Thursday, August 27, 2020 - We left Middlebury, Indiana and drove for three hours to arrive at the AMA National Flying Facility in Muncie, Indiana. What we found was quite awe-inspiring. We had full hookups in the middle of 1,100 acres of mowed flying facilities. There were three other campers there and they could handle about 80. A great place to fly model aircraft of any type.

NOTE: This is our first stop after having maintenance done at the Jayco facility in Middlebury, Indiana. The trailer leveled on the first try. Yea! The slide-out is working better and did not make me so nervous about whether or not it would work. Our electrical systems are working fine too. Sure is nice to go to the experts for maintenance help!

Friday, August 28, 2020 - We flew the drone and created photos and videos of the Academy of Model Aeronautics National Flying Facility. We could fly anywhere on the campus since there were no major flying events happening. After that, we headed to the Mounds State Park for a hike and to explore the mounds. The mounds are native American ceremonial grounds dating back over 2,000 years. Basically a circular mound with a smaller flat mound in the middle. People could position themselves on the top of the outer mound ring while ceremonies would take place on the inner flat mound. All dug by hand. You can see the photos of the site in the photo gallery. We also went for hike of about four miles and were over-taken by rain at the end of the hike. We then went into Muncie to see what the town looks like and to do some shopping. The area is suffering quite a bit from fewer jobs and lower median income for residents. It is also the home of Ball State University, so it is a college town.

NOTE: I charged the batteries and flew the Night Walrus glider for the first time in 16 months. It flew well and it was fun. I flew later in the night with the lights on and it was fun to "night fly" with this glider. I have been transporting this plane for so long, it was nice to get out and fly.

On Saturday, August 29, 2020, we decided to go to a farmers market in the middle of Muncie. We purchased some vegetables and then explored the grounds that were covered with herbs and flowers. People are invited to take some of the herbs home with them for cooking. After the farmers market, we drove to a park where we could go for a tandem bicycle ride on the Cardinal Greenway bicycle trial. This a "rails-to-trials" route that is paved and extends for over one hundred miles. We had planned to head south out of town and ride for about 20 miles and then return on the same route. Unfortunately, we got sort of "turned around" and headed north instead of south. This is a good route too, but there were more streets to cross before we got out of town. Another good part of this route was that it was into the wind to start and with the wind on the way back when we were more tired. At 16 miles we came across the small down of Gaston, Ohio where the trail goes out onto the road system. We rode for a ways on the road and then decided to head back to Muncie. We ended up with 32 miles on the trip. It was a nice day with a little wind. When we returned to our RV, we met some of the other campers in the park. Turns out that they were there for a Free-Flight glider competition. On Saturday, due to the high winds, they had been forced to cancel the flying for the day. Sunday was supposed to be nice and calm.

Sunday, August 30, 2020 - I drove over to the Free-Flight contest and all the flyers were very friendly. I had lots of questions about what they were doing and how the competition would work. The planes are very technical and have to meet strict standards for weight and size. Some had small fuel engines, some had small electric motors, and most were rubber powered. The rubber bands are actually 27 small (1/8 inch wide) strands that are wound together to propel the craft into the air. The motor works for about ten seconds and then the craft becomes a glider that is trimmed to fly in a circle. If there were no winds, the glider would (theoretically) climb right above the launch point, but there were winds so the aircraft drifted with the wind. The gliders are designed to fly for two minutes and then the do something called "de-thrermalization" or "DT." The elevator is released and tilts up at about 45 degrees and the craft floats straight down (in most cases) to the ground. The goal is to fly for at least two minutes before the DT starts. Each of the flyers has a small motorcycle dirt bike which they hop on to go retrieve their planes. This was a small contest due to the Covid virus, but most of these flyers were "world class" flyers with several who had place extremely high at the world championships. A couple of the planes ended up in corn fields near the site. When this happens, some craft have a device on them that sends out a signal that can be tracked with a hand unit that shows which direction the plane is from the person. I went with a person who had this device and planned to fly the drone to look for the plane, if needed. He was able to find his craft though. Later in the day, a glider was lost that did not have a "honing device." I took the drone up and spent over an hour of flight time, but could not finde the craft. If charged the batteries and went out again with no luck. I even tried to find the plane on Monday morning to no avail. It was tough because we did not have a good reference for a start point. The contest was lots of fun and Lisa and I met some very nice, friendly and gracious people. I took some photos and videos of the event and I gave them a copy which the all seemed to enjoy. Other than not finding John's plane, it was a fun event. I also talked to two flyers who were flying control line aircraft in another area. Both were high-level competitors in the event of control line aerobatics. They were extremely friendly and answered lots of questions. I will try to put a video together to show what they were doing.

Monday,