Flying Field Camp Out

The last Saturday of the Month is a "camp out" at the Trabuco RC Flying Club. Typically this means the guys fly during the day, stay until the evening, light a big fire, drink beer and shoot the ****. This month they decided to have an actual camp out requiring tents and campers, so we borrowed the Outlaw and off we went.

Two exciting things happened. The first was the bonfire. The guys filled the 6 foot deep pit (usually used for the pig roast in May) full of wood, then soaked it with gasoline. When it was lit, there was a big explosion that lifted the wood in the pit several feet into the air and flaming embers and bits of wood flying. Erin, who was in the camper at the time felt the whole thing rock! I was standing about 20 feet away and was slammed by a wave of hot air.

The spectators and the pit.

BOOM!

Second exciting thing--Mike flew the Super Stick at night with small LED flashlights taped to the wings to illuminate the body and the tail. (This had been tried before by another pilot who will remain nameless with the lights facing forward on the plane--but once the plane took off, no one could see it any more! CRASH!) Take off was successful, but once the plane circled around once, it was difficult to tell which way it was going. Was it upside down? Coming? Going? We watched the pane circle numerous times, losing it in the fog a few times. We knew we were witnessing the last flight of the Super Stick--especially when Mike kept yelling, "I can't see it! I can't see it!" Miraculously, with some help of the crowd, Mike did manage to land the plane successfully. It was quite a feat!