The training wheels are off my SHP, or at least that's how it feels. I was a little nervous about how it would handle with the full 3D arms and throws, especially after what happened during the maiden flight with that setup. But, wow, yeah, I was nervous for nothing. It flies great! And it's tons of fun with the full throws. I even forgot to flip it to low rates for the first landing, and the subsequent next takeoff! I was still fine! What an awesome airplane!

Yesterday was one of those crazy days at the field, where everyone in the club that actually flies, was out flying... seemingly at once! Our club is weird, a lot of the guys don't like to fly if there's more than 1 other person flying at the time. Not yesterday! I think at one point there were close to 10 planes up! Was cool to see, though a little scary when you're not used to that many people being up!

There are now 4 3DHS planes in our club...owned by 2 pilots. :D Myself and Chad. The picture up top shows all 4 of them. My SHP, the AJ scheme Slick that Chad has, the yellow Slick that used to be mine, and the red 40" Edge that is now mine. Yeah, I traded off the Slick. It's a really fun plane, and I really do like it, but for me and where I'm at in the the learning curve, I'm better off flying the hell out of the SHP (and I need to get the Addiction out and fly that too). Chad wanted another Slick and I kinda wanted the little Edge for a "keep in the trunk" type of plane, so we traded up + some cash on his end to even things up. He now owns 2 Slicks. Heh.

I'm also going to re-start my Simitar build. Claude, my club president, emailed and said "since North field is all flooded, do you want to work on it more?", and so I said... "sure, let's do it!". I'm headed out there tonight. It'll be a slow build, but I'm still excited about my first actual build. Plus I get a lot of control over the finished airplane. I'm already wondering how much throw I can get out of the elevons and rudder... ;)

The money from the Slick <--> Edge trade helped partially pay for a bike upgrade. The Weather Gods™ haven't exactly smiled on us here in Indiana lately, and I'm waiting on a bag to come in so I can carry things, so I haven't biked to work yet, but I did some longer (for me!) rides on my 7.3 FX over the weekend, and I realized, that as nice as the 7.3 is, and it is a nice bike, for doing 5 miles each way work commutes, I might want something a little nicer. So I talked to my LBS, the awesome Hodson's Bay Company, and asked if they'd do a trade-in on my 7.3 for something newer and nicer. They said "hell yes" and so I traded up to a Trek 7.5 FX. It's a big, noticeable upgrade over the 7.3. It'll be ready Wednesday. Can't wait. :D