Pine vs. P-51
 

Well, here it goes. On the miden flight my TF 1/7 p-51 had its main gear tore out by tall grass. Got everything put back together and tok it out for another flight yesterday. everythign was going fine until the engine died. The result was my plane updide dow nin the top of a pine. Heres the pics. I wont go into how I got it down I dont need anyone telling me how its not worth killing yourself to retrieve a plane. Enjoy.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Yikes, how tall was the tree? We don't have a club or flying field in our area, so when scouting out an area for a friend and myself to fly in, the big thing we took in account was tree sizes. The tallest is only about 15', so recovery shouldn't be too bad. Still curoius as to how you managed to get it back in one piece.

flynte

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

I feel your pine.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

TLGibson97,
That's a nice P-51; rebuild the wing and fly it again. Afterall, you pined over it for many hours, and that Pine took it out in one splintering moment. I'm sure it really needled you through and through. I'm green with envy you were able to climb so high to retrieve your ornament. Had you fallen, you would have felt like a real sap. Good luck.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Too bad it wasn't a spruce... You could have gotten even with it and made the wing spars out of it.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

G'DAY,

Be afraid, be very afraid, model eating trees occur all over the world.

Cheers,

Colin

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Real sorry for your loss man.

Least you got wood!

I flew my Weston Magnum right through an Ash tree at around 150mph last year. It came out the other side like a green exposion.... And kept on flying! Just tore off the prop and scratched the finish a little. Still flying today!

http://www.leavesleyaviation.com/mod...ton/magnum.jpg

Ian F.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Thats a nasty crash. Lucky you had the balls to risk ya neck to get it back!

i hope you can rebuild it and fly it again soon.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Now that you all have seen the crash pics I will enlighten you with the obvious stupidity involved in getting it down. Climbing the tree was no problem, it wasn't easy, but nothing out of my ability. The plane was about 50' or so up in the tree and I got to within 10' of it. Close enough that if I had a saw I could cut the limb it was on. I had a rope and tried to loop the tail with a long stick but my stick was just too short. Tried shaking the tree but as you can see the right wing was wrapped around that limb so it wasn't moving. Now comes the stupidity.... The gentleman that was assisting me had a winch on his truck so i lowered the rope down and hoisted the cable up and attached it to the tree. A few things were going through my mind.

1. I don't want to be up here when he starts pulling on this tree since I am about 40' or so up a tree without any support.
2. It is almost dark and if I get down and we pull the tree and get the plane out I will have to climb back up in the dark and unhook the winch.
3. What if I stay up here and the cable snaps and slices me in half.
4. What if the cable snaps and the tree catapults me causing me to have a longer flight than my plane experienced.
5. What if the tree snaps and we both fall to the ground.

You would think with all those things running through my mind I would have gotten down out of the tree. Wrong - stupid me.
I stayed in the tree and one of those things happened. Guess which one.. ( I didn't get cut in half because I'm still here).

well, the winching started and I got settled into the tree real good trying to anticipate anything wrong. we got the tree bent over pretty good when I heard the main stem of the tree start to crackle. Its hard to tell where exactly but it was too close to me for comfort so I yelled to stop pulling. Before anything could be done I heard the loudest crack of that tree snapping followed by what felt like a lengthy free fall with a sudden stop at the end followed closely by the top of the tree. Ouch.

I landed on my right side and needless to say I was had the air knocked out of me. I was expecting broken ribs, arm leg, back, and neck. Initially I couldn't move or breathe. My right calf hurt the most but it felt like a scrape and not a break. The guy with me happened to be an EMT so he rushed over to me and give me a check out. Checking all the previous things I thought might be broken. After a couple minutes I had my bearings and was able to stand up and better assess my damage. Turns out nothing is broken. Just some scratches and some soreness and it feels like someone just punched me in the gut. Ill be good as new and ready for more stupid stuff by this weekend.

Ill go back out to the field this weekend and take a pic of the tree and try to determine exactly how far I fell. It will still be hard to determine because I don't know exactly how far the tree was bent over when it snapped.

I guess the good news is:

1. my plane was laying on the ground with no more damage than it started out with.
2. I got revenge on the tree.
3. That tree wont be eating any more planes. Unfortunately, It has a lot of family members living with it.

If I had it all to do again:

1. I would have gotten out of the stinking tree. Duh.
2. Hired a bucket truck to get it down since it was easily accessible.
3. Just came back the next morning with a rope, longer pole, and a saw.

We all know it isn't worth killing yourself to retrieve a plane. Sometimes it is hard to determine if certain actions are gonna kill you. I was lucky but there was sooo much more potential to be killed or paralyzed when there were infinitely more better ways to accomplish the task.

I got the plane down, I'm alive and relatively uninjured, and I have learned a lesson. I wont hesitate to climb a tree I know is within my climbing ability. I was perfectly comfortable with that part. The lesson I learned is to not let laziness get in the way of safety. Winching the tree wasn't a bad idea. Winching it with me still in it was, and I knew it was.

You all probably wont learn anything from my experience because we all know better than to do something so stupid. But since I am OK you all can at least have a good laugh.

I will rebuild the wing. It is a kit so I still have all the plans for it. I may call Top Flite and get the materials for a full wing an do a full rebuild and keep the other for spare parts. I think I can build it better the second time around anyways.

Check back later for more pics.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

great storey.

Im very glad you wernt to badly hurt and that you will live to rebuilt and fly your P-51 again!

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

http://www.dbalsa.com/
Hope this link helps, its for a foam core replacement wing. Just slap some skins on it and you'll be up and flying in no time.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

use cj main gear and fly off pavement retracts do not hold up on grass unless its golf course short. if you cant put in permanent wire gear. Convert to a eflite 60 and use a phoenix 80 amp esc and you wont worry about flameouts.
gotta keep the nose down or she stalls pretty quick. Takeoff is where flameout is the worse always go straight ahead and make no turns you wont make it back to the field

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

f ing trees I got my superstar stuck in a tree and no tree service people wanna bother getting it down and today it's raining:( the plane is intact

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Go buy a poncho, find some rocks, and start throwing.

Or you could buy your poncho and then just climb the tree.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

HAHAHA Good Story. Reminds me of the time when my TF P-47 got caught in a tree (about 35'). Thankfully there were a few club members who helped me put together a reaching device made out of our flag Pole, 1"X1"X10' piece of wood, and a 10' piece of PVC pipe. The plane did not sustain any damage because it deadsticked into the tree at a very low speed. All of the damage came from getting it down. It was reapairable and I was planning to strip off the monokote and fiberglass it anyway.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Drunkenbushman may get this...may not.

My brother managed to hit a tree with his plane. THe plane fell about 40 feet to the ground and was unscathed. But the jokes about the tree moving in front of the plane came fast and furious. I tell the guys that I think the trees are Dingo's and the plane is your baby. Then I tell them where I got that. For some reason years ago I had watched a movie called A Cry in the Dark.
Its about a couple camping at Ayers Rock in Australia and their baby was taken by a Dingo. Well there was a lot of question about whether this had really happened, or whether the poor child had met some other unfortunate end by alternate means.
Well my wife and I over time used to try and make light of it a little so whenever you had to tell someone to watch out for something, my wife and I would yell "Don't let the Dingo's eat your baby's!!!" I know..its not funny, but it stuck.

So I relate this sad and pathetic tale to all the guys I fly with and we start calling the tree's Dingo's. So Saturday dawns bright and clear, we are flying our gliders and a guy starts heading towards a tree. Out of the blue 5 guys all at once yell out "Don't let the Dingo's eat your baby!!!" I just about died laughing. Only one of the guys was a regular flying buddy, but the other 4 must have heard the story from somewhere. I guess the story got around.:D

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Liberator i do get that mate!

The saying in Australia is " the dingo stole my baby" Mainly used when we know we did sumthing but are trying to cover it up.

Azzairia Chamberlan met a sad ending and no one knows why, i doubt the dingo stole her baby. Lindsey Chamberlin tho i dont think is the full quid.

Im glad that Aussie humor is used around the world. Dingoes are great animals tho i dont think that they are killers.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

The field I used to fly at had a VERY tall row of trees you had to fly over then drop down in a left turn to come in on approach and land. The wind was a little stout that day and going straight at the trees. I was coming over the trees when the wind gusted and the aircraft stopped in mid flight and just set down on top of the trees with the engine still running. Every one at the field looked at me in horror. Then we all bust out in laughter. Nice Harrier landing eh?

I looked at the trees that were so high I could barely see my aircraft in and thought, this is gonna suck. I climbed all the way to the top and managed to get to the aircraft and then thought, you idiot, you should have brought the screw driver to remove the wing. A little late now. How in the world am I going to get it down the trees through the limbs? After a little thought I yelled down to my buddy to go get the transmitter and get ready. He yelled in a crazy tone of voice -WHAT??? I said get the transmitter and get ready- here she comes. I hand launched it out of the top of the trees dead stick and he flew it down for a smooth landing. Not a scratch on it. I emerged from the trees, what seemed like a half hour later to everyone still laughing and calling me things like tree hugger.

That story was told every weekend for well over a year. Thats what this sport is all about, fun, adventure and sometimes just plain scared senseless. Makes you feel alive.

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

Hey jdmak.....what a story man.. must of been a real laugh and such an act.good every thing turned for the good in the end. Would of loved to have been there to see it all.:):):)

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

I paid a tree guy $50 to retrieve my plane damage was minimal I now fly in huge open fields

RE: Pine vs. P-51
 

I lost one about 80' up in a pine tree. This one had no limbs for about 40' and was only about 4" in diameter where the plane was. I tryed everything I could think of EXEPT climbing that tree. I knew that my life was worth more than that plane and I'm a good climber! It must have sat up there about 3 months. It could still be there for all I know.

Glad you learned something and didn't get hurt. I hope we all stop and think when we get that "maybe I should't do this feeling"!

I think the emabaressment of getting cripled that way would have been hard to live with not to mention the rest of it.