found a pond!

I had a few spare moments today, so I went out and flew my newly finished scratchbuilt RCM Basic Trainer, which is a .25 powered high winger with Clark-Y type airfoil. I set it up with lots of throw on the ailerons and elevator. It's a really great airplane, but the place I was flying made me nervous. I live in a rural area a few miles outside Springfield Missouri, which is good, but the fields around here are really rough and/or covered with tall grass, which is bad. I've had my eye on a new commercial real estate development of about 60 acres or so. It has streets and lamp posts but no buildings yet, and it's totally deserted after 3 pm and all day on weekends, and there are no neighbors. (Go ahead and tell me I should join an AMA club and not fly at unfinished subdivisions. I'm listening.)

The plane trimmed and flew great. It's a really nifty little plane that kind of reminds me of Fred Reese's Simple Citabria. Landing was a bit of a challenge. Those streets are very narrow, with killer curbs. The lamp posts don't look bad, until you have a plane in the air. Then they suddenly turn very menacing. I managed to get the plane down without incident by ungracefully plopping it from about a foot up. At least I didn't hit anything. I had forgotten how much I don't like flying in unfinished subdivisions....

The best part of the outing was when I went down to the big drainage pond. I always thought it looked promising from the car, but that's about as far as it went. Well, I walked down to the water's edge this time, and it's perfect. The surrounding land is about 8 feet above the water level, with about 20 feet or so of bank all around. The pond itself is several hundred feet long and a couple hundred wide. There are no trees or any other obstructions anywhere near it, and the low elevation of the pond makes for gentle wind conditions on the water surface.

Of course I came home and immediately dug out my balsa float plans. If I get some time to build them I should be able to try it out within a couple of weeks. I've done a little bit of float flying in the past, and it was a ton of fun. I always wanted to do more, but it's just so hard to find an accessible pond in Missouri that doesn't have trees around it. We're planning to move again in a few months, so I need to take this opportunity while I have it.

Reply to
Robert Reynolds
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On Tue, 20 May 2008 21:07:25 -0600, Robert Reynolds wrote: n't like flying in

Just make sure you have a friend around with a rope. Those drainage ponds have fairly steep side slopes, and are very soft and muddy as you get down near the water line where you will be launching from. You might find yourself knee deep in mud that seems to suck you down when you try to walk or climb out. Maybe you can lay a long ladder down to the water from the top of the slope.

Just be CAREFUL. Better to hit a light pole in a sub-division with your airplane than to drown in the pond.

Reply to
Joe Nobody

TRUE!

Also think about finding out how deep the pond is. Almost every float fly I have been involved with had those that tried to test the water integrity of the airframe and needed the left over bits and pieces retrieved from the middle of the body of water. Usually we had a retrieval boat on duty for the event. Food for thought.

Jim Branaum AMA 1428

Reply to
Six_O'Clock_High

I figured I'd take a carpet scrap or a piece of plywood with me to walk on. The sides of this pond have a very slight incline for 20 feet, then it's very steep about 8' up to street level. You couldn't ask for a better pond. I saw it when it was empty (they just built it in January) and I'm pretty sure the water is about 3 feet deep all the way across.

Reply to
Robert Reynolds

I saw a really neat article in RCM a few years ago about a plane retrieval boat. It's an A-frame with a pusher engine and two pontoons on the bottom. I'm planning to build something like it, powered by a 40 FP. The idea is that you drive up to the plane and simply push it to shore. Failing that, I could just wade out there because I'm pretty sure the pond is no more than 3 feet deep. It's brand new, so no catfish to nibble on my legs.

Reply to
Robert Reynolds

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