I will never understand the current fascination with hovering an R/C model. I hovered my first model in 1984 or so. And I haven't done it again since then.

Just think, if the organizers had chosen an R/C pilot that knew how to do something other than hover, there would have been no incident at all.

I no longer fly at public events. I gave that up in my early thirties when I saw a few model airplane crashes at public events. One went into the crowd of spectators. The models all were piloted by experienced pilots flying well built models.

In my mind's eye, I keep seeing a replay of the incident where several jets collided at an airshow, dumping burning fuel and ravaged jet parts onto the flight apron. There was a solitary 15 year old boy standing right in the middle of a field of flames. That is still etched into my memory.

Oh, I forgot to mention - I worked in crash rescue while in the USAF. I've seen enough burned, mangled and charred bodies to last me a life time. I'm just glad that no one was injured or killed in this incident. This incident could have been much, much worse involving the same people and aircraft. They were lucky that it was not.


Ed Cregger