Shabbos at the Salton Sea was pleasant.  The weather was perfect and I was able to go for a nice walk.

This morning I went for flight #67:

This afternoon, fulltime RVers Phil and Bailey, who maintain a blog at mareulife.com, stopped by for a visit.  We had a great time chatting for a couple hours.  Phil and Bailey explained the game of Disc Golf to me and showed me their collection of discs, each used for a specific aspect of the game.  We all drove out to the beach for flight #68, where we said our goodbyes before I launched:

Trish is working on a pair of crocheted slippers for B:

Today Trish finished a beaded cabochon she’s been working on:

Ron and Carol live next to the campground.  A travel trailer got stuck in the sand in their backyard, and in trying to tow it out, Ron’s Jeep got stuck as well.  I drove over and pulled his Jeep out.  We’re going to try to get the travel trailer unstuck as well:

As long as I was in the truck, I drove over to the campground to watch a cart-launch PPG take off:

This afternoon, Sue and Kirk (background) and their friend (foreground) went for a flight:

M did some filming using his quadcopter:

I decided to join the gang of six in the air, so I went out for flight #66:

Trish photographed the local fauna, both living and dead:

M filmed my flight:

Views from the air:

Bringing the wing down on landing:

Trish finished a toddler-sized crocheted hat this morning:

After weeks of agonizing over which model to buy, M’s Syma 8XC Venture quadcopter arrived today, delivered to Ron and Carol who we met last year and live near the campground.  M is pretty excited:

While waiting for the battery to charge, M went for a ride in the mud:

I went for an afternoon flight, #65:

Views from the air:

Coming in for a landing:

Here’s a video of today’s flight, as well as yesterday’s flights and a flight from the day before yesterday:

With the battery charged, we took the Syma 8XC out for a test flight.  Being that I’ve had R/C helicopter piloting experience, M asked me to go first:

The quadcopter is remarkably stable and easy to fly compared to flying an R/C helicopter:

Tomorrow M will make videos of his flights using the on-board camera.  Stay tuned!

We awoke to a beautiful morning in Salton City on the Salton Sea.  Salton City is a town with 25,000 home lots on paved roads with power lines and a sewer system.  With the transformation of the Salton Sea into one of the worst environmental disasters in the American West, homes were abandoned partially built, and today only about 5% of lots contain homes.  See the links above for the history of Salton City and the Salton Sea.

This campground used to be operated by the Imperial Irrigation District, but was abandoned years ago.  Today, it’s a free dispersed camping location with no utilities or services:

Last night, we heard the mouse chewing through the spray foam that sealed a gap through which plumbing pipes run from the basement to the main level.  We put a trap there, figuring he would eventually chew through.  This morning, we found him thus.  I’ll be replacing the spray foam with steel wool:

After homeschool, I went for an afternoon flight, my 62nd since leaving training.  The Salton Sea is a well known PPG location because its thick, lift-rich air here at 125 feet below sea level, as well as safe flying all day long thanks to the Sea acting as a thermal sink which prevents the formation of thermals.  Without the protection of the Sea, flying here would be limited to the first three and last three hours of the day as it is everywhere else except the ocean shores:

The air was super smooth, which made for excellent flying!

This video contains today’s flight, as well as flights from this coming Tuesday and Wednesday:

Trish continues to crochet baby shoes.  I think she might be trying to tell me something: