Sleepy's Take on the Nall 2006.

[SleepyC]

After watching the live feed from Sunday night and Monday night I thought my two days of work would never end. It was agony. Finally at 5pm on Tuesday my work week was over.... NALL here I come.
Got home packed my stuff and realized that the Giants T-shirts were going to occupy more space in the Van than I anticipated, so the 30% Yak got shelfed and the (doomed) 33% extra got the go ahead. All packed.. kissed the wife and kids good by and waited for Jeremiah to show up so we could leave.

Around 10 PM we were on the road for the 9.5 - 10 HR ride to the NALL.

the 10 hrs seemed to roll by pretty fast, we drove all night and it was pretty smooth, except the mountains that were pitch black and the roads were pretty curvy. But we made it in one piece.

Around 6 :AM we got into the area that the Nall was supposed to be. I started getting nervous when we were going down residential roads and such and started to think that the address I had was a scam, and I was about to get real MAD.. but low and behold I saw the gate. GOD WHAT A GLORIOUS SITE. 6:30 AM as we pulled through the gate I hadn't slept for 24 hrs and I didn't care... it was 7 AM, and planes were already flying. The Whole spread is seriously a RC nerds paradise. Putting green grass EVERYWHERE, perfect landing strip, huge lake, real hanger, GOOD CLEAN SHOWERS and restrooms... just AMAZING. Seriously I have never seen a more perfect location for this type of event.

Paid the dues,registered and got my packet. Off to the flight line to see who we could find.
BAMM - bumped into JeeUm.
Great to see him, had a few laughs and I turn around and
BAMM theres TANK with his big yellow YAK. Turns out he's going flying ... NICE!

Hit the flight line to see Mr. Biff doing his thing in a 3 button shirt, dockers and saddle shoes?!?! Tank takes to the sky and proceeds to beat that Yak like the yellow step child it is. Tank is a GOOD pilot... he made the Yak look like a foamy.

Next up I bump into Tony Russo and Wizard, TEXX and a few other familiar faces...
(By now I have completely forgot about not sleeping and I'm in full NALL swing.)
Tony asks if I want to help with something... I'm always down so off we go to find an Air horn.. (I'm liking this already)
Next thing I know were sneaking into the FG camper to properly wake up Sir MAXON. Tony properly placed the air horn about 2" from Max's ear and let her rip!
If any of you have seen David Blaine levitate.. MAX beat his record by about 3 feet. And he had at least 30 seconds of Hang time. To say MAX looked "refreshed and properly rested" would be a complete and utter lie. (I was already getting a feel for what the NALL had in store.

The day continued with finally meeting people like TEXX, GremlinX, and YNOT, and a pile of other people. Shaking hands and then continuing on like we were old friends.. (well i guess we are from each night on the FG) Then Max brought out the Mobile assault vehicle and we proceeded to transmit live the flying that was going on all day.

MAN.. the skill some guys have is unbelievable.
Beavis, Animal, QuiQue, Jason Shulman, Garrett Morrison, TANK, JeeUm.. everyone was rippin....was an awesome site.

After all day of watching flying, running the FG camera, or helping Max with what ever, evening approached and even though 36+ hours had passed since I last slept, I wasn't tired.... In fact I was ready to GET DOWN.
Hooked up with the FG crew in the FG motor home, and started to hang out and have a great time. I was determined to make sure my first night was a great one so........
Some how a goodly amount of a Gallon of Gin found it way down my pipes on this fateful night, and I remember hanging out with ALL the FG crew, but thats about the extent of it... I fell into the NEWBIE GO FOR IT TRAP. MAN I do believe I was WASTED. (Public service announcement: I do not endorse getting bombed unless you are of legal drinking age.. which I am by many, many years)

I awoke to the sound of BIFF on the PA, and planes in the air at around 12 noon...
and let me just say that I have felt better after being in a 15 car pile up on the freeway... OMG... I was going to die....

But I got up and headed out to the field. The FG crew was already up and cranking it, filming, Biff announcing, everyone flying and hanging out. It was awesome.
This day went pretty much like the first except I exercised moderation this night and had a great time.

Friday opened in much the same fashion, except that I was determined to FLY my freaking plane today. (The other days I was more or less soaking the NALL experience in) So I got her together and went to find JeeUm or TEXX to help out with some mixing and trimming. Ended up getting side tracked and watching a bunch of flights like Mr. Snapasaurus and friends Just ripping their 40% CA YAKS... Man good flying my dude. Then the noon time demo started... so I was delayed again.
Demo was amazing as usual, and JeeUm rolled over and said "get your plane ya puss" So my plane was retrieved and set up in line to go fly. As we waited we both did an extensive pre flight, checked wires and batteries, and fuel and range and EVERYTHING.. all checked out. It was decided that JeeUm has MUCH more experience than me, and he would take the plane up and see what mixing the thing needed and if any trim adjustments were needed. I made the retarded mistake to tell JeeUm.. "Dude, if anything were to happen, of course I would not hold you responsible, I asked you to help me" (Yes I am this stupid.. and should be shot for this)
We Fired up the motor, and off we went. Took off in about 20 feet, had great power, JeeUm banked the plane to do the traffic loop and trim her out. 20 seconds later the plane entered an abrupt roll and then kept rolling... JeeUm said "I don't have her.. I'm not doing that....I got nothing".... my plane was in a radio locked death spiral from about 500+ feet... I had time to say "see ya plane" and try to make a mental note of the impact spot. My H9 Extra was gone in 20 seconds....
JeeUm went to see if we were shot down, Russo and Wizard came running up and said "Lets go"... Tony had rounded up some Quads to head off into the wilderness...
And HENCE the First EVER "NAMED" version of "CRASH and Go SEEK" was played.
If you go over the trees at NALL, it goes from being Heaven to HELL. EVERY plant and I mean EVERY plant has thorns... it just rips up your legs like a mad CAT.

Anyways after an hour of searching I was thinking we would never find the plane... Wizard smelled gas and that gave us a clue to where she might be... finally I saw a piece of mono coat hanging in a tree, and then the rudder in one tree, a wing in another, and another, and the motor several trees away. Not a pretty sight.... Debri's EVERYWHERE. ONE DEAD PLANE.

Oh well. Sucked it up, collected the pieces and went to see what my new plane was going to be...

Went back and had Mr. Biff mention that smiling after loosing a plane was true FG style... and I must say I have to agree... Crash happens... deal with it! Move on.

Anyways.. that night was great, the fuse of the dead plane was strapped to the FG mobile assault cart and we had another ball. This night included Biff playing the JAZZ flute and doing interpretive dance. Billy Hell Jamming a bit with his guitar and TORO telling SLURRED jokes and KIWI and TEXX farting LOUDLY. (sorry guys)

Saturday was AWESOME as well and then we had to say good bye and pack it up.
MAN does that moment SUCK. But hey there is always next year.

I started writing this so I could try to convey a first timer's trip to "THE NALL"
but in reality you can't, unless you want to PEN a NOVEL. I barely scratched the surface on the things I did and saw, the memories and friendships I formed, the stupidity that was accomplished....

The NALL is a living and breathing RC NERD Paradise for a whole week.. its as simple as that. Every single person will have their own experience, but the over all feeling will be the same....
OMG, I CAN'T WAIT TO DO THIS AGAIN NEXT YEAR... WHAT EVER IT IS... I LOVE IT.. AND MUST DO IT AGAIN!!!

Now book your Vacations for 07....

And I'LL SEE ALL YOU PEOPLE AT THE HUCKFEST ON JUNE 30TH, JULY 1 AND 2,
WHERE WE CAN DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.... AND WITH FIREWORKS!!

[Bunky F. Knuckle]

Beetchin' report, Sleepy one!!!! Catch ya at the FEST!!!!

[wizard]

Sleepy, great words. All I can say is that next time before I play "Crash and go Seek" I am changing into jeans and boots. No more walking through the Brier patch in shorts and sandals.

[40%plane]

Wizard, I agree with you on the whole boots and jeans. Late Monday I went out with a buddy to help retrieve a wing from a plane that crashed. There I was a florida boy, out in the brush with sandals, shorts and a t-shirt. Can definately say next time will be changing before I head out into the wild blue younder.

mike

[wizard]

Sleepy was in the same boat. Hell I am still pulling thorns from my legs.

But, I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Sleepy handled the loss in true Giants style. Even though you could see the loss in his eyes, he was able to joke about it and never got angry. Before we even got back to the field with the resulting carnage he was starting to make plans for a new home for the engine and equipment.