Dual Aspen Catch

by Manny

A long, long time ago (less than two years) in a beach far, far away (Dockweiler State Beach near LAX) two enthusiastic engineers (Gerard and Manny) had an ambitious dream.....

As hinted to in the opening above, one of the goals Gerard and I set after we learned to throw boomerangs was to successfully throw and catch two Aspens by Colorado Boomerangs simultaneously.

From phnxhawk's Boomerang Collection

Seen above, the Aspen is a beginner boomerang by Colorado Boomerangs made out of plywood.  It is light in weight and has a relatively short range.

We managed to accomplish this a while ago but we quickly forgot about practicing the skill and moved on to other things.   Recently we revisited this feat and decided to try and record it on video. Fortunately we succeeded and we have the video to share.  This video only shows my dual Aspen catch but Gerard shall post his video sometime in the future.



It is important to point out that I did not complete the catch on my first try (that would have been way cool!). Completing the dual catch required tuning of the boomerangs.  After a few throws I realized that the boomerang placed behind the first always ended up returning first.   I ended up using this to my advantage by tuning the front boomerang to fly a longer distance by decreasing the angle of attack.  Additionally, I tuned the  rear boomerang to have a shorter range by increasing the angle of attack.   Decreasing the dihedral on both boomerangs helped as well by lowering their altitude in flight.  After a while of practicing and tuning I was able to get them to fly how I wanted, and with a good throw I was able to catch them both!

Keep checking back as I shall be posting a review of the "Tiger" boomerang by Roger Perry of Spinback Boomerangs soon!  Get a preview of the "Tiger" on the following website:
http://www.boomerangsrus.com/begin.html


"Boomerangs: Frequent Flyers to the Perfect Tune"