Northwest Skyraiders May 13 fun-fly

By Steve Helmick

The NW Skyraiders' Spring Fun Fly was May 13, 2006, a truly spectacular spring day. We had more than two dozen folks show up, not all of whom I got on my list. Several nonmembers showed up and seem likely to join or rejoin. It looked like everybody had a lot of fun, tho Chris Gomez had some technical difficulties with the BBQ, so lunch was a little late. Still, nobody went away hungry, the pit area was chock full of airplanes of all types. Even had some kids and chicks present! How cool is that? We finally cleared the field at about 7pm, de-littered, barricades removed, etc.

Mike Haverly put up the first half dozen or so flights on his new Oriental Plus (RSM kit). It's Mike's first piped stunter, and has a RO-Jett .40BSRE. It didn't want to go fast enough at first, but otherwise looked very good.

Larry Price and Dave Gardner went home with kits for the new Top Flite "Score." I got two more than I wanted, and this was a good chance to find them new homes. I could have sold another one or two. Pretty nice product, but the control system is not adequately wonderful to suit me. A ST G.51 should be about ideal power for this 677 sq. in. ARF.

Dave Gardner was flying his SIG Fazer with a Merco "Metamorph" .40. Had problems getting lap time down to 5 second area, but the engine seemed to run nicely. The Fazer really needs a .46 or .51 for CL.

Bill Darkow had an assortment of interesting OTS models and engines, including two "Super Loopers", one with a McCoy .19 Super Stunt, the other with an Indian DC 2.5 replica. The "Capricorn" had a CS replica of the "Deezil", a 2cc diesel from the early '50's AHC ads. Even the Chinese CS replica sells for much more than the originals, which I think were $1.98 or there about.

Gary Dubois is seldom seen, but had his new NoblARF out with a new OS .46LA-S. It needed a flap tweak, but the engine ran quite well.

Mike Potter had out a new pair of MO-1's, after his stuff all got stolen when his truck disappeared the night before last year's "Tailhook". The big one has a Nelson .36, but I didn't notice what the .15 was. Cox Conquest, I'd think.

Rod Claus with his .25FP powered Tomahawk II with flaps. Ron Cannan also flew a Tomahawk II with a .25LA. Nice little sport-stunt plane.