It was a sight to see. The weather and my weekend times conspired to keep me from my clubs main flying field until yesterday, Sunday morning. The club is Charles River Radio Controllers (CRRC) and the field is a public park in Sudbury, MA leased by the club year round from the town. The club likes to keep it inclusive, so even though the town technically will allow the club to restrict use when other activities don't have a lease, we specifically stated we don't want that enforced. So, typically, you'll have dog walkers, and families mixed in with model aircraft flyers. There are a lot of soaring planes in the club, so there is a regular winch line (electric) set up to one side.
I show up at about 9am, and see the winch being set up. In the distance a family with a rocket launch setup could be seen, and I was told by the gentleman setting up the winch that it was a father soon pair who weren't members. They also had what looked like a foamie with them. Saw a new member who recently joined after taking a scratch build class offered by one other member, and assisted by me this past winter. He had two scratch builds he was looking to fly with one of our instructors help.
As I setup to fly my fpv versawing, another non member showed up with a 3DR iris quad. Since my versa has an apm, I mentioned I was powering up the 3DR telemetry radio on 913mhz. By the time I was launching, a rocket had gone off and parachute deployed, the winch line was operational, and a DLG flyer was dancing and flying in the middle of the field. Because I was fpv, I decided to give everyone space, and after climbing out, flew past a treeline of tall, plane catching trees and flew around the vast farmlands beyond it, testing the limits of my 5.8ghz 600mw fpv setup and frsky rc control. It worked well, but the guy with the iris was peppering me with many questions so I felt like I was becoming an inattentive pilot, and returned to the field for a landing after 6 minutes.
Despite the chaos and distractions, I had a blast and loved seeing all that activity.
Did I mention there was also a red edf jet, a micro cp 3d heli, a hubsan x4, a bungee/high start launched small glider, a bixler, a 2M powered sailplane, a pop wing, prop and slot f22,and various other aircraft all mixed in? Oh and a hawk in a thermal as well.
What a great day.
I show up at about 9am, and see the winch being set up. In the distance a family with a rocket launch setup could be seen, and I was told by the gentleman setting up the winch that it was a father soon pair who weren't members. They also had what looked like a foamie with them. Saw a new member who recently joined after taking a scratch build class offered by one other member, and assisted by me this past winter. He had two scratch builds he was looking to fly with one of our instructors help.
As I setup to fly my fpv versawing, another non member showed up with a 3DR iris quad. Since my versa has an apm, I mentioned I was powering up the 3DR telemetry radio on 913mhz. By the time I was launching, a rocket had gone off and parachute deployed, the winch line was operational, and a DLG flyer was dancing and flying in the middle of the field. Because I was fpv, I decided to give everyone space, and after climbing out, flew past a treeline of tall, plane catching trees and flew around the vast farmlands beyond it, testing the limits of my 5.8ghz 600mw fpv setup and frsky rc control. It worked well, but the guy with the iris was peppering me with many questions so I felt like I was becoming an inattentive pilot, and returned to the field for a landing after 6 minutes.
Despite the chaos and distractions, I had a blast and loved seeing all that activity.
Did I mention there was also a red edf jet, a micro cp 3d heli, a hubsan x4, a bungee/high start launched small glider, a bixler, a 2M powered sailplane, a pop wing, prop and slot f22,and various other aircraft all mixed in? Oh and a hawk in a thermal as well.
What a great day.
