December 1st, Dave Ede and I returned regretfully but safely from what may have been the last annual trip to the US Indoor Championships in Cleveland. And yet again, it was a great visit with racing friends.
This year, Fred Zufelt and Matt Eglin made it down from Ottawa as well. We all worked the tech table for the event. As usual, the first day of practice had a few hitches in scheduling and frequency conflicts. But that is why we have practice rounds, to find and fix the problems. The qualifying rounds tend to take less time each time around. We had 33 heats of qualifiers including F-1, Sportsman, Masters, and Modified classes. The officials decided to allow participants to enter as many classes as they wanted this year. This was part of the problem with getting the practices and qualifiers sorted out, as many drivers had to make changes to their cars to make their next class qualifier. Things sorted out after the first round of qualifying.
Dave made it into the E Masters and ended up with a 2nd place. I qualified only 3 places ahead of him, at the bottom of the D. On the first lap I made it through to 3rd for a while and then with crashes (appologies again to Bob Novak) I lost some time and places and was not able to pick it back up. I don't even know where I finished in my heat, but I know it wasn't 1st thru 3rd. Oh well, my car ran well, I guess that's why they call us Team Wristglitch.
The trip down took a little longer than usual because we checked out the Huge Outlet Mall in Pennsylvania on the way. We only checked out 3 or 4 shops (Sony, Black & Decker etc.) and we managed to lose about 1.5 hours there. Nice stuff, I'll have to make another trip down there sometime.
Almost everyone there was dissapointed, or disbeleiving that '97 may have been the last year for the race. While we were there, there where several stories bouncing around about the race moving to a different location, or someone else taking it over. Hopefully, it will be run by the NORCAR crowd and in the same place as the past seven or eight years. We're getting used to that Holiday Inn.
I have made it part of my annual holidays to go to Cleveland for the race. That was my 10th trip in 12 years and probably Dave's 12th. One thing for sure, it won't be the last for either of us. As long as we can come up with the money, and the host club (NORCAR) is willing to put it on, we'll be there.
Enough of the diaries, here are couple of pictures of my toys. (as soon as I get them scanned in).
In September 1998, I finally got the nerve up to build my Carl Goldberg Electra. It is a motorized glider designed around their 'beginner' Gentle Lady kit. I spent about a month building it at a more experienced friend's place and got around to its maiden flight in October. I managed to get 31 flights in before the weather made it less enjoyable to fly.
Here it is on the day of the first flight. Actually, out of the 31 flights, I only had 2 crashes that were serious enough to have to go home for repair. Not too shabby I'd say.
In the 1999 season, the Electra didn't see too much action as I started to use a modified Gentle Lady more often. It allowed me to get more familiar with different launching methods (Hi-Start and electric winch), and to a plane that did not have the electric motor backup. I am pleased to say that I did not have any crashes during the whole season, about 37 flights in all. Cool.
I am working on a couple of new (to me) planes for the 2000 season. I picked up a couple of used, but not abused planes to keep me busy on the nice sunny, days that I know will be coming this Summer. I'll add a couple more pictures in the near future.
Stay on the lookout for some more pictures coming soon.
Links to related R/C and Club pages.
Link to the National Capital Radio Racers for some local club info.
Link to the RC Planet Home Page for some product info, tech tips, user questions and links to other RC related sites.
Link to Radio Control Car Action Magazine
Link to Xtreme R/C Magazine
