aaronredbaron
07-27-2009, 10:08 AM
Nestled in the Snohomish Valley North-East of Seattle Washington is the home of the Cascade Model Heli Club. With the abundance of aerospace engineers in the area from Boeing and other aerospace companies, the club is large and healthy with a dedicated following of heli flyers. Pilots came from all over the Northwest to join the fun. In addition, the club welcomed two of the better known pilots out there, Matt Botos and Todd Bennett. In the days leading up to the event Todd and Matt put on a 3D flight school which has become a annual thing. Pilots who took the class in years past look back on it fondly, and the lucky few who can work it into their schedule are always trying to show off what they learned. Matt Botos spent most of him time during the fun fly helping others. When he wasn't out on the flight line tearing it up with his Synergy, he was helping other pilots fine tune their setups.
One of the fun aspects of this field is the tall grass lining the property. Although it can be a challenge to find models if you go down out in the middle of the field, the grass is very forgiving! Sean Whitney, one of the hottest pilots to come out of the northwest, stuffed his TREX 700 into the tall grass at full speed and only broke a link and bent the flybar! Its also very tempting to fly by inverted and try trimming the grass without getting caught up. At one point Matt Botos scooped up a huge clump of grass with his landing gear and took it up a few hundred feet before he bucked it off. He then zig zagged back and forth trying to cut up the grass clump as it fell to the ground... Good times!!!
The Snohomish Valley is more susceptible to rain than the surrounding areas due to its topography. We were treated to a few rain squalls and a few downpours, but overall the weekend was sunny. During one of the rain squalls I took out my Seawind seaplane and flew off the wet grass from under a pop up canopy. We always have a blast out here, in the northwest we don't even notice a little rain unless it doesn't give us a break. With the hot, humid summer, the cool rain was kind of nice change of pace!
Click here to visit the Cascade Model Heli Club website (http://cascademodelheli.org/)
One of the fun aspects of this field is the tall grass lining the property. Although it can be a challenge to find models if you go down out in the middle of the field, the grass is very forgiving! Sean Whitney, one of the hottest pilots to come out of the northwest, stuffed his TREX 700 into the tall grass at full speed and only broke a link and bent the flybar! Its also very tempting to fly by inverted and try trimming the grass without getting caught up. At one point Matt Botos scooped up a huge clump of grass with his landing gear and took it up a few hundred feet before he bucked it off. He then zig zagged back and forth trying to cut up the grass clump as it fell to the ground... Good times!!!
The Snohomish Valley is more susceptible to rain than the surrounding areas due to its topography. We were treated to a few rain squalls and a few downpours, but overall the weekend was sunny. During one of the rain squalls I took out my Seawind seaplane and flew off the wet grass from under a pop up canopy. We always have a blast out here, in the northwest we don't even notice a little rain unless it doesn't give us a break. With the hot, humid summer, the cool rain was kind of nice change of pace!
Click here to visit the Cascade Model Heli Club website (http://cascademodelheli.org/)