The Sun Valley Flyers had scheduled an event this past Sunday, for the 1/8th scale airforce. I planned to go and watch some flying, but when I arrived the winds were in upwards of 15mph, with even stronger gusts. Most all of the planes had been packed in, since even leaving them sitting on the ground was a big risk due to the conditions. So I waited around while they gave out awards, and when they were nearly done my friend Marty showed up. I mentioned that I had brought my little AddictionRC.com T-28 Trojan, and he said I should go grab it and fly. I took a long look at the runway, and the windsock indicating full-strong crosswinds, and I said “Yeah, sure, why not.”
I don’t think anyone noticed me coming back from my car with the plane, or preparing the battery and my reciever. Even as I walked up to the flight station, barely keeping the foam plane in my hands as the wind pulled at the wings, nobody said anything. I set the plane on the runway, and just before the wind gusted and pushed her out into the weeds I hit full throttle and pulled her straight up into the wind. It was cool! It was also increadibly shakey, as the wind tugged and pushed in all directions. I had high rates on and was still throwing the sticks all over the receiver just to keep anything straight. I pulled vertical and flew like a kite for a minute, then hung a very long right turn downwind and the plane picked up speed - screaming down the runway like a rocket. Just before I lost sight of the plane I swung back around towards me and hit full throttle – just praying that I had enough power to gain some ground and get back to the runway. Because the battery was fresh I did, and just as I came perpindicular to the runway I cut throttle and used all my might to keep the wings from going either left OR right – as they both tried to an infinite number of times before the plane finally set herself down on all three wheels. Before the wind flipped her over, I ran out and grabbed my good ‘ole T-28.
As I walked back to the ramada I was greated with many compliments on the flying. One guy had said that I must have had a lot of balls to do that, and another remarked that I probably didn’t have enough brains. But to me it was just natural. I had a plane, and a situation that I was willing to bet I could handle.
I ended up flying one more time that day in even stronger winds. I was able to repeat the success and then smartly decided I had pushed my luck enough. But as silly as it sounds I wondered what was different from what I did, and what guys like QQ Somenzini, Yuri Higuchi, and Chip Hyde do? Guys who fly at night, on knife-edge, torque-roll, flat spin, and invent “the restart?” They all decided to take a risk that seemed silly to some people. The end result turned out that they were better for it, had fun, advance the hobby and gave a good show. That is a huge part of what this hobby is about.
So the AddictionRC.com Trojan will fly again. I am even thinking of creating a new sport – RC Kites. Anyone want to buy one?
But once he was able to fly the RealFlight G4.5 Simulator, he started to see why flying RC is so much fun. Pretty soon he was asking me (and having his mom ask me) every day if we could go fly. 
