The Ozone FLX

I finally got it yesterday. While I kited it a lot, today was the first time I got to fly and test it out.

But things didn't start out so great.

Firstly, the FLX has trimmers which gives it essentially 3 speeds: acro, super acro, and infinity. Secondly, the coast was nuking pretty good and northy. As I flew low close to the cliffs with the trimmers off, I'm sure I caught a bit of rotor which caused the wing to frontal, dropping me about on the cliff about 30 ft. above the beach, and right on my neck and shoulders. Reminded me when I got slammed doing throws in jiu-jitsu.

Luckily, the tide was out (I knew this beforehand) and landed/rolled on the beach. More importantly, the FLX wasn't damaged and it didn't get dirty at all! Nonetheless, I'm going to be fucking sore tomorrow.

Instead of calling it a day, I re-launched from Walker which is important because I didn't want to think about the accident and get intimated by it. But this time, I launched with the trimmers on "acro" which enabled me to penetrate and get up. (I think with the trimmers pulled all the way in, it's slightly slower than the 6907.) After a few wingovers and halfpipes, I decided to try some helicos. It took me a few attempts to find the parachutal point, but once I did, I had them dialed perfect. That thing helis SO fast, but I guess at 15 meters open, it's supposed to!

I'm looking forward to another good day on the coast to take it up and practice more. But even more exciting is that I'm going towing for 3 days this weekend. My plan is to spend the first day making sure I do tailslides, full stalls, misty flips, helicos, and dial in all the combo tricks. Then days 2 & 3 I will focus solely on the rhythmic SAT and if that goes well . . . . on to the Infinitron!

Better, Not Perfect

The coast has just been sick lately.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've flown around 7 - 8 days and I've been getting in 4-5 hour practice days with at least 25 - 30 refills each session. While I don't have my left helicos comp-ready yet, thanks to these awesome days I know I'll have it soon. My goal each day is not to get them perfect, but to just get them better. With spring here and the flying simply awesome so far, I'm ahead of schedule as far as nailing my left helicos. Interspersed with the lefties, I'm mixing in some righties and stopping them on a dime, which prepares me for twisters (switch helicos). Once the lefties are solid, the twister comes next. Sometimes I'm able to get high and far enough from the cliff that I can practice some combo moves such as the helico-SAT and even the helico-helico. But one combo trick I haven't tried yet is the SAT-helico which I'll start soon, provided I have the distance.

If I can nail these tricks on the coast in April, then I can focus on the rhythmic and the infinitron when I go towing. If I can put together a rhythmic-infinitron-SAT-twister routine, that would be absolutely sick.

But I need to dial in the leftside helicos first.

Today was hilarious because while I was in the air, the fire department came. I'm sure one of the caring neighbors at Westlake saw me in helico and I thought I was in trouble when I disappeared below the cliff and out-of-sight. Oops.

I think this is #3 for me this season.