Mirko, Emil and I arrived on Thursday about noon and headed to Point of the Mountain. The wind was good and the lift was building. With a minor exception on Saturday AM we have had great flying conditions at POM North for the last three days. This is truly one of the very best slopes in the country.
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Lots of PSS action. Some big scale ships and a whole slew of slopers are flying. The conditions mean that you can fly just about anything you brought. I had 20 ounces in the already 57 ounce Opus and could have added the wing ballast as well.
Of note to a few of us Mirko finally, after almost 3 years, got the first flight on his 4.3 Meter ASW-15B. The flight was almost anticlimatic. Owing to the 17 pound weight, and Mirko’s experience launching big tubs, he decided to do the launch duties while I did the flying duties. Thanks, Mirko! So, Mirko, with a herculean effort, threw the big ship into the lift. I jabbed down on the elevator and built up some speed and then didn’t touch the stick for about 10 seconds. The plane just flew straight and true, climbing a bit. It needed some significant down trim but after that I tooled around for a couple minutes gaining several hundred feet getting the feel of the plane. About 2 minutes into the flight, and feeling confident in the planes abilities, I dove it down and checked the roll rate. Not fast but it sure was cool to see the big ship do a nice roll! Mirko, having recovered from his launch effort glommed on to the transmitter after I had been flying and trimming for about 5 minutes. Must be nice to get a trimmed out plane when you waited three years to fly it! He sure looked happy! Guess the drive to Utah was worth the trip! So easy to fly was the ASW-15 that Mirko even handed the transmitter to Emil for a bit. Very nice flying tub.
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I’ll be doing a more detailed report when I get home. I have a bunch of photos and will post those as well. Stay tuned!
