Crater Lake Part 2 - The Flight

Delayed getting to the rim as starbux wifi kept dropping out from uploading the Redwoods. Eventually got to the rim about 2ish in the morning.

Wednesday 5th Aug 2009
Up at 6ish (ug, 4 hrs sleep). Wind seemed to be around over the lake (I could hear it) even though I was in a sheltered spot. Went to the north rim and that simply confirmed there was quite a strong wind blowing over the lake. Went back to a more sheltered spot, and in getting the plane ready I found a loose wire. After resoldering the wind had gotten up again AG! Decided to try to fly down by the boat launch. Got down to the lauch about 9.20 and shortly after setting up.. AG, the horn that controlled the elevator was bust!
Praise be for the joy of pre-flight checks. It was too late to go back up, fix the plane and get down again. Washed in the lake chilly but felt better for it afterwards. The place crawled (with people down at the launches). Back up by 10ish and inspected the damage. In the end I decided the best (or most reliable) fix would be to simply attach the control rod 2 notches up. That would make the elevator more sensitive, but it should be a reliable fix. Kipped in the car till 1ish, then moved on down the lake, but still too tired. Found a siding in the trees and kipped down there for another couple of hours (till 3ish). Stopped off at the rangers station to work out what the position on the forest fires to the North was (not an issue) and tried to hitch up with a geologist. They pointed me to a geology talk but when I got there, it turns out it happened a few hours earlier and in a different place. Meandering out of the park to the north I came to an interesting siding. Climbed up onto an overlook, v. calm, but with some potential for takeoff and landing. Got the plane up but was v. nervy. This was essentially the maiden flight. How would it fly? Turns out it wasnt too bad, however there were clearly macroscopic air currents over the crater that made life interesting. At least a couple of times the plane dropped out of the air. The plane had my complete attention, and I could periodically hear the motor stop momentarily. That kinda put me on edge, so in the end I only spend a couple of minutes in the air. Coming into land was always going to be a one shot deal with essentially no abort option. I also was caught off guard by the extra sensitivity of the elevator. Clipped a tree on the landing. No damage. No more than 15 minutes after the flight, the wind was up, really up, and smoke from the forest fire was blowing in. Got back to the car to find that the laptop battery had died while this was happening bummer! Suck around with the car timelapse running for an hour or so till I was accosted by a ranger who didnt like how closely I was parked to the wall (he couldnt have been more than early 20s). I showed him my work from the previous night, but he went on to tell me how he would write me a ticket to appear before some judge if I did it while he was on watch because he didnt like my attitude (I had been making enquiries about what was permissible and what the fines were). He had been rather obstructive telling me only that the maximum fine was several thousand dollars and 6 months in jail. I explained to him about why I did it, to which he wanted to know if I made any money out of it, which when I told him no, he told me it was also a federal crime to make money out of it. Sigh, the officious are a bane on society. The affair left me perturbed socially perturbed. Its at times like this when you are basically being threatened that being alone is a burden. The sort of burden that a friendly hug and some sympathy would go a long way to curing, however alone and on the wide land there is none of that. As a consequence I did the best I could to restore some sort of mental equilibrium, and that evening as the eagles watched the Little Blue Car roll out of the park, through the smoke laden forests of the flat lands to the North of Crater Lake, they might just have been able to hear the song behind blue eye (nobody knows what its like to be the bad man) blared out as loudly as my little speakers could without distortion.
I wrestled with the idea of getting up on Newberry Crater for the evening (it looked like it was going to be clear, and this would be a good option for getting Jupiter). However in the end, the fatigue from the night before, and the knowledge of the importance of maintaining a positive mind frame (after the Ranger affair) held the high ground and I found some well disguised siding about an hour short of Bend and settled down for an early evening (9ish).

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[RexFordVII]

"I haven't tested this plane to see if it flies yet, so I'm going to strap a bunch of expensive electronics onto it and throw it off a cliff"

[pendulousphallus]

Hey Planet Earth!

Quit being so freaking beautiful. You're making Mars jealous.

[untidy49]

You can convert this to an mp3 at instantmp3s..com

[bearhuntaa]

dude, this awesome, thanks for sharing this with us

[Tammicat21]

You took my breath away twice...first with the lake and then with the drop-off

[1BustedMyth]

FANTASTIC!

[DirtyD0G1]

I live in eagle point Oregon so it's pretty kool going there in the summer. I've even been swimming in crater lake lol

[earthling1984]

OMG lol, this video is a FAVORITE of one of my friends ;p Not him :) My mistak.. but awesome video man!  Love that scenery!

[earthling1984]

OMG, sooo beautiful! That is an amazing area, it almost look fake! Wow, I watched the whole video man :) well ok.. I admit, I skpped a little bit.. but I watche dto the end :) But I still couldn't figure out what plane that is... what is it?!?

Is that you?!? I didn't think you were australian or english or whatever that accent is ;p doesn't quite look like you either, although I could be wrong ;p

[pinzgauernorcal]

do you still fly fpv??  are you going to make any rc airplane videos. thanks love it.

[Clinton123123]

dude i went here like 8 mounths ago and the hotel/murder house/lodge is so fuckin creepy. its like stiaght out of a horror movie!