Post by thevon on Aug 30, 2009 20:27:21 GMT 10
The highlight for me today was finding my glasses. All the more amazing because I was guide to them by a bloke I couldn’t see on a distant ridge, over a UHF radio, as he looked at pictures on his digital camera! The circumstances of this were that Nick and I had been to Lemontree (pretty crappy) then up to Kev’s Ridge (still pretty crappy) and decided to go back to Lemontree, and on the way I realized I didn’t have my $420 prescription sunnies, so I had to drive back to Kev’s to look for them.
I am only a recent optical cripple so along with all the other crap I take everywhere, I now have various pairs of spectacles to keep with me as well, but it’s not a happy relationship. I tend to reject my specs like a foreign tissue reaction and this was not the first, or indeed third time that I’d lost glasses at great expense. Suffice to say I was furious at myself but had no recollection when I had last been tolerating said glasses, or where my body might have rejected them. I couldn’t understand why Nick, then my wife, laughed uproariously at the news.
So Nick kept going and I went back. I crisscrossed the Kikuyu and cowpats with no success, then Nick’s voice came across the UHF clear as a bell! It’s line of sight between Kevs and Lemontree, but it was still a surprise that the transmission was so clear. As we chatted I could see his Hilux as a little white dot creeping up onto the ridge 4 or 5 k’s away.
Nick asked if I’d found the sunnies and I glumly said no, and he said “Wait – I’ll look at the photos and see if you were wearing them!”. "Stupid idea" I thought, but he gives me free strawberries so I had to humour him; “Sure Nick, GREAT idea!”. Suddenly he’s back on air– “No, you didn’t have them on when you walked back after that photo of you landing the Fazo with flaps on the ridge. And they’re not in your hand. Wait! A couple of photos back you had them on when you were flying just before the landing!” It was all a bit confusing but he looked at the photo taken after the landing and told me EXACTLY where to go ("small bush, about 10m further, about 2m to the right” ) ... and I’ll be beggared, there they were. It was another weirdly miraculous recovery with Nick around, like the JW60 at Ngungun last week! I had been praying hard, so all I can say is God has a sense of humour, and he works in strange ways. And he seems to like R/C gliders too, judging by the way he’s been helping out.
Anyway long story short, Nick threw out his Skua and asked if I could see it from so far away. I could! (with the glasses!). I gave the JW a toss and it went OK, and since Nick reckoned Lemontree was still crap he came back up (about a 20min drive – despite it being close the road trip is a big circle) and I stayed put. It never got very good, but we got some more flying in, waiting for the perfect DS wind. It only came for a few minutes when Nick was retrieving his Duck from a tree, so he wasn’t there to gun my Reaper reaping around nicely but very low so I could keep it just below the level where it flew right thru the sun; or to see it finally plough up a small furrow of paddock when I pushed it tooooo low. The AvB patent tape join has been working well, but I must have taped it too hard this last time as it tore some of the ply out and did a bit more damage than usual.
After a bit of monkey work retrieving the Duck, we optimistically kept tossing our Skua and JW out into the off-angle wind because we’re sad cases and never give up hope that we might get enough height to dive in and see what happens, but the main outcome was that we got lots of exercise retrieving them from way down the slope. When it was time for me to leave Nick pulled out his Alula, and I had to rearrange my busy schedule so I could have a fly of it. Those things are darn captivating. A great day, topped off with a nice chat with the friendly owner. Nick and I chatted over the UHF till we went different ways and we lost contact. You don’t need perfect flying conditions to have a great day.
Nick's photo of the landing, pinched from other thread!
I am only a recent optical cripple so along with all the other crap I take everywhere, I now have various pairs of spectacles to keep with me as well, but it’s not a happy relationship. I tend to reject my specs like a foreign tissue reaction and this was not the first, or indeed third time that I’d lost glasses at great expense. Suffice to say I was furious at myself but had no recollection when I had last been tolerating said glasses, or where my body might have rejected them. I couldn’t understand why Nick, then my wife, laughed uproariously at the news.
So Nick kept going and I went back. I crisscrossed the Kikuyu and cowpats with no success, then Nick’s voice came across the UHF clear as a bell! It’s line of sight between Kevs and Lemontree, but it was still a surprise that the transmission was so clear. As we chatted I could see his Hilux as a little white dot creeping up onto the ridge 4 or 5 k’s away.
Nick asked if I’d found the sunnies and I glumly said no, and he said “Wait – I’ll look at the photos and see if you were wearing them!”. "Stupid idea" I thought, but he gives me free strawberries so I had to humour him; “Sure Nick, GREAT idea!”. Suddenly he’s back on air– “No, you didn’t have them on when you walked back after that photo of you landing the Fazo with flaps on the ridge. And they’re not in your hand. Wait! A couple of photos back you had them on when you were flying just before the landing!” It was all a bit confusing but he looked at the photo taken after the landing and told me EXACTLY where to go ("small bush, about 10m further, about 2m to the right” ) ... and I’ll be beggared, there they were. It was another weirdly miraculous recovery with Nick around, like the JW60 at Ngungun last week! I had been praying hard, so all I can say is God has a sense of humour, and he works in strange ways. And he seems to like R/C gliders too, judging by the way he’s been helping out.
Anyway long story short, Nick threw out his Skua and asked if I could see it from so far away. I could! (with the glasses!). I gave the JW a toss and it went OK, and since Nick reckoned Lemontree was still crap he came back up (about a 20min drive – despite it being close the road trip is a big circle) and I stayed put. It never got very good, but we got some more flying in, waiting for the perfect DS wind. It only came for a few minutes when Nick was retrieving his Duck from a tree, so he wasn’t there to gun my Reaper reaping around nicely but very low so I could keep it just below the level where it flew right thru the sun; or to see it finally plough up a small furrow of paddock when I pushed it tooooo low. The AvB patent tape join has been working well, but I must have taped it too hard this last time as it tore some of the ply out and did a bit more damage than usual.
After a bit of monkey work retrieving the Duck, we optimistically kept tossing our Skua and JW out into the off-angle wind because we’re sad cases and never give up hope that we might get enough height to dive in and see what happens, but the main outcome was that we got lots of exercise retrieving them from way down the slope. When it was time for me to leave Nick pulled out his Alula, and I had to rearrange my busy schedule so I could have a fly of it. Those things are darn captivating. A great day, topped off with a nice chat with the friendly owner. Nick and I chatted over the UHF till we went different ways and we lost contact. You don’t need perfect flying conditions to have a great day.
Nick's photo of the landing, pinched from other thread!
