Listening to the episode on my commute to work this morning.
Concerned about how the closed flight line approach is going to turn out, but really hoping for a safer event while still keeping the "wonder of DIY flight" intact. While working the flight line last year there were several flight behavior incidents that both scared the crap out of me and were very difficult to find the responsible pilot because of the mob of people. In once case I had to resort to leaping into the runway and waving my arms to get a very fast FPV flyer to stop buzzing the runway at less than 10' repeatedly after multiple near misses of pilots and planes. Keeping to a more structured flight line will help greatly with those types of incidents.
To everyone going to FFO - please take a moment to remember we are all trying to make friends and memories and play with toys at the event - look at a structured flight line as an opportunity to spend a few more minutes talking with other pilots waiting for a station. Offer to be a second spotter or shoot video so the first spotter can be more effective eyes in the skies. Find out where a fellow pilot came from, and what they want to build next, and what their screen name is on the forums. The memories you'll make in-line can be even more powerful than the ones while you're flying if you approach it with a positive attitude.
Switching subjects, thanks for the kind words about my projects and designs. Unfortunately family commitments initially required a compressed one night stay schedule, and then having my air conditioning unit need to be replaced last week really killed what was left of my hobby travel budget. So I won't be able to attended Flite Fest at all this year, and I miss everyone already.
I do hope that a bunch of the forum contest members will get together to celebrate their designs and builds cause it was an amazing turnout! And spread the word that by popular acclaim, I think the next forum build contest will focus on fantasy planes - things that never left the drawing board or flew at full scale. Think of subjects as wildly different as spaceships, flying humans, Burt Rutan sketches, animations from Porco Rosso (there were a lot of amazing plane designs in that show besides the hero's plane) and the Geebee R3 racer. As is tradition, we'll wait to kick off the contest until after people are back home from FFO for a week or so.
And now I have to go earn a living for a while but plan to listen to the second hour of the podcast on lunch break and my commute home.
Blue skies my friends,
