Order Horizon

Fly time

Today I took Boyen to E-Fest which is a gathering of indoor remote control air craft enthusiasts. It was held in the Amory at the University which provides a nice open space for flying (although not always enough). All of the aircraft are electrically powered by really tiny “lithium-ion polymer”: batteries. Some of the planes looked like they weighed just a few ounces even with the battery. They have to fly inside, one bit of a MidWestern wind and you’d never see it again.

Charles and Corwin seemed excited about going when we left but didn’t seem to get in to watching the flying. I thought it was interesting. There were a number of odd planes, including an Iron Man, a missile, a flying car (I think Harry Potter based), and a surfboard. The Iron Man (pictured below) suffered an unfortunate mid-air collision and was down for the day shortly after I took the picture.

We wandered the vendors which they liked and I found some cool things I will have to order when Mom’s not looking. Corwin thought about buying a plane but was daunted by

• The initial cost. The planes are (in some cases) affordable, but you have to buy a controller which is a couple or few hundred dollars. This is fine for the enthusiast because you only need one controller for all of your planes, but it’s a bit of a hurdle for a first timer.
• Flying locations. You can’t fly these outdoors, which somewhat limits where Corwin could use it.

In the end we settled for Charles building a free glider at a children’s workstation.