Coyote Valley Regional Connections Survey

Please see below a survey from the Open Space Authority to collect feedback on potential uses of Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve. Free flighters in the Bay Area are urged to fill out the survey and suggest opening the terrain to model airplane use.

Provide input on future trail access!
Have you visited Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve? If so, we want to hear from you! To the north of the existing Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve are over 1,500 acres of recently protected valley floor lands currently being planned through the Coyote Valley Conservation Areas Master Plan (CVCAMP). The Open Space Authority is considering potential trails that would provide access to these properties. Click here to take our Coyote Valley Regional Connections Survey Your feedback will help as we plan the future of public access on these protected lands.

Support US Free Flight Team

Message from Tiffaney O’Dell

Some of you may have heard that I broke my hip in Eloy, had to have emergency surgery and have been working to recover and return to flying at my usual pace. I’m well on my way, back at work and looking forward to traveling with the 2025 US World Championship Team to Romania.

It looks like our fundraising email may have snuck into people’s spam folder or disappeared into the ether, so I’m going to post our support effort for the US 2025 F1A, B, C and Q Free Flight World Championship Team here. Please forward, post or re-post it to anyone you think might be interested. To make it easy, just request to join the WhatsApp group (scan the QR code) with a pledge of $20, $50, $100 to the team and be added to the daily blog on the team’s progress.

Instructions for actually sending the money are in the flipping book (link below).
https://heyzine.com/flip-book/af86b18c40.html

New Gillespie model for rubber power – the “Thermogone”

A previously unpublished sport rubber model plan was added to the Sherman Gillespie collection, after restoring a plan found in his estate. A prototype of the 20″ wingspan “Thermogone” was built, and was promptly lost OOS during trim flights, proving the flying ability of this cute model. With a name like that, what else could one expect? Find the Thermogone plan and others in our Sherman Gillespie Collection.

“Indoor Build & Fly” session on January 8th

Oakland Cloud Dusters members met up at the Elk’s Lodge in Palo Alto on January 8th for an “Indoor Build & Fly” session. Bill and Loren completed their Gyminnie Crickets and then had a shoot out in the ballroom. Loren had the high time as documented in the attached footage but there is already talk about tuning the motors for better times at the next session. Manuel got a good start on framing up a half scale Hangar Rat but couldn’t get his Gyminnie Cricket to turn so I didn’t get any good flights. We’re hoping this will be a recurring event, and will help revive OCD’s indoor activities.

Left: Loren’s flight

Bill’s GC
Another flight of Bill’s GC