 Me working in the lab |
I got a chance to fly my planes up here in Berkeley today. I met with my model airplane club, Soarheads, in the afternoon, after my work. The wind was very light, and the sky very cloudy, so I just flew my electric powered Zagi 400X. It flew fine, but I think there might be something wrong with the airframe. I think the foam has a bend in it that I may try to take out by placing books or something on it to flatten it out. Most of the people flew their electric planes today. Bob had a very nice motor-glider that he flew. It had a brushless motor and a 3 cell 2100 mAH LiPo battery that helped it fly nearly straight up on launch and then he floated around looking for wind. He said he can get about 20 vertical climbs out of that battery pack. The new LiPo batteries are great! Nick was there too and he flew a electric Depron biplane. Very nice and powerful. It could fly 3D as well. (including vertical). When I arrived, there was a guy flying a gas powered helicopter. He even had a video camera on it with downlink that you could view the cam while flying the chopper. Very cool. That was the first time I have ever seen anyone flying a gas powered aircraft at the Berkeley Marina. Brian was there too, but I forgot what he flew. He did bring a fabulous cake that he gave us for dessert at Brennan’s. Thanks Brian! Gerard was there and was one of the lone people flying gliders. He brought out his new Salsa-XL discus-launch glider that he was trying out. It looked great Gerard!
After the sun went down several of us went to Brennan’s and had food and drink and chatted. While there Jon came by to chat for a bit. It was his birthday! Happy Birthday Jon! While there, we talked about some planes I might be interested in getting. The Seeker looks like a good very light glider. It claims to pack down to a very small box. The Red Herring, also from LiftWorx, was mentioned as well for a small flying wing glider that should travel well. Travel is important to me since I do most of my model airplane flying here in Berkeley on my business trips. I put all my planes in a bow case that I got from WalMart. Everything has to fit inside the case. This trip, I fit my zagi plus three gliders. I am also interested in the Gulp SR foamie. It was a very fun afternoon and evening.