Good morning to all-
Well, you must know that they weather here on the Gulf coast has been horrible the past week or so- hurricane force winds, super heavy rain, trees down, powerlines down, roads flooded...
not good flying weather.
But this morning was beautiful- sunny, calm not a breath of wind, so i grabbed up one of my microwarbirds- the Japanese Zero- and drove to the flying field.
Perfect take off, lovely aerial maneuvers, wonderful flying. And then I was joined by a pair of purple martins who flew with me and against me for ten minutes or so. If you are not up on your ornithology, purple martins are members of the swallow family of birds, and they are superb fliers. I fly a long way from any bird nesting areas, so these martins were not aggressively defending their homes or anything- they were just having a good time flying with a stranger.
We swooped and dove, snap rolled and climbed out of dives and just generally had a great time flying in "combat" conditions. That little Zero, by the way, is a superb flier- the best of the microwarbird lot, in my opinion.
The birds left, my battery began to lose juice, so I circled in, made a good down wind and base turn, and then set her down on the roadway where the Zero rolled to a perfect stop right beside the truck.
What a lovely morning.
You all be safe and keep well- Ed
Well, you must know that they weather here on the Gulf coast has been horrible the past week or so- hurricane force winds, super heavy rain, trees down, powerlines down, roads flooded...
not good flying weather.
But this morning was beautiful- sunny, calm not a breath of wind, so i grabbed up one of my microwarbirds- the Japanese Zero- and drove to the flying field.
Perfect take off, lovely aerial maneuvers, wonderful flying. And then I was joined by a pair of purple martins who flew with me and against me for ten minutes or so. If you are not up on your ornithology, purple martins are members of the swallow family of birds, and they are superb fliers. I fly a long way from any bird nesting areas, so these martins were not aggressively defending their homes or anything- they were just having a good time flying with a stranger.
We swooped and dove, snap rolled and climbed out of dives and just generally had a great time flying in "combat" conditions. That little Zero, by the way, is a superb flier- the best of the microwarbird lot, in my opinion.
The birds left, my battery began to lose juice, so I circled in, made a good down wind and base turn, and then set her down on the roadway where the Zero rolled to a perfect stop right beside the truck.
What a lovely morning.
You all be safe and keep well- Ed