;D

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Heheh, well yeah I guess there is a silver lining, there aint no bugs now.

[JimCasey]

Jim Rose, From Sugarland (TX) , use'ta do a charity cross-country. He had a BIIG pink airplane with a gas engine, onboard generator, and HUGE tank capacity. He'd go a couple hundred miles between fuel stops. Last time, his plan was to fly from Sugarland to AMA HQ in Muncie, for mileage pledges. I don't think he quite made it, but he got most of the way there until he had some sort of mechanical problem that prevented him from continuing.

[trimtab]

There's a guy in Massachusetts who flew his giant scale P5M from New Bedford harbor to Wood's Hole (Falmouth harbor), refueled, and flew on to Martha's Vineyard. Power is from Super Tigre 80's I believe. This plane has remote electric starter motors, generators and is JATO assisted using Estes Rocket motors. The model is nearly thirty-years old.

This was done with a friend driving his boat while he sat in a chair controlling the plane.

Several years ago, the Navy flew him to NAS Bermuda in a P-3 to demonstrate his plane, JATO and all, at an anniversary ceremony. P5M's flew out of Bermuda during and after WW II.

[jetmex]

Jim Rose, that name sounds familiar. He flew in one of the first cross countries I did a few years back. Had a beautiful Taylorcraft ARF with all the bells and whistles in it. He was doing ok until taking off from the first fuel stop, when he had an electronic glitch and lost the airplane off in the woods somewhere. He had been talking about a flight from Houston to El Paso with that airplane, but obviously never got to make the trip.

As far as I know, Space City RC does the only sanctioned cross country event in the area, but I could be wrong on that.

Bedford and I have discussed designing and building a dedicated airplane for long cross country flights several times in the past. One of these days, we might actually get around to doing something with the idea.

If the mosquitos leave us alone......

[flyerjmr33]

Being Jim Rose as I am, here's what happened-- The Taylorcraft is alive and well and was at the latest Space City XC-- too cold for me--- I made a deal with myself years ago that if the temperature is lower than my age, I don't fly. That said, is the reason we decided to go home.
As far as that T-craft goes, it has never crashed. It flew from ElPaso to Houston with a few stops for fuel. It completed the last XC at Space City. It will be at the next XC run wherever it is in the local area. Perhaps we'll run a spring run at the Ft. Bend Field.
As far as the original XC plane-- the Big Pink Big Nifty.-- It flew from Houston to Little Rock and developed a leak in the main fuel tank. We stopped there. The WX was too hot and the plane was having trouble lifting the load from the grass field at LR. That's when we noticed the fuel puddle under the tail wheel-- That plane died due to a battery failure.

[jetmex]

Hello, Jim. My apologies for the incorrect info, got much of it third hand after the event was over. I'm happy to hear the T-craft is alive and well.

It was pretty cold that day, wasn't it?

[JimCasey]

No, it just has to be really, really hot for the temperature to be greater than his age. He'll have to shift to celsius soon to be able to do ANYTHING.

[flyerjmr33]

>>It was pretty cold that day, wasn't it? <<

It was colder than Casey's bad remark about my age! A day just like it is today-- cold and windy!