G-EMMA

Thought I would give you guys a laugh.

Been flying a Firebird Freedom, with all of 20 flights I've been flying in stronger winds, mastering the aircraft. It is now well trimmed and a lot of fun.

Tonight, first flight with a HZ Super Cub. I'm an expert right? Been flying that FF without any trouble, only on the third pair of wings it will be easy.

It was bit windy when I got to the field. I can handle that no problem, I'm an expert right?. So for my first ROG. It had to be next to the trees and barns, the stubble there was squashed down by the farm machinery. It'll be just easy, I've put on better wheels for just this sort of challenge. So I set her up, did my range check... full throttle, crab to keep her straight in the crosswind, and up she went. Fantastic! I fly around until the battery is getting low. and bring her in, the wind is getting stronger now, just about two feet up she stalls in for a heavy landing. The undercarriage was a little bent but it will straighten out, better than coming in too fast in the rough field.

OK, so I've got another battery all charged up. It's getting even more windy, the light is going, but I'm an expert right? So for ROG number 2, she screams along the ground (well not quite but it is an OK take-off even if I was a bit late with the elevator), I play with my cub in the wind, watching her almost fly backwards on full throttle. Wow am I getting good at this! Then time to land. That wind is getting real strong now, but I can do it. In she comes, I back off the throttle, and one huge gust of wind, nose goes up, I hit the throttle for a go-around, nose keeps coming up, she's really caught by that wind now, over the trees and behind the barns she goes right out of sight.

You know what happened right? I'm thinking, I wish it was two minutes ago, I'm thinking it is going to be a right mess, I'm thinking I've just blown my chances of flying at the farm again, I'm thinking that is why it says in the instructions don't fly in strong winds, I'm thinking what I'll have to tell the farmer when I find out how much damage I've done... I'm feeling sick....


....a few seconds later (it seemed like hours) she comes back out from behind the barns.... still flying!

I learnt about flying from that

Anyone else had a lucky escape?

john canfield

I recently let my Stevens Stik get too far away from me (still don't know how that happened!!) and through lots of luck and a little bit of skill I figured out what the plane was doing (it was a small thing at that distance) and brought it back. Phew! [X(]

All part of the learning process!

Dave ESPI

I almost lost a small foamie in the parking lot I fly in at night, but after like 10 minutes wandering around looking for it, I see it sitting right in the parking lot behind me !

It must have taken that hard left powered turn, and then coasted in when I killed the throttle to teh twin engines.

Man I was soooo happy to not have lost a 50.00 flier on the fourth flight !

Walt Thyng

My Feedback: (9)

back in the dark ages I was learning to fly on a DeBolt Champ with an EK Galloping ghost system. I think the engine was an Enya .15. Anyway, I got confused on depth perception and suddenly saw my Champ taxiing across the roof of a barn. Tracked nice and smaooth and just kept on flying when it came to the edge. everybody thought I was cool! I was thinking about clean shorts (-:. That was forty years ago.
Walt

AirDog

G-EMMA, I read your flying story about 20 minutes ago - I am still laughing - Well done - Keep up to good work. "England Forever" "God Save G-EMMA and The QUEEN"

Grampaw

G-Emma gave us a run down of a flight near a barn. As it is said today, "Been there, done that!" A looooong time ago I took my first RC plane out into the lot back of my house for its first flight. That was in a pasture, with a big barn about 75 yards out from the house. I opted to fly near the barn. (I don't know why, I was still brand new to all this!)

I fired it up, hand launching into the wind, which blew it back to my right. (Like G-Emma, the wind was strong...) I straightened it out to pass in front of the barn but, I had no idea that Fox .35 would pull it along so darned fast! Wow! And I clean forgot about the Throttle, cause it was flying! The wings were level and I was I was grinning like a fool. Then I realized it was headed straight for an Pecan Tree Orchard just beyond the barn! When I figured it was past the corner of the barn, I yanked it around into a hard right turn and watched it disappear from view heading down the other side. I could hear that .35's Roar back there, and I began to track it, by listening. I let my eyes follow the sound thinking I would turn it again as it cleared the other end of the barn. I stared at that barn roof almost as if I had X-Ray vision and could see my plane back there. Don't laugh, it worked!

I trailed my eyes across the roof until I figured it was at the other end, where I yanked it around to the right again, and darned if that thing didn't come chugging out the backside over the pasture, still at the same altutude, wings level and all that good stuff! I was so proud of myself, till I saw it was headed for my house! I made another hard "yanking turn, adding a bit of UP to gain some altitude. It Snapped, rolling into a Spin to follow the heavy end down to Impact. It was repairable, so it lived to fly many more times. There was only one witness but she was too young to report the details accurately. It has been a lot of fun.

davalf4

Its always entertaining to read these stories. Keep them coming.

Alan W

thanks for the laugh - great story

...About a forever and a half ago I had a Phoenix 7 with a HOT Rossi on a pipe, retracts etc.... it would SCREAM !!! and being young and brave I had the nerves to handle it (for those that dont know, these were 8-9 pound ballistic rocket pattern planes flown FAST and chewing up GOBS of sky every second ....).

One of my favorite maneuvers to show off my thumbs was to blast off to about 1000' roll inverted and pull through a HUGE split-S leaving me straight and level at about 10' off the runway doing about 120-130 and proceed to do a S.....L....O.....W roll across the length of our huge field

Well, this one time I come screaming out of the split-S almost supersonic right on the deck and proceed to roll but as I got to the 90* point straight in front of me the radio glitched and threw the plane into a very violent Snap flipping and whipping it around a full 360* where I regained control in exactly the same attitude and altitude that I entered

... and I just flew it out to the ROAR's of about 30-40 guys at the field

I tried to keep my knees from knocking too much, flew it out a few more minutes and landed hoping to have the adrenaline drain from my kidneys sometime later in the month, but, was instantly swarmed by the crowd who were ready to sing songs about me and name their first born "Alan" after the daring skill they just witnessed.

... So I went along with it Hey, when you're a kid being made into a legend you dont argue, right ??

About 2 hours later when the buzz quieted down, the old gent who trained me on my Falcon 56 a few years earlier came over and said in a low voice " So ... you got hit ??" (radio intereference...)

I looked at him wide-eyed questioning how he could think such a thing, ready to argue my case ... and we both burst out laughing hysterically !!

I asked, "How'd you know ??"

He said "If you had ball bearings that large you wouldn't be able to walk !!! Now, lets go figure out why you got hit..."

________________________________

That was about 25 years ago - Im not nearly as good as I used to be, and dont fly at that field anymore but I do occasionally stop back in there and every time I do someone remembers me and that flight and the whole story gets told and perpetuated anew for another generation

RedGN

You flew the Firebird Freedom in strong winds? WOW
You are good.

liversalts

I learnt about flying from a visit to the local grass field with my brother-in-law to fly his new 0.15 FUJI engined power model. He didn't have a receiver, So I went off and bought one straightaway. It was a lovely sunny day with no wind or clouds and we got the motor started Ok. But found that the throttle could not be shut down to low tickover, only high tickover. On a full tank I launched it and Tony flew it well but we noticed it clinbing like a lovesick angel even on low throttle stck. Eventually after it had got quite high I took over and said "its OK on a sunny day with no wind to let it climb". Well I flew it in tight circles for a long while to stop the climb at 1000ft but the FUJI motor used very little gas so it still had another 15mins of power left at low throttle. Well I let it climb again and it did still under perfect control. Eventually it got difficult to see under the blue sky, and it just kept going up at a slowish speed. We had not realised it was in a strong thermal off the farmers sod field. So It went out of site straight up but still could be heard as I put it into a spin. It went wowee, wowee, wowee as It spun but it stll went straight up and up until we couldn't hear it anymore. A car ride didn't find it so we gave up. Robin Andrew

liversalts

I was at 'Malvern' hills flying off the top of the beacon some years ago on a lovely sunny day, blue sky again with no clouds.
My model was doing well even though there was little wind. I was with a few pals and my Boss from work who had his Orange Box with him. Because I was quite up high by now after 20 mins or so, I offered it to my boss to flyand He took over for the next 20 mins then suddenly a loud bang. My 6ft glider had just exploded into a whirling mass. What could have happened. Someone said "CAT" but all we said "What is CAT". It turns out that its invisible and it is 'Clear Air Turbulance'. I think my plane was about 1000ft up and all we saw was it started turnig to the right by its self but upon trying to correct that the turn, it just over stressed it.
A sequal to this is that I ran down the hill to see a motorcar drive off from where my glider had gone into some bushes. Because my name and address was on it , a couple of days later a chap came to my door with his son and said "we found this at Malvern hills and my son has tried throwing it about but it won't fly. Can we collect the reward". Well no wonder, it was already broken up, just hanging together by the covering. But at least I got the radio back., Robin Andrew,UK

SackOHammers

Makes me want to put a small sticker on my plane with my contact information. Dogtags if you will.