Frenchmans Bay Float Fly April 19th!

[piker]

O.K., I know you've heard rumours...

The first Frenchman's Bay Float Fly of the year is this coming Saturday, April 19th, starting at 4:30pm!

The weather is looking very promising with reasonable temperatures and light winds, which I hope will calm down for the evening.

The pit area is clear and clean, and the water is free of any weeds and boaters (so far), so the conditions are ideal.

I'll be there with some planes and my retrieval boat, ready to help make the float flying experience as enjoyable as possible for you.

Bring a chair, warm clothes (it my be cooler by the lake, plus it's later in the day), Rubber boots are helpful, a camera, a drink, and, if you've got 'em, some seaplanes.

Everyone is welcome, even if you don't have anything to fly.  At least come out and see what it's all about.  I'll even let you fly the Beaver, for a taste of the fun of float flying.

I can't wait!  It's been a long winter... and it's really nice by the lake right now.

Here's where we meet, with directions from the Whites Rd. exit in Pickering:

https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/43.8167352,-79.1147209/43.8122371,-79.0922973/@43.8129031,-79.1015995,1434m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m3!4m2!1m0!1m0

[Bigstik]

Hi Rob,

Any particular reason for the late start?

Bigstik

[Tomahawk]

Hi Rob,

Any particular reason for the late start?

Bigstik

They are holding their spring field clean-up in the morning.


http://temac.ca/smf/index.php/topic,4550.0.html


Chris

[piker]

Hey Alan,


I always like to have these little float fly get togethers in the evening as that's the best chance for calm wind and water.  It didn't work out that way last summer, but I'm still hopeful   


And as Chris points out, this time, we're cleaning the field in the morning and flying in the afternoon at TEMAC.  Yep!  A full day of flying awesomeness 

[eric]

I am SO there.


Eric

[piker]

So far the weather forecast for tomorrow (Saturday) evening is excellent!  I hope it holds and I hope y'all come out.  It'll be great!... as always 

[Michael]

A big thanks is offered to Robert for organizing, and saving everyone's planes with his boat.

That was as good as a float-fly as can be had. There were about a dozen flyers or so, and lots of planes, sometimes 4 or 5 in the air at a time.

It started off cold and windy, and settled into cool and calm. I had a great time!

[gmcnic]

I echo Michael's appreciation to Robert.
It wouldn't happen without your amazing rescues!

Also, a big thank you to Glen and Robert for helping with my Beaver maiden.
Congrats to all of the other Beaver maidens today as well!!

It was quite a first experience seeing so much variety of planes flying off water.
What a nice day  !

[thehaze]

It was a lot of fun. And the conditions were perfect.


It would appear that even the "big" part of the lake was calm enough for a landing.

[Michael]

Yes, Robert did fly south over Lake Ontario, but he didn't land there; he flew back over onto Frenchman's Bay.

[eric]

Yes, many thanks to Robert for putting the evening together - fantastic, and everyone had a good time  Also many thanks to Glenn for maidening my Beaver when I wimped out on doing it myself because of the wind. Once the breeze died I had 7 flights total on the models I brought, so all is right with the world. Float flying rocks.


Eric

[Ededge2002]

Float flying rocks.

Eric

I thought you guys were flying planes?  YOU must be a talented bunch as I can never get a rock to do anything but sink!

Congratulations to all that enjoyed the evening and great job Rob for getting these guys out there and making them have fun!

[Andy Hoffer]

Hi Folks:


Photos by Greg Hazelton and myself from the April 19 Float Fly have been posted in the Photo Gallery (http://temac.ca/?p=4831 and http://temac.ca/?p=4923).


Enjoy!


Andy

[piker]

I'm finally getting a chance to post about the GREAT time I had on Saturday night at the Frenchman's Bay float flying get together!

I'm always so happy when you guys come out to enjoy float flying.  As everyone knows, flying from water is my main interest within the hobby, and I'm happy that I have great friends to share the fun with.  I know the float fly's are only possible because of my retrieval boat, which I'm more than happy to provide so we can all make this happen.  We have a lot more dates set for the float flying season, and I hope to insert more spontaneous flying opportunities to best take advantage of the weather.  You can see all the dates booked in the events calendar on the main page of this site.

So, I arrived at about 4:20pm on Saturday to meet Michael, Graham, and Eric, all standing there in the cold onshore wind, asking me what the heck we were doing there.  I admit, there was more wind and cold than I expected and had hoped for, but one thing I know, after our season of float flying last year, is that a little wind ain't gonna keep us from having fun.  We got the boat ready, and people started flying.  I was first with a plane in the water with Michael following immediately.

I followed Mike H's example of showing the new kids on the block what NOT to do.  Mike was gracious enough to show the undesirable effects of underestimating the moisture saturation at the field, and I provided two excellent examples of underestimating the effect of cross winds on float planes and the value of having a ready retrieval boat.  I also wanted to make sure the gang didn't feel bad thinking that I only bring to boat out to retrieve THEIR planes.  That's the kinds nice guys we are... right Mike?

Anyway, we had all sorts of enthusiastic float flyers come out the FB on Saturday evening with planes in the air constantly from 4:30 until after sunset.  Most of the time there were from three to five planes in the air!

Gradually, over the course of the evening, the winds died down and the temperature seemed to increase, although it was really just the lack of wind chill.  It got very pleasant later in the evening and we were finally rewarded with glass calm water and beautiful float flying conditions.  The take-off and landing concerns turned from avoiding dunking, to trying to nail that perfect take-off run and that silky smooth landing.  It really is such a pleasure to fly over still water in calm air.  THAT is what float flying is all about, and if you haven't flown from calm water yet, you haven't experienced the ultimate in float flying.  I hope we get to enjoy many more evenings like last Saturday (except warmer) over the course of the summer.

Thanks to everyone who came out!  It'll be time to do it again in a coupe of weeks.

Next float fly is Friday, May 2!

Here's a view from the retrieval boat:

[piker]

Yes, Robert did fly south over Lake Ontario, but he didn't land there; he flew back over onto Frenchman's Bay.

But I did a couple of touch and go's