It Was a Dark and Windy Night ...

I thought I would relate the lessons learned by our slope reporter while night flying some time ago. This adventure was originally slated for the Towhook, but alas, that rag seems to be going under. I haven't the time, and no one else has the interest. At this juncture, it's future is tenuous at best. Here is the tale as told to me:

Boy did I ever learn a lot tonight. Last week I bought some small glow in the dark litesticks with the idea of flying at night. Did you check out the wind forecast for today?  30-40 SW. So I grabbed my foamie wing and headed for the slope, at around 7:00PM. Once there I taped on a few litesticks and started my adventure.

The wind was truly howling up there, 40 MPH right up the face. Way too much power for my wing. My toolbox had about 9 oz. of lead so I taped it all on. This was still not quite enough but, oh well I'll try. 1st lesson: When the plane is flying 300' directly in front of you those little litesticks look just like all of the city lights. Which ones are on the plane? When you are trying to fly someone's house it will seem pretty unresponsive. Lesson 2: A downed plane with litesticks is really easy to find at night. You just wander around the hill for half an hour and look for the green glow. I lost all of my weights, but hey, I didn't go up there for nothing. I still wanted to fly. I could have taped on my keys and wallet for weight but decided instead to try tip launching and diving down the slope. Lesson 3: Put a different pattern of litesticks on the top and bottom. Otherwise, when the wing looks right side up, It may not be so.

During the several minutes I spent taping my elevons back on the wind calmed to a more manageable 30 mph. Did you know that clear packing tape is invisible in the dark? And so is the point of an exacto knife? You cannot see it but you can feel it. The next 1/2 hour or so was spent throwing, bashing, and elevon taping. Lesson 4: Wads of packing tape mixed with blood and snot will not stick to anything except hair when it's cold.

At last a good launch though. I even made two passes and got about 50' above me. Lesson 5: Even when you know WHERE the plane is, you cannot see WHAT its doing. As I was saying, I thought I was flying level about 50' up. In reality the plane was in a dive 50' straight down. I barely had time to fart and duck before it smacked me in the back.

So it was back to throwing and bashing and taping and bleeding. Lesson 6: When you tape on elevons in the dark, you are likely to change the trim settings. And Lesson 6A: When you have a black radio, you cannot find the trim levers in the dark. Until you move one all the way. The wrong way.

It was after I'd hit myself the 2nd time, while doing more repair work, that I noticed the porch light on the farmhouse had come on. A figure was standing in the doorway. I realized that I had been yelling and laughing hysterically for quite some time. They were probably curious, but afraid to come out. It being so close to halloween and all.

Will I try this again? I don't know. I was dirty and bloody and frozen. But I think it was fun. I will buy more litesticks. Just in case.

                        Shaun H