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Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper

Hey, y’all sorry for the delay with the report. I recently spent several days with Jack Cooper of Leading Edge Gliders working on a video project that you will see in the not too distant future. We are at the editing stage which often takes longer than I expect but I think the effort will be worth it. Jack is a super builder and we got a lot of his most prized tips on tape. As you probably already know, Jack is a great guy and really knows his stuff.

Of course the shoot went longer than I’d planned which meant that I was way behind when I got home. Been catching up since. Well that and we have had a couple of days of flyable weather here and that almost always tends to derail my plans. As you know, you gotta fly when the conditions permit!

The plane in the sunset shots is one of Jack’s Hughes H-1s and it flies pretty much like all his 60-inch planes which is to say really sweet. This one is actually belongs to and was built by Erik Eaton but he let us borrow it for some pix. Erik did a really sweet job shaping and finishing the plane. He is somewhat of a perfectionist and it shows. Well, that and access to Jack’s shop can’t hurt! The wind never really got blowing but the Hughes works well even in 10 mph of wind.

Jack the Hughes H-1 a Kansas Sunset and

 

More Hughes H-1 and Sunset

 

Yep, I like these shots

 

Last one

 

We did get to fly some every day with some flying at Airgasm and some DS tries on the hill right next to it. Jack was trying to find the groove with his 72-inch P-40 and had some success but after several ground impacts, he developed a bunch of washin that effectively ended his quest to set the Kansas PSS DS record.

I hit the DS groove with my Extreme and found it working pretty well. I was a bit rusty not having either flown this Extreme or DSed for over 8 months but I still had several good runs and demonstrated the great potential for DS at this spot. I believe that the opposite side from the spot we worked will be even better.

We also did some flying at the main Wilson Lake slope. Jack was flying his scale ASW and flying it like a PSS plane. Pretty cool!

Several guys showed up over the week/weekend including Kent, Erik, Merrell and Mike. Jack’s shop seems to attract fliers from many miles around. Imagine that!

Back at the hill Jack and Mike worked on Mike’s 2-meter Fox getting the CG set and checking the incidence. It looked like it was flying well.

Later at the shop Mike and I helped Jack get his 2-meter Blade set up. Yep, Jack does fly planes other than PSS and after a test flight the only adjustment needed was about ½ ounce of nose weight. Credit RCGroups with the timely answer to the where’s the CG on this thing question.

I also got my current Opus DS V finished and set up. I test flew it at the same time Jack was flying the Blade. Pretty similar performance and test flight result. I may need ½ ounce more nose weight but I am going to fly it in more varied conditions before I decide to remove the tray again. Gary Legerton’s kit is very neat if a bit tight. Once it is in I like it to stay that way!

A lot more happened both on the hill and in the shop but I’ll save that for later. For now here is a shot of the plane that we built for the video.

Jack and the recently built P51D

 

I want to give a special thanks to Jack and his family for their hospitality while I was in Lucas.

Indians are alive and well in Kansas!

 

I just liked this shot so much I included it. Looks like a nice slope!

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