Event Report
by Oscar Weingart
16th Annual Otay Lake Float Fly
November 18th, 2007
Presented by the Chula Vista Model & Radio Control Club
and the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego
(Please note that these event reports were originally prepared for use in the Riverside RC Club monthly newsletter, Prop Talk, and are not intended to be comprehensive coverage of the event. Rather they are reports, for our club members, of my personal experiences and perceptions.)
My friend , Paul Bowman, of the Santa Fe Dam Club, and I have been to many Float Flys over the years. In fact, we met at one of Woody Sims' Float Flys at Lake Elsinore, when Paul needed a spotter. We have attended the granddaddy annual event, the big Lake Havasu London Bridge Classic over Veteran's Day Weekend, together for many years. We were unable to go to Lake Havasu this year, and I was not able to go to the big post-Labour Day bash at Lake Shuswap, B.C. As a consolation, we decided to go to the Lake Otay event. This float fly is usually the last one of the year. Lake Otay, the site of the Olympic Training Center, is about 20 miles southeast of San Diego, and very near Brown Field and the Mexican Border.
The weather was OK, and the food and raffle prizes were fine. Paul and I did not have a good day. Paul crashed his beautiful Venture 60 on floats, and I lost my favorite, old standby Hanger 9 Ultra Stik 120 Lite (Saito 150) on Slocan floats. After some radio problems, Paul's other float plane, one of those plastic corrugated sheet and drainpipe jobs, flew OK. My World Models 1/4 scale ARF Cub (Magnum 160 Twin) on Stan's Fiber Tech 48 inch glass floats flew great.
Paul's Venture 60 is repairable, but my Ultra Stik is ultra sick. The wing and fuselage are basket cases. The tail feathers survived OK. I have a wing from the original Hanger 9 heavy Ultra Stik 120, and I have ordered a new Lite fuselage from Horizon Hobby. One of the Slocan 41 inch foam/glass floats is in three pieces, but it can be glued back together. Like me, the other float has some wrinkles, but is serviceable. The Saito 150 and the JR 8103 receiver and servos got wet, but are OK. Horizon Hobby told me, when my first Ultra Stik crashed, that the old heavy Stik wing won't fit the new Lite fuselage. But I have even used the old wing on my Stream Schneider Sport 320 (a low wing Stik in disguise), and I can't believe that I can't scab it on to the new Lite Stik fuselage somehow.
I am not sure exactly what happened. The Stik took off normally, but needed a lot of up trim. While Paul was helping me with this, the plane suddenly got very sensitive in roll, like a 3-D aircraft. I tried to keep it airborne, but it finally snapped into the lake. Perhaps one of us accidentally hit one of the switches that couple the flaps to the ailerons. This, plus high rate, might have exceeded my meager piloting skills. Strangely, Paul's Venture 60, on channel 41, and my Stik, on channel 39, both showed the same symptoms and crashed in roughly the same area of the lake. I monitored the two channels for a while, and could see nothing unusual on my scanner.
There were many electric float planes flying, and except for the rather eerie lack of noise, they seemed to do everything the same as the engine powered ones. I didn't take any pictures, but here are some old ones.
Oscar and Paul with the 1/4 Scale Cub (At Lake Cachuma)
Oscar's Late Ultra Stik 120 Lite (At Lake Perris)
Paul and his beautiful Venture 60 (At Lake Cachuma)
