June 25, 2004

Potos coming, but repairs are done. XL is now a Taboo XS (extra small). To repair the wing I had to remove 5" from the center, 2.5" off of each wing panel to get to foam that wasn't crushed beyond recognition. Flys nice, launches high, but thermal perfomance is much less with the missing surface area. Good backup ship, high-wind ship or light sloper. I'm going to start work on my next Taboo build now.

June 7, 2004

I had a radio glitch last night flying my Taboo XL and destroyed it. Glitch made it lawn-dart and the wings folded on impact - full taco. Center section foam is crushed beyond repair skins de-laminated, boom exploded. It was quite a gut wrenching event. The only thing I think could have caused it was the NiMh pack I had in the plane was weak from a winter's storage with only a couple of charge cycles on it this year.

I've worked on rapairing the boom and tailfeathers. The wing is a write-off. I had to cut 5" (2.5" off each half) out of the center to get to good repairable area. I'm still working on the repairs. If they're successful this plane might be good as a practice plane and for slope use. Once I get it fixed up I'll have to start working on the new Taboo XT I have from Oleg.

August 29, 2003

Flew at lunch with friends Tucker and Robert. We all hooked up a nice boomer thermal and specked out our planes. After a while I got nervous about height, orientation and battery life so I spiraled down to a safe altitude. I finally landed at the 14 minute mark. What a rush. I'm pretty sure I could have stayed up much longer if I dared fly it at speck height.

July 12, 2003

Took the Taboo to the Downeast Soaring Club HLG contest. DSC were great hosts and treated a beginner like me like a fellow member, jokes and all. With help and tips from everyone, but especially Rick Walba from Tailboom.com I was able to take third place. It was the many tips from Rick, who took first place himself, that really put me over the top. Most of all I learned a lot from everyone there and had a great time.

May 16, 2003

This is the Taboo XL DLG that I reviewed for the Lift Zone E-zine. To read the review follow this link: http://rcgroups.com/links/index.php?t=article&cat=237&id=4161