Dumpster Jedi
The One Who Speaks
It was great seeing the crew at SEFF this year. A few of us from the forums spent the week/weekend together building, flying, fixing, flying and so on! I figured I'd share some of the highlights.
First off I have to say thanks to Mac Hodges for the use of his land and facilities this week. Also want to give a shout out to Katie's Soul Food for keeping us fed well, honestly you guys, it was delicious.
Hodges' Field is a pretty big place. Plenty of room to put planes, helis and multis up at the same time, and LOTS of good flying was to be had and seen. The "Flite Test Friends" had a prime spot just off of show center, thanks to CraftyDan, who showed up on Monday to stake our claim. The Flite Test crew were set up a bit further down the line where they weren't to be missed.
Many thanks to Josh Bixler, David Windestål, Dave Knop and Alex Zvada for coming out to SEFF this year. These guys worked around the clock meeting fans, making new ones and helping people build kits. And boy did these guys build! It was a nonstop build party at the FT camp, with Josh and David putting their touch on the speedbuild kits. CraftyDan got a hand from Josh building his Versa (with blue/red lights, pictured further down), and Liemavick assisted the Mad Swede himself with the construction of his very own Viggen. David got that airframe finished minus electronics in a very impressive 27 minutes.
They worked until well after midnight, and much fun was had by all. Night flyers were in the air until almost 3 a.m.
After a beautiful Saturday morning that began with planes in the air as the sun rose, they brought out the 400th episode monster planes for the noon demos when they weren't busy building like madmen and getting footage which I presume we'll all see soon. I strapped on my Fatshark goggles and enjoyed some live FT FPV, let me tell you, these guys can fly, and those Blackout minis are fast!
In true Flite Test style, CraftyDan entered his Bixler-fied Versa in the 2014 Night Bowling tournament. Josh and David released the Kraken on the competition, which looked awesome sporting muticolor LEDs lighting it from the inside.
In the end, the Kraken took second place to what can only be described as a colossal showing by a young man (if someone can tell me his name I'd be thankful) with a UNLIT profile plane. He gave the Kraken a run for its money for number of pins downed, but in the end secured the win by flying like a pro and keeping that plane up in the dark even when it had an aileron standing straight up like a shark fin. Good show all around, the competition went on for at least an hour.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I can't say enough about the effort the FT crew put in, and for nothing more than the enjoyment of it. They're truly a great group of guys and the very epitome of "what you see is what you get". You didn't really have to ask if they had as much fun as the rest of us, you can see it in what they do and how they do it.
Thanks again to CraftyDan, Liemavick and bitogre for putting up with me all weekend.
As well as anyone else here that was there, post your pictures as well! I'd like to see what you guys saw.
First off I have to say thanks to Mac Hodges for the use of his land and facilities this week. Also want to give a shout out to Katie's Soul Food for keeping us fed well, honestly you guys, it was delicious.
Hodges' Field is a pretty big place. Plenty of room to put planes, helis and multis up at the same time, and LOTS of good flying was to be had and seen. The "Flite Test Friends" had a prime spot just off of show center, thanks to CraftyDan, who showed up on Monday to stake our claim. The Flite Test crew were set up a bit further down the line where they weren't to be missed.
Many thanks to Josh Bixler, David Windestål, Dave Knop and Alex Zvada for coming out to SEFF this year. These guys worked around the clock meeting fans, making new ones and helping people build kits. And boy did these guys build! It was a nonstop build party at the FT camp, with Josh and David putting their touch on the speedbuild kits. CraftyDan got a hand from Josh building his Versa (with blue/red lights, pictured further down), and Liemavick assisted the Mad Swede himself with the construction of his very own Viggen. David got that airframe finished minus electronics in a very impressive 27 minutes.
They worked until well after midnight, and much fun was had by all. Night flyers were in the air until almost 3 a.m.
After a beautiful Saturday morning that began with planes in the air as the sun rose, they brought out the 400th episode monster planes for the noon demos when they weren't busy building like madmen and getting footage which I presume we'll all see soon. I strapped on my Fatshark goggles and enjoyed some live FT FPV, let me tell you, these guys can fly, and those Blackout minis are fast!
In true Flite Test style, CraftyDan entered his Bixler-fied Versa in the 2014 Night Bowling tournament. Josh and David released the Kraken on the competition, which looked awesome sporting muticolor LEDs lighting it from the inside.
In the end, the Kraken took second place to what can only be described as a colossal showing by a young man (if someone can tell me his name I'd be thankful) with a UNLIT profile plane. He gave the Kraken a run for its money for number of pins downed, but in the end secured the win by flying like a pro and keeping that plane up in the dark even when it had an aileron standing straight up like a shark fin. Good show all around, the competition went on for at least an hour.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I can't say enough about the effort the FT crew put in, and for nothing more than the enjoyment of it. They're truly a great group of guys and the very epitome of "what you see is what you get". You didn't really have to ask if they had as much fun as the rest of us, you can see it in what they do and how they do it.
Thanks again to CraftyDan, Liemavick and bitogre for putting up with me all weekend.
As well as anyone else here that was there, post your pictures as well! I'd like to see what you guys saw.
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