This past weekend Jay’s RC club, Thermal G, had their first fun fly of 2012 at their flying field. It was gorgeous weather, and since Jay has been working a LOT, we made sure to get there early with lots of planes. I’m not kidding about that, either. If there had been an award for the guy who brought the most planes Jay would have definitely taken it home.

Yes, Jay flew every single one of these planes on Sunday. Starting from the left you have his MiG 15 (the red one), an F16 jet, the LT25(? I think that’s the number) the yellow and blue trainer, a plain white combat foamie, the recently completed Sig Kobra in green and blue, Jay’s new Stryker that he bought after watching them at SEFF, and then his yellow Edge. The Edge doesn’t have its wings on yet. They were in the silver bags that are in front of it.

Here’s another view of this group of planes. You can see the combat foamie in the back between the two yellow planes and a better look at the F16. In fact, take a second look at the F16 because when you see it later in this post it will look a little different…

After a lot of chit chat a couple of guys finally got some planes up into the air.

What you are looking at is the wings of the first crash of the day. There would be three in total. This one was Cliff’s “back-up beater.” He had wrecked his beater not too long ago, so this was the back up one that he’d bought cheap at an RC auction. Well, let’s just say that when it came to Plane vs Trees…. the trees won.

Here is the aftermath. Not pretty. Its poor guts were hanging out all over. This is why it’s not a good thing to become a tree hugger. Liberalism will get you into trouble every time. 😉 It’s too bad that this one bit the dust because I thought that it looked nice in the air considering its age. And also considering it wasn’t my sweetie doing the flying. Have I mentioned that I’m a bit biased? lol

I was going to delete this picture, but then I decided that I had to keep it. I was trying to get a picture as Jay was doing slow fly-bys with the F16 and this was the best that I managed to get. You can barely see the gray spot against the trees at the edge of the circle. The reason why I kept this picture?

Because this is what it looked like less than a minute later. It happened so quickly that I barely looked away, and when I looked back it was erupting into pieces. Jay was excited about it because it really was a spectacular crash. The debris field was quite long. I asked what had happened and it seemed that there was a bit of a flutter and that nosed it down. This jet crashed at SEFF so it’s not like it was in pristine condition. I should also mention that Jay has about six more of these kits sitting in his basement.

Here are the pieces as we were collecting them. Luckily we found all of the electronic pieces. The last time Jay caused a foamie jet to explode we searched for the battery for a long time and never found it.

We definitely didn’t have to worry about finding this battery. It had embedded itself right into the ground. The foam protected the battery, though, so it is still in good working condition. How do I know that the foam protected it?

Can you see the foam that is embedded in the pit? That cushioned the crash. lol

The jet hit so hard that the canopy folded into a concave shape. You know, maybe it’s that blue on the tail. That was the same paint that was used on the F16 that was torn apart by the power line last Labor Day. lol

Right before lunch Jay got the trainer ready to go up. That’s the yellow one with the blue wings in the middle. He brought this specifically so that I could get some time on the sticks. I want to learn how to fly, but until this weekend we hadn’t really had time to get out to the field together. He brought the buddy box, put it up in the air, and then handed control over to me. Can I tell you how nervous I was?? Most of the guys who show up to the fun fly never actually end up flying anything. They use it as social hour, so they were standing around watching. It was my first time on the sticks out at the field and I was afraid that I would do something that would really give the guys something to tease me about. Also, it’s hard for me to get it into my head which way the stick needs to go in order for me to get the plane going the way that I want. I will be very happy when I can just make turns and keep the plane at the same altitude. The trainer was in the air for 18 minutes, according to Jay, and he was keeping count of how many times he had to take back control to save the plane. I don’t know if he was exaggerating, but he said that he only had to save me maybe 5 times and supposedly that’s a really good number for a person’s first time flying. I wasn’t nervous to be flying with Jay because I trust him completely and know that he wouldn’t let me get into too much trouble. Sam, one of my favorite guys in the club, teased that I was flying better than him. It was fun, but I hope that the next time I get the opportunity to fly that there isn’t as much of an audience! lol

We broke for lunch, had a 50/50 raffle, and did some more chatting. Then it was time for some more flying.

The wind kept moving around so the flight line got moved after lunch. More guys hauled their things up to the flying area after lunch, so it started to feel a little busier. Although, after attending SEFF this doesn’t feel like much congestion at all! Somehow I managed to earn the respect of the guys in the club because Sam came up to Jay, when I was standing right there, and announced that they’d been talking and an idea had been tossed around. They are going to chip in to buy me a membership to the AMA and then make me Field Marshall. That way I would then be the one who enforces the field rules. lol. I’m pretty sure it was all said tongue-in-cheek, but it was amusing. I told them that I would do it as long as I was allowed to carry a whip. I bet that you can imagine where the jokes headed after that!

Unfortunately, it was getting late in the day and Jay had to work that night. He wanted to get one more flight in and chose the Kobra. This was the first time that I saw it fly and boy, was it gorgeous in the air! It really is such a sleek little plane. I would love to fly it once I am able to fly on my own.

Overall, it was a great day. The weather was gorgeous and Jay managed to get a lot of flying done. I had time on the sticks and I know that I will slowly gain confidence as I get more practice. In the meantime I really enjoy watching Jay fly and spending time with him out at the field. I feel really privileged that he’s allowed me to get as involved with his hobby as I have. Most guys want to keep their hobbies to themselves so that it’s something they can do without having their girlfriend or wife hanging around all of the time. Not Jay. He seems to enjoy having me around, even if it’s just sitting with him as he works on a project or standing behind him as he’s screaming through the sky with his latest purchase. I wish that more couples could enjoy their time spent together like we do. It’s the one thing about this hobby that upsets me. It’s rare that you see any women accompanying their men when at the hobby shop or an RC event, and if they are then they aren’t being hands-on. Come on, ladies! Support your men! Take an interest in it, but not in an annoying way. Also, if you don’t want to go to the flying field with your man then PLEASE don’t call him a million times while he’s there. I can promise you that he’s not getting into trouble or flirting with strange women. Yes, I’m strange and I’m at the flying field, but they don’t flirt with me so you’re safe! 🙂