LASS

UPDRAFTS

May 2002 ISSUE

From the Editor:

Greetings! We couldn’t ask for better weather lately – rain that we need and sun on the weekends – perfect for flying. The wind has been a problem, especially for us electric and ‘floater’ flyers but there have been some good days here and there.

Speaking of ‘days’, I had one of them just this past weekend when Bud, Greg, Bruce, and I went over to the Junction Road field on Saturday to do some flying. Thermals were booming and the wind was very light. I flew my Aspire for the first hour or so and had a great time with it in the excellent lift conditions. Bruce decided to set up his winch and I launched my newly recovered Gnome 2 meter, hoping to get the bugs out before the upcoming contest and check out the new spoilers I put on. I had just caught some good lift and was circling in it, when I looked down at my transmitter to start my timer for what I thought was a couple of seconds. When I looked up, I couldn’t see my plane! Greg said he had heard a thud and saw a streak of yellow diving for the ground!! I scanned the field and saw the tail of my plane sticking out of the ground! Not good – I walked toward it and saw it was totaled – just a bag of sticks. The nose had buried itself about 6 inches into the soft ground and there wasn’t enough structure intact to rebuild it.

Lesson learned the hard way…L That’s the last time I take my eyes off my plane again!

News & Current Events

The banquet last month at Kreiders in Manheim was great – good food and entertainment by an excellent barbershop quartet. The LASS year-end awards for 2001 were given out and are posted on the web site. Carl Foltz received a beautiful, fully assembled, park flyer built by Bob Waters that was complete with wingtip lights for his past years of service to the club as editor. From all of us - thank you, Carl for all you have done for us and continue to do!

Upcoming Events

The ESL contest advertising on the web page is up and running. There is an online registration form that is being used to assist in the process. We will need volunteers to help out at the contest. Please contact Bob Waters to offer your assistance.