In The Air
Open cockpit flying just four feet off the ground.
I finally managed to extricate myself from my post-pandemic funk — or at least start down that road. One of my great joys in life — cycling — remained on the to-do list for all of 2022. I didn’t cycle a single centimetre the entire year. But I was determined to get back in the saddle in 2023 and with the aid of a new acquisition — more on that in a moment — I am now happily putting in steady distance once again.
Two legs, two pedals and two wheels is hands down the best form of earthbound transportion. It’s open cockpit flying just four feet off the ground. If you spend five minutes doing it, you’ll quickly understand how the Wrights ‘easily’ made the jump from bikes to gliders.
When it comes to cycling — actually, when it comes to most things — I’m a creature of habit. I have a 19km route that I’m trying to ride between four and six days a week. If you have ever heard the hackneyed phrase “make [virtuous thing] a priority in your life!” may I recommend that whatever that thing is, do it first thing in the morning before you do anything else. That’s what I do now that the early daylight has returned and I can be out on the road at 6.30am. Also, I like the familiarity of a route ridden often. I can remember most of the spots where the old school Cannondale M400 ‘hardtail’ makes its presence known in no uncertain terms, and can avoid them with an almost invisible, subconscious flick of the wrist.
There is one undeniable bug-on-the-windscreen of the whole endeavour. Each ride lands me back in the same place I started except that everything is just a little more worn out than when I began. Make no mistake, it’s still the best way in the world of making way for absolutely nowhere — a glorified, exquisite form of going around the same circle over and over again. But I can see how some — not me, of course — might think it all a bit pointless.
All the while when that was happening and also as a consequence of the pandemic-related upset, I took on family grocery duties: every Monday, list in hand, I attacked the local grocery store at 7.00am and made short work of the chore in a, thankfully, nearly empty store. In time I got to know most of the staff on a first name basis — after all, often I was the only customer. I actually began to enjoy and then eventually look forward to my weekly visits. So while the pandemic may have waned — right? — the weekly grocery runs continue.
So finally back to the new acquisition: a sparkling new Burley Nomad bike trailer. The plan was to replace my weekly car trip with a weekly bike trip for precisely the same purpose — to hunt down and haul the weekly supplies back to the house. I’m happy to report that I now have at least a couple of these rides under my belt.
In a word, they’re sublime and it’s for a simple if not peculiar reason. My bike is now being used to do actual work. My carbon footprint is just that little bit smaller, having been able to leave the car in the garage from which I pedalled away with the Burley in tow. By making the ride meaningful in a material way, the pleasure of it is greatly enhanced. Now I can hear you say it and you’re absolutely right: this makes absolutely no sense. However, the rush is real, without a doubt.
So where’s the glider connection, you ask? It’s a tenuous one at best, but I can’t help but think that gliding around in circles or back and forth across the slope might seem to some — not me or any of you reading, of course —more or less the same thing: the airborne equivalent of riding around in circles. But I’m wondering whether there might be the same rush as and when we put our gliders to work in some way as opposed to just wheeling around the sky looking for the next thermal or lift band.
Candidly, I feel this humble journal has so far done a pretty good job of finding at least some of these types of applications. The Silent Arrow project is a good example. The latest instalment in this remarkable story can be found in this issue. The Glider Patents series has also provided some interesting ideas which employ RC soaring concepts and have solid commercial potential. For example, this month’s Glider Patent has a parcel delivery service dropping small cargo gliders out of what looks like a Cessna Caravan. I’d order the latest Veg-o-Matic just to have it delivered in this exciting way.
However I’m quite sure the brilliant hive mind that is the New RCSD readership has lots of fascinating ideas along these lines. After all, our super-efficient aircraft have so much to recommend them, not the least of which is they do so much with so little. Surely, there’s a commercial angle to these capabilities. Maybe even something that involves staying aloft and going up, as opposed to slowing and controlling their falling out of the sky? Whatever your ideas are let us know so we can share them with the rest of the world. It may provide a different kind of buzz other than that old, reliable staple of coring in on that mid-summer boomer.
Back to the Burley for one last comment. Don’t anyone tell Michelle, but it also has another potential use which I’ll simply refer to as its ‘secret mission’ — should I “choose to accept it”:
But let’s keep that strictly between us, okay?
So long, Twitter
In this month’s Lift over Drag newsletter, a promise was made there would be a ‘substantial announcement’ regarding the New RCSD’s social media profile. So here it is: we’re dumping Twitter.
Perhaps surprisingly it’s not primarily over the erratic, bizarre, bafoonish and even dangerous behaviour of the new owner. That said, all of these ‘qualities’ sure as hell didn’t help.
No, it has much more to do with return on the investment of time. Each of the five social platforms we’ve been on up into now — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the nascent Post News — all take about the same amount of time — which is a lot. However, here’s a comparison between Instagram and Twitter, our accounts for which were created on the same day just before the New RCSD was launched. In the case of Instagram, we have earned 2,861 wonderful, chatty followers. In precisely the same amount of time with Twitter? Just 169.
With the same energy it absorbs to find one follower on Twitter, that same amount of energy will net us nearly 17 followers on Instagram. Game over.
By thoughtfully pruning our social media presence, I think we’ll be able to deliver better stuff on the four remaining ones we will support in the foreseeable future. We’ll also continue to make adjustments so we can do the absolute most lift with the absolute least drag. After all, every moment spent on social is a moment less delivering what you, the reader, values the most — that is, the great articles that wind up on the page.
Our last posts on Twitter will be how the great — but so few! — followers we have over there will know where to find us in the future. Unequivocal thanks to all of them. You have been great and hopefully we’ll see you soon on one of the other social platforms.
Oh, and let me preempt the near-zero-likelihood of Melon Tusk saying he couldn’t give a rat’s ass about our toy glider account and its meagre number of followers. I’ve seen the almost unadulterated rubbish on Twitter including a lot of his. I don’t need anybody to validate that it will be a much poorer Twitter without the high quality, considerate, attractive posts put up by the New RC Soaring Digest social staff over the past two-and-a-half years.
So happy trails, Twitter. It’s been … well … pretty lousy actually.
On with the Show!
As usual I have undoubtedly left readers wanting not more but less so without further ado, click below to get to the first of many great articles in the May, 2023 issue. Thanks to all contributors and a special thanks to you, our readers for your continued support.
Fair winds and blue skies!
Cover Photo
This month’s cover comes to us by way of Jonathan Demery, who caught the exact right moment when these four young RC soaring enthusiasts let loose their glider over the bluffs over the Great Orme, Wales. Jonathan, who is a teacher at St. David’s College in nearby Llandudno, runs a unique Silent Flight program for students, of which these kids are members. Their Instagram feed (linked in Resources below) is well worth following. Thanks for the opportunity to feature your great photo, Jonathan!
You are welcome to download the May 2023 cover in a resolution suitable for computer monitor wallpaper. (2560x1440).
Resources
- St. David’s College Silent Flight on Instagram. — Where you can find more great photos like this month’s cover.
- Burley Nomad — “Designed for bike touring, the Nomad™ bike trailer provides superior handling and stability for navigating the road ahead. With a 100-pound carrying capacity…”
Disclaimer
While all reasonable care is taken in the preparation of the contents of the New RC Soaring Digest, the publishers are not legally responsible for errors in its contents or for any loss arising from such errors, including loss resulting from the negligence of our staff or any of its contributors. Reliance placed upon the contents of the New RC Soaring Digest is solely at the readers’ own risk.
All photos in this article by the author. Here’s the first article in the May, 2023 issue. Or go to the table of contents for all the other great articles. A PDF version of this edition of In The Air, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
