"Sunday was the first OCD Small Field Contest of 2016 held at Lagunita on the Stanfurd (Go Bears!) campus. With 4 OCDers in attendance plus a guest who got drafted into timer service, it was a low key, but truly enjoyable event.
Events flown were CLG, HLG, P-30, and 6" CLG. E-20 and FAC scale testing was in progress as well. Drizzle throughout the day did not deter the participants and since the field was not flooded we didn't have to worry about stomping the baby frogs as in other years. Flying wrapped up at around 11:00am when everyone pooped out (yeah, we are miserably out of shape) but then there was the post-contest model retrieval session. This wonderful event was arranged for by my Hotbox P-30 which had been dragged out of the air by a gnarly oak tree Charlie Brown would have known not to fly close to.
The model wasn't that high up, probably 20', but nobody had a pole and none of us were willing to climb up the tree in the light rain that developed. Fortunately Ben had a spool of 50lb line that I was able to tie a weight to for use a as retrieval tool. 1 hour later the model was on the ground, in less than great shape (see attached), mostly due to the fact that the nose got separated from the rest of the fuselage (that's the little piece I am holding with my left hand). The wing and stab were ok if you don't count the dozens of holes poked into the covering.
Haoyang and my friend Neftali stuck it out to the bitter end (well, Neftali had to because he rode in with me) but Ben had to eventually go walk his puppies and Truman had long deserted us, later he told me that he had some serious goofing around to do at home.
After much deliberation, I've decided to to build a new Hotbox and repair and retire this one, my 3rd in around 37 years. It is, after all, 23 years old and deserves to live out the rest of it's life hanging from the ceiling along with the other hanger queens. No viking funeral for this one, it deserves a better fate.
Oh what a grand thing is this thing we do!
Manuel. "