This weekend the Thermal G R/C Club held a Fun Fly. I wish that they’d held it yesterday because the weather was GORGEOUS!

We went up to the flying field to stretch our wings. I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it felt to be able to get out there and watch the jet have room to move. Some people may think that I’m crazy, but I really enjoy watching Jay fly his planes. A lot of it is a pride thing for me.

There were a handful of guys up there, and one who had a plane to maiden (take up on its first flight). Jay was helping him trim it out and try to get things just so on it. I was standing a bit away when I noticed that Jay was the one flying the plane. One of the other guys mentioned it out loud, and that elicited a reply from a third guy, “Ah, that makes sense. The flying suddenly became so precise!” I just smiled. They were talking about my sweetie and how good he is. 🙂

Despite the fact that Jay gets irritated that the club holds the Fun Fly on a Sunday all of the time (and he has to go into work Sunday evenings), we took a couple of jets and went out there this morning. Except the website said that it was being held at the Field. We arrived and nobody was there. We waited 20 minutes and still nobody showed up, which was just weird. Jay called one of his buddies and it turns out that they were at the VoTech school. I was NOT happy! First off, they need to get the information correct on their website because some people can’t attend meetings or the flying in the gym (which is when the location was decided upon, but the guy updating the website completely misunderstood). And secondly, if we had known that we were going to be at the VoTech then Jay could have brought some of his other jets that require a dry landing strip (and the field is still quite wet).

Most of the guys don’t even fly. This is what you typically see; one or two guys flying and the rest of them just standing around yapping. I’ve been told that this is part of the hobby, but it still irritates me that the ones making the decision about when and where these events are held aren’t even the ones who are flying!

I managed to get my temper under control, after vocalizing my irritation with the misunderstanding, and I snapped a few pictures. This was the first flight that Jay did today. He was flying the medium A-10 that he has. He is joined here by Mark and Bill who are flying acrobatic planes.

This is a close up of an acrobatic plane. It’s light weight so that it can do all kinds of tricks. This isn’t just for flying around in circles and perhaps doing a roll or two. I believe that this was getting ready to hover, which is a move where the prop is up and the tail is down so that it looks like the plane is hanging in the air by the prop. There are a bunch of other tricks you can do with them, too.

Wow. Doesn’t that look good? Oh, and the plane hovering in the background doesn’t look too bad, either. 😉

Again, more watching than flying going on…

Oh, wait! There’s a little bit of flying going on. Special notice is being taken and opinions are being given. Let’s just hope that it’s not, “Hey! I bet you can’t get close to those trees!”

Another reason for these gatherings is so that guys can bring planes to show off. For instance, Cliff’s Slick was eyed on the ground more than when it was in the air. Although, while Jay was flying it I did overhear somebody say how good Jay was with the plane. Again, that made me smile.

As the group was looking at Cliff’s plane there were questions being asked of Jay. Which is normal. I’m sure that during this conversation Jay was telling Adam, “Electric doesn’t do that.” 😀

I admit that I can be counted among those who do a lot of looking and no flying. That’s only because I haven’t earned my wings, yet. Until I do, I’ll keep looking…. isn’t he hot?! Jay’s the glow plug in my engine of life. 😉

I am sad to report that we did have one mishap. As Jay was flying his ‘Fabu’ he was going to show me how he had hopped his plane off of the asphalt at eJets. As he hit the pavement there was a sudden scraping/breaking noise and we knew that something wasn’t right. It turns out that the rotor was loose and when the jet hit the pavement it jarred it apart. This was what remained. We didn’t have a spare fan with us, so the Fabu was put out of commission for the day.

Overall, it was a good time. It’s nice to spend the day out in the fresh air and enjoying ourselves. It also gives Jay a chance to wipe off the cobwebs and get some flying in before we head to SEFF.