12/29/2025
Don't forget our New Years Fun Fly this Thursday Jan 1st 11 am at Chief Pilot Tom Lundhill' fabulous farm and heated garage at 62034 Dufferin County Rd 3, East Garafraxa, L9W 7H7 about 15km east of Fergus. Please bring some treats to go with hot drinks and something you can fly to start the year right!
Here is an article about last year's fun fly I wrote last Jan:
Flying Start to New Year!
New Year's Day: My handheld anemometer spun madly in winds over 20km/hr, even in the shelter of the trees.
I drove to our chief pilot Tom Lundhild's hobby farm halfway between Fergus and Orangeville. Wispy snow whipped across Highway 18 in scattered patches of near whiteout at times.
I wondered if members of our Fergus Model Flyers club would be able to fly our models at all. But take wing we did, and here's why.
As past president Andy Smith explained to me, if we don't learn to fly our RC models in winds over 10 mph, we won't fly much at all!
Andy hasn't missed a January first flight in about thirty years of flying on New Year's Day. So, at 1 pm, six of us gathered in Tom's spacious shop to assemble our model radio control planes.
We warmed our flight batteries and had hot drinks while we waited for the wind to abate somewhat. By 2:15pm the reported 50km/hr gusts seemed to have died down a bit, so we went out to assess conditions.
Tom suggested his low field west of his evergreens, pond and fence would be most sheltered from wind. Bundled up, we carried out our various model airplanes and radio control transmitters.
Steady winds are one thing, and turbulent wind shear is another. "Mechanical turbulence" is sudden unexpected changes in wind direction and velocity. It can crash planes near the ground. It occurs when the wind bends and forms vortices around physical obstacles like barns, trees and hills. Wind conditions can vary wildly below tree height in any wind-shadowed area.
Past president Andy Smith is the best pilot in our club and most experienced with winter flying. He wisely chose a sled-like blue and white amphibious electric plane called a Polaris with a high tail-mounted prop. On takeoff this skidded across the snow as easily as on water. Then it zoomed into the air out of our wind break into the full blast of the higher winter wind. Andy swooped & corrected the swerves instantly. (Photo 1)
Our host and Chief Flight Instructor Tom used 3D printed skis on his powerful Timber model to take off in a few feet from the snow. (Photo 2)
An expert RC pilot, he dashed madly with many rolls and loops into the frigid sky. His green and white plane was buffeted and blasted by the shearing river of air roaring across his field. Tom made it look easy!
Treasurer Trevor Haskett hand launched his acrobatic hard-to-break Crack Wing. This steers by two huge elevons only - ideal for aerial combat. It is built of tough EPP foam, able to withstand hard crashes. It swoops & tilts like a kite in the stiff wind, cheered on by us backseat pilots. (Photo 3)
But all these experienced pilots can read their airplanes and the wind well. They know their familiar models and exactly how they handle from many years of flying. They make rapid 3D corrections in heading, yaw, pitch and roll as easily as a pro skier reads a slope.
But nowadays even novice pilots like me with fewer hours have a secret weapon. Models like Vice President Chris Quinke's Turbo Timber and my Eflite Valiant use a technology called AS3X. This is a system of complex sensors and software that makes gusty flying easier. Chris flew many circuits of his plane without incident, despite the gruelling wind. (Photo 4)
Tiny accelerometers detect aircraft motion, like those in your cell phone. Suppose you are a novice pilot and set your RC transmitter to "Beginner Mode". A sudden wind gust shears your airplane model towards a dreaded nosedive into terra firma. This gyro system software will detect the hazardous pitch angle faster than you can. The AS3X radio receiver in your model will immediately apply up elevator to try and straighten you out and fly level. Ditto for self-corrections of sudden roll or yaw.
It doesn't completely take over control like an Autopilot in an airliner. It just "Auto Stabilizes" any sudden radical moves from wind. It can also limit your own unwise over-reactions (extreme control moves) as is common with us beginners. It just makes flying easier and is a huge boon for seniors like me with slower reaction times.
Finally, it was my turn to "sink or swim" so to speak. So, with cold clumsy fingers in gloves and some trepidation I gunned the throttle of my trusty Valiant on skis. It slowly accelerated then leapt into the air.
I followed the old RC model adage of "fly three mistakes high". Thus, I managed to fly multiple left-hand circuits roughly in 400-foot circles. This despite the frozen blasts of Father Winter --- doing his best to dash my patched "be**er" plane far downwind into the frozen earth! Thanks to the safety mode of AS3X stabilization...
I had to throttle down and turn almost immediately to avoid my model being blown out of sight when flying with the wind. Conversely, I had to apply full power to inch up-wind back to our launch point.
After five minutes of wobbly circuits, I headed straight into the wind for a long approach. Suddenly I had to abort my first landing attempt when my Valiant refused to sink low enough to land before I hit the fence. This was because a sudden burst in headwind gave excessive lift to my lightweight foam wings. But on second attempt with a very low, fast approach it managed to skid safely to a stop on its skis. My Valiant skis left a satisfying long trail in the fluffy snow.
By day's end we all had some laughs as we amiably kid each other on our various rough landings and close encounters. But no one crashed and the only minor damage was Tom bending his skis a bit.
Returning to Tom's shop to warm up with some hot chili and coffee, we logged our RPAS flights for Transport Canada. Then we departed happily after our first flights of 2025.
For more info about how to learn to fly RC planes please email [email protected]
For a video, please visit https://vimeo.com/1043973441
For more photos, please visit https://gord.smugmug.com/Hobbies/New-Years-Fun-Fly-2025
Our Fergus Model Flyer's Jan 1st brave-the-wind fun fly on Tom Lundhild's beautiful hobby farm.
