IFlySlowPlanes

Well, it finally happened...my purty little H9 Arrow was cruelly eaten by a heartless tree. I'd already run a full tank through it on the first flight of the afternoon, and I was so pleased that I'd finally tweaked the engine into running strong and evenly and sounding so sweet. I wanted to see how long I could make a tank last since I never could seem to get it to run long enough before to get a good idea of what to expect (or when it DID run right, I always forgot to look at my watch). Anyway, long story short, I was 5 minutes into the second flight and proceeding inbound following a fast downwind run. I always like to beat up the field I fly from....you know how it goes, get it up real high and wing over to !QUOT!dive bomb the field. I had done this exact thing too many times to count already today, and I expected this run to be no different. The field is actually a bunch of soccer fields, that when unoccupied makes for a roomy, obstruction-free place to fly. There are roads bordering two edges of the field (north and east), and beyond the east road are a line of trees which I always try to avoid flying anywhere near. I swear the plane looked like it was on my side of the road when I started my dive! It wasn't even a steep dive either...just a nice, smooth full-throttle run toward where I was standing (probably about 100 yards away). In less time than it takes to type it, the Arrow disappeared behind the aforementioned trees, and before I could even say !QUOT!Oh s@&t!!QUOT! there was this awful crash as she hit the top boughs. I remember sucking in my breath and freezing momentarily while the pieces fell. The silence afterward was only broken by the sound of the pieces slowly fluttering down through the branches. As strong as this airplane was (as evidenced by several previous mishaps from which she'd recovered beautifully each time), I could tell this was the big one.

Once my heart started again, I realized there were three things that sucked about this, aside from losing a plane I'd grown to really love flying. (1) Few things are worse than trekking through the woods searching for whatever parts might be salvageable; (2) One of the things that IS worse, is emerging from said woods carrying pieces of your pride and joy while passing motorists (who'd only moments ago slowed to watch my mastery of flight) shook their heads (I can only assume they were thing things like, !QUOT!Isn't he a little old to be playing with model planes?!QUOT!)....oh, the shame; and (3) having collected the various bits, discovering that the receiver is missing in action, along with the new landing gear, including the tailwheel I'd so proudly added to her just weeks ago.

I'm still amazed at how wrong my depth perception was, and that's really all I can blame it on. Never experienced a !QUOT!hit!QUOT! with my tx/rx, and the plane itself flew hands off once trimmed, and tracked as if on the proverbial rails. Now that I've had time to think about it, I'm really bummed at how quickly such an enjoyable hobby can make one feel so low, especially since I can only blame myself. Anyway, forgive me for the long story for such a simple event that most of you have probably experienced already. I just need to get it off my chest in a cathartic sort of way, and this bunch of people at least !QUOT!gets it!QUOT! which is more than I can say for my friends who look at this hobby with (at best) a jaundiced eye. Thanks for reading...

Dave

davidmor

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your loss. That is one nice thing about flying at a club with a bunch of guys who are also modelers. Yeah, they may give you a bunch of grief at times while flying (all in good fun) but when you suffer a major plane loss, they are there to help you get all the pieces and console you. The joking stops and the helping/consolation begins. They understand exactly how you feel because they have also been there. My suggestion is to put the pieces away for a few days and don't even look at them. After you feel ready, dig it out and see if you can re-build it. Most anything can be rebuilt with enough patience and effort. From your picture, it looks to me like it can be rebuilt as the breaks look to be clean and it looks like you have most of the pieces. It really makes you feel great when you fly something that looked to be completely un-repairable. You will also gain some respect from the other pilots when you come back with the plane they saw destroyed, ready to fly.

Don't let this discourage you. Get another plane as soon as you can and get back in the air.

IFlySlowPlanes

Thanks for the encouragement. I agree about not looking at it for awhile...that's kind of the plan. As for the next plane, I'm already trying to decide what to get. Probably another ARF (I don't care much for building, and although I'm not throwing the Arrow away, I don't know that I'll ever be motivated enough to try to repair it). In a way, it's got me thinking about getting better equipment all around, even though there's nothing really wrong with what I have...it's just rather basic (an old Futaba 4-ch FM tx (the rx for which is probably hanging in one of those trees at the field)). I've thought seriously about joining a local r/c club, but the cost has kept me away (although their field is pretty decent, and I think the cost is justified, I can buy another plane or tx for what it would cost to join). Ideally, I'll have the bucks to do both one of these days, but my initial desire is to get back in the saddle before the summer is out. Again, thanks for the kind words....was beginning to think nobody cared ;-)