Academy of Model Aeronautics

There is a circle here in Michigan that I crash at every time I fly. That's the circle in John Paris' back yard.
Yesterday Linda and I packed a cooler with ribs and potato salad and stuffed the van with airplanes and our dog Maggie and headed to John's house in Clio. The weather was perfect for a BBQ and flying session.
I'd already driven by his house twice and couldn't find it. (I also spend time lost when I visit John.)
I stopped and called him and told him where I was but he didn't know the intersection either (I really was lost). We agreed that I would back trace my route and he would stand on the road and flag us down. I did, he did and we finally got there.
Mike Paris appeared at one point riding a dirt bike. John has a huge yard for riding around on the dirt bike and two quads they have. They let me ride the vehicles. The quads were great but the bike was the epitomy of fun for me at the time. It felt great to have the wind in my face and popping through the gears was a treat. At one point all three of us were riding around at the same time. It was a real good time.
We BBQ'd, ate and then we got out our Bi-Slobs.
There is something about the circle there that unravels any conservative flying tendencies I may have and I don't have much of that to begin with.
I got the Slob overhead a couple times and it seemed to hang out there very well. So I figured I'd just hold it up there for a while longer. WRONG! It fell out of the sky. I did what I could to take up the slack but the plane just turned into me and augered in. I was once again the victim of the Paris Triangle.
The placing of blame has always been a key factor to me when things go wrong and if given a few moments to cogitate the circumstances I can firmly place the fault on anything other than myself. At the Paris Triangle I hear the siren call to do impossible stuff with a model plane. That of course leads to time doing repairs on whatever I rekit out there.
John seems to be immune.

Frank,
The family enjoyed your visit as well. Thank you for bringing over the ribs and giving me the opportunity to cook them. Linda got a big kick out of you riding and was concerned that we would not be able to get you to go home. Maggie seemed to enjoy herself too.

Now for the matter of the "Paris Triangle". When Jim Morway first started flying here I named the northeast corner of the flying field, Jimmy's corner. For some reason he kept planting airplanes over there even though I told him that it would not make little airplanes grow. Eventually he got over that kick and usually does a fair job when he flies here. Jay Williams did an unusual number of figure 9s when he first started flying here. While I appreciated the lawn aeration, I was happy to see that activity cease and his flying improve. Dan Miles has been known to perform inverted landings here as well. But then again, Dan likes to land upside down just about everywhere. I think it might be a good idea for him to put the rudder on the bottom of his airplane. I have probably flown here the most and I have had a few instances of ground to airframe arguments, but nothing that I would consider supernatural. So my conclusion is that there is nothing unusual about this place other than there can be so odd turbulence depending on the wind direction.

I was in a good position to see what happened with your slob. As you pointed out, you just held it up there too long and it flopped over on the lines. Up to that point, I thought that things were going pretty good. The slob will be fixed and back in the air soon I am sure. You will be again challenged to fly at the "Paris Triangle" in the future, so try to maintain a conservative nature. I would like to help you get over the hump on flying here.

John

I'll sure try to get some flying in on your circle and quit busting planes.

Now about the Slob.I think I could pull that trick off if the Fox was needled for a stunt run Let's try that next time. I'll lose the hover but maybe I can fly the Slob in a new way.