For the past two weeks I’ve been lucky enough to be on vacation. I didn’t go on a long distance road trip with the family. When you are far from home using a public restroom during the Pandemic is awkward. I don’t like wearing a mask. I do it when I need to buy fuel, supplies, or groceries. You won’t see me going to a restaurant, movie theater or event. I don’t like wearing them. I prefer open space anyway. During the past two weeks my wife and I did short road trips with our dog Allie. We had our sons over with their girls for barbecue. My middle son was stuck retooling and configuring Water Rower’s automated production equipment and showed up at the end of the day. We didn’t have a cornhole tournament like we originally planned due to the pandemic, we decided to postpone it. My dog Allie cracked me up. She was rolling in the grass and it appeared she was rolling to a tune from Snarky Puppy

I’ve been building a new powered sailplane to add to my fleet of radio control airplanes. I added Flite Test Stabilization controller and a salvaged FPV system from the 1.2m Opterra flying wing I crashed due to a failed bearing in the motor. The Opterra was actually smoking when it fell out of the sky. I wish I had video to post, the crash was epic.

My Volantex Ranger 1600 build came out pretty slick. I optimized the Aura 5 Lite controller for a larger aircraft by adjusting the elevator throws and reducing the aileron throws. I also added expo for throttle, aileron, and stabilizer. Control for the sailplane feels rock solid. I can disable stabilization to perform aerobatic maneuvers and engage 3-axis or 6-axis stabilization if the thermals are too strong or if I want to shoot video from the airplane and want a rock solid stable flight. Last Thursday my wife came with me to the BCRCC airfield and launched the airplane for me. Here’s the video:

I went to the club’s airfield several times this week. It’s always a good time when there are more members there with multiple aircraft in the air.