gvnick

My Feedback: (3)

I have read lots of threads about people crashing and not being able to find thier planes. Now I understand how hard they are to find.

Today I was flying my Thermalaire motor glider. I was flying off the edge of a huge canyon. I decided to do a loop to show off infront of my friends. As I pulled back on the stick my wing completely separated from the fusalage. Within a second the plane became a lawn dart and quicky dove out of sight. The wing floated back arcoss the canyon and was easily retrieved. But after 2 hours of searching, no fusalage. It fell from around 500 ft up. (i was flying off the ege of a cliff.) I am going back out there tomorrow to find the plane. I really hope I find it. I had a matched 3300 7 cell pack and the rest of my radio gear in it. I just hope the impact didnt destroy all my gear. I guess I am hoping for a miracle.

Do you guys think the radio gear could survive this kind of fall? I dont care about the servos, just the esc, reciever, and most importantly, that 3300 pack. I am thinking the front cell in the pack will be destroyed. But maybe the rest will be ok. I will reply when I find out.

C_Watkins

My Feedback: (10)

All depends on how it hit, if it hit rock or moist soil, if you had it surrounded in foam, etc...
I've seen "total loss" yard darts, and I've seen "no loss" yard darts.
I had similar luck with a powered Gentle Lady of mine once, but I had just
enough rudder/elevator to put it into kindof a wide spiral instead of a "straight in".
(Trying a loop, Cox .09RC screaming, probably at 250' or so... and the wing
snapped. The wings fluttered down for another 15 secs after the fuse hit)

Snapped fuse at the wing saddle, and the right stab at the fuse. Flew it next weekend.

Hopefully you got lucky. Good luck in your search!

gvnick

My Feedback: (3)

Well....... I searched for a solid 3 hours this morning before work. I came home empty handed. I am going back tomorrow o search some more. I am going to find this thing.

Even if I find a useless pile of scrap plastic and balsa. I will at least have some closure. This is driving me insane not knowing where it is.

runover1

My Feedback: (10)

You guys might be interested in Symbol RTLS technology. Its a RF tag transmitter that you can locate by signal strength. I do not know what it would run you but it is about the size of a cassette case and weighs just a few ounces. These things transmit for years, based on the ratio. It won't help now, but for future reference. It can be found using a laptop and a wireless Wi-Fi card. Good luck. I wonder if any companies are researching the use of this in R/C. It could be helpful at times.

BalsaBum

Find it soon! I found a birds nest at our field that included parts of a plane lost some weeks earlier. I saw the intact tail sticking out of the nest of heavy branches obviously built by an osprey or eagle. Federal laws prohibited us from molesting or even approaching the nest so it was finders keepers!

gvnick

My Feedback: (3)

I finally found the fusalage. I spent countless hours on that hillside searching. It was in the area I had been searching in the entire time. I must have walked 10 feet from it several times. It was hidden behind a big bush. I found it sticking straight out of the ground. I was very suprised to see its in very good shape. It had just rained so the ground was moist. It created a 6 inch deep crater. It will only take about an hour to repair the fusalage. The only bummer was the first 2 cells in my nice matched pack exploded. They ramed into the motor on impact. But I cant complain. At least I got my plane back.

I might buy some of those beeper thingies. lol.

Unstable

glad to here you found it. and even more glad its repairable.

runover1

My Feedback: (10)

If it were a snake, it would have bit you. HaHa? Sorry to hear you had to look so long, one guy at our club lost his battery off of his Dura plane.