chuck dot adams dot k7qo at gmail dot com
This page last updated Saturday, June 5, 2010.
The first hobby I started as a teenager was model airplanes. First with control line. My dad built the first control line airplane for my brothers and I to share and we did. Then came the Fox 36X ball bearing engine on flying wings for combat using 70' steel lines and the rest is history. I graduated to escapement rudder only aircraft and then my uncle, Dick Adams, invented the Adams actuator used for rudder only. This system was also known as the 'galloping ghost' system due to the constant back and forth motion of the rudder with control determined by the mean position of the moving surface. While working on my PhD at A&M from 1968-1972 I had a 'Lightning Bug'. It was an 0.020 powered small plane with an Ace radio and Adams actuator that I used to fly when time permitted. I loved that plane and I have the plans. Only if I had the radio system.....
So, for this summer I will be at the field every Saturday. The local glider club has the perfect spot that was supposed to be a high school, but it never opened due to dwindling population, so the football field (with goal posts as obstacles) with manacured grass is very nice. Also, since we are in the high desert, thermals are easy to come by. Gliders are the QRP of flying. IMHO.
On Wednesday June 2nd I took the following glider to the field and using a Hi-Start system to launch the glider I got in 4 flights. Nothing spectacular, just starting slow and working my up.
The glider is a Tower Hobbies Vista. It is an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) that requires very little work to get going. You put the wing together and add the rudder and stab and you are ready to go. This is the ONLY ARF you will every see me with. Period. I am an old school builder with balsa, tissue and lacquer, so this ship was just to get me started.
Saturday, June 5th. The Prescott Valley Silent Flyers had a glider contest. I entered into the Novice class and managed to take third place. My first time to use a powered winch to launch. There were 7 rounds and I managed a 6 min flight in the 6 minute required flying time. Caught a great thermal and managed to get back to landing on the field with an overage of 15 secs. This is going to be exciting.
Since moving to Prescott, AZ in 1999, I have had a email signature that asks you to bring water to AZ if you are moving here. Look at the following and think about it....... The water level is within 3 meters of being the lowest it has been since the damn was first built and filled in the 1930's. Something to think about in the SouthWestern US.